Joseph Story: A Man For All Seasons

Abstract

Joseph Story: A Man For All Seasons Ronald D. Rotunda and John E. Nowak Editor’s Note: Professor Rotunda adapted this article from the introduction to the authors’ book, Joseph Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (Carolina Academic Press, Durham, N.C. 1987). As we celebrate the bicentennial of our Bill of Rights — ratified by the States from the period from November 20,1789 (New Jer­ sey) through 1790, and completed by Decem­ ber 15,1791 (Virginia) - it is appropriate also to celebrateJoseph Story, theJusticewho wrote the opinions that first gave meaning to our unique federal system of government, a struc­ ture that protects the rights we cherish today. Joseph Story lived at an ideal time and under ideal circumstances to reflect upon the nature of our constitutional system of govern­ ment. Story’s life spanned the period from 1779 to 1845. He spent 34 of his 66 years as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. During most of that time he was also professor of law at Harvard University, and his accomplishments as a teacher and scholar were key elements in establishing the Harvard Law School’s initial success and enduring reputation. Story is, in a very real sense, father to all American legal education, for his efforts demonstrated that professional academic training for lawyers was possible and desirable. What he created at Harvard became the model for all subsequent American law schools. Joseph Story was also the intellectual grandfather of earlyAmerican political theory. He provided scholars of the early nineteenth century, such as Francis Lieber and Simon Greenleaf, an understanding of our constitu­ tional system ofgovernment. Alexis de Tocqueville relied heavily on Story’s works when he wrote his renowned book, Democracy in Amer­ ica, analyzing the young American Republic and its workings in the earlynineteenth century. Joseph Story was born three years af­ ter the Declaration of Independence, but he must have felt as if he had lived through it all. His father, Elisha Story, was active in the War of Independence and, in fact, was one of the “Indians” at the Boston Tea Party.1 Story be­ came a close associate of men who had been both the intellectual and political leaders of the Joseph Story was a great lover of poetry. In 1805 he pub­ lished a longpoem,written in heroic couplets, called “The Power of Solitude.” He enjoyed other creative pursuits such as music, drawing and painting. 18 JOURNAL 1990 revolution. The Constitution was drafted when he was only eightyears old; the first ten amend­ ments to the Constitution, which form the Bill ofRights,were ratifiedonlytwentyyearsbefore Storytook his oath ofoffice as aSupreme Court Justice. For all practical purposes, he was present at the creation of our constitutional system of government. Elisha Story’s first wife, who gave her husband seven children, died two years before Joseph was born. Elisha remarried and Joseph was the eldest of eleven more children. Yet Story never got lost in the crowd. His mother told him: “Now Joe, I’ve sat up and tended you many a night when you were a child, and don’t you dare not to be a great man.”2 In January 1795, Story entered Har­ vard College where, in his own words, he “stud­ ied most intensely” and “reaped the fair re­ wards in collegiate honors.”3 He loved the col­ lege life, but he studied too much. Story’s son later explained that in the dead of night young Joseph “would go down to the college yard, and pump cold water on his face and head in order to revive himself, and then would return with renewed energy to his studies.” He entered college “robust and muscular,” but left “pale and feeble.”4 He was graduated in 1798, and began to read law at Marblehead, Massachusetts, in the offices of Samuel Sewall. A formal legal education would have been most unusual in Story’s day. Less than a year later Sewall became a Justice of the Massachusetts Su­ preme Judicial Court, so Story moved to Salem and studiedin thelawoffices ofSamuel Putnam, who later also became a Justice of the Massa­ chusetts Supreme Judicial Court. In July...