I. Joseph

Joseph, an American jurist, born in Marblehead, Mass., Sept. 18, 1779, died in Cambridge, Sept. 10, 1845. He graduated at Harvard college in 1798, and studied law in Marblehead. In 1801 he removed to Salem and was admitted to the bar. He soon acquired a lucrative practice and the warm friendship of some of the leading federalists, though he was a republican. In 1804 he published a volume of poems containing "The Power of Solitude " and some smaller pieces, but it was not successful. From 1805 to 1808 he was a member of the lower house of the legislature of Massachusetts, and took a very active part as the principal leader on the republican side; but in two of the measures which he espoused, he acted upon purely independent grounds. The first was a bill to increase, and to establish on a permanent basis, the salaries of the justices of the supreme judicial court, which was passed by his exertions in 1807. The other was a bill (1808) to establish a court of chancery for the state; but this did not succeed. In the same year he defended the embargo as the only measure which the administration of Jefferson could have adopted, short of a declaration of war, without submitting to the ignominious restrictions on American commerce by the belligerent powers.

He had written in 1806 the celebrated " Memorial of the Inhabitants of Salem relative to the Infringements on the Neutral Trade of the United States," addressed to the president and to congress. In the autumn of 1808 he was elected to congress from the Essex district. In opposition to the administration he exerted himself to procure a repeal of the embargo, upon the ground that he had originally supported it as a temporary measure, and that it had accomplished its real purpose. He left congress before the repeal was consummated, but not before he had largely contributed to bring it about, and Jefferson attributed the repeal almost wholly to his exertions. Declining a recdection to congress, he was again chosen to a seat in the state legislature in 1810, and in January, 1811, ho was elected speaker of the house. On Nov. 18, 1811, he received the appointment of associate justice of the supreme court of the United States; and on Jan. 17, 1812, ho resigned the office of speaker. In 1820 he was a member of the convention for the revision of the state constitution. His principal services in that body related to the tenure and the compensation of the judiciary, the apportionment of the house of representatives, and the property basis of the senate.

The original constitution contained a clause authorizing the legislature to increase the salaries of the judges of the supreme judicial court. A motion was made and suddenly carried to insert the words "or diminish." The reconsideration and rejection of this amendment were produced by a powerful and brilliant argument by Judge Story, which commanded the assent of more than two thirds of the convention. In 1829 Judge Story was appointed professor of law in Harvard university, on a foundation established by Nathan Dane, for the delivery of lectures on the law of nature, the law of nations, commercial and maritime law, federal law, and federal equity; and for the rest of his life he resided in Cambridge. The law school of which he now became the head immediately attracted students from all parts of the United States. In his constitutional views he was of the school of "Washington and Marshall, upholding what he considered as the just powers of the Union, without encroaching upon the rights of the states.

His works comprehend " Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States " (3 vols. 8vo, 1833); "Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws " (1834); " Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence" (2 vols. 8vo, 1836) and "Equity Pleadings" (1838); and treatises on the law of bailments, agency, partnership, bills of exchange, and promissory notes. All of these works have' passed through many editions. Judge Story was gifted with great colloquial powers, and his social qualities in private life largely added to the influence of his learning, talents, and public positions. A life of him by his son, William W. Story, was published at Boston in 1851 (2 vols. 8vo). There is also a collection of his " Miscellaneous Writings" (8vo, 1852). His decisions as a circuit court judge are contained in 13 vols. 8vo, being the reports of Gallison, Mason, Sumner, and Story. His judgments in the supreme court of the United States may be found in the reports of Cranch, Wheaton, Peters, and Howard, from 1811 to 1845.

II. William Wetmorc

William Wetmorc, an American sculptor and author, son of the preceding, born in Salem, Feb. 12, 1819. He graduated at Harvard college in 1838, and was admitted to the bar in Boston. In 1844 he published a "Treatise on the Law of Contracts," and in 1847 a " Treatise on the Law of Sales of Personal Property." He also published three volumes of "Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Circuit Court of the United States for the First Circuit" (1847). In 1847 he published a small volume of poems; in 1851 a life of his father (2 vols. 8vo); and in 185(5 a second volume of poems. Among his subsequent publications are: "Roba di Roma, or Walks and Talks about Rome" (2 vols., London, 1862; New York, 18G4; new ed., 1875); "Proportions of the Human Figure" (1866); "Graffiti d'ltalia" (Edinburgh, 1869); "A Roman Lawyer in Jerusalem" (1870); and "Nero, an Historical Play" (1875). Since 1848 Mr. Story has resided in Rome, devoting himself to sculpture, for which he early showed a strong inclination. Among his works are a sitting statue of his father, in marble, in the chapel at Mt. Auburn; statues of George Peabody, Josiah Quincy, and Edward Everett; busts of James Russell Lowell and Theodore Parker; and many ideal works of great merit, among which are a "Shepherd Boy," "Little Red Riding-Hood," "Sappho," "Cleopatra," "Jerusalem" (an allegorical female figure representing the desolation of the city after the destruction of the temple), a "Sibyl," and "Semiramis." The last is owned in New York. STOTHARD, Thomas, an English painter, born in London, Aug. 17, 1755, died there, April 27, 1834. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a designer of patterns, then became a designer for illustrated books, and studied painting at the royal academy, of which he was elected a member in 1794 and librarian in 1812. He is known by his contributions to "Boydell's Shakespeare," his "Canterbury Pilgrims," the "Flitch of Bacon," the Wellington shield, and his illustrations of Rogers's "Poems" and "Italy." The number of his designs is estimated at 5,000, of which 3,000 have been engraved. - His son Charles Alfred (1786-1821), draughtsman to the society of antiquaries, published a work on the "Monumental Effigies of Great Britain " (13 parts, fob, 1811-'23), in which he was assisted by his wife, afterward Mrs. Bray, and his brother-in-law A. G. Kempe. The former wrote his life and that of his father. (See Bray, Anna Eliza).