Thomas Ruffin (Lawyer)

Thomas Ruffin

Thomas Ruffin (born November 16, 1787 in King and Queen County , Virginia , † January 15, 1870 in Hillsborough , North Carolina ) was an American attorney and twice, from 1829 to 1852 and again from 1858 to 1859, judge at North Carolina Supreme Court . He also held the office of Chief Justice at that court between 1833 and 1852 .

Life

Ruffin graduated from Princeton University and then studied law in North Carolina under Archibald Murphey . After he was admitted to the bar, he immediately opened a practice in Hillsborough, where he also had a farm. In the following years he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives three times . He also served as a judge at the Superior Court from 1816 to 1818 and again from 1825 to 1828 . In 1828 he was named the new President of the State Bank of North Carolina by the state. The background of his appointment was to get the bank out of debt, which he managed in a year. He was then appointed to the State Supreme Court by the state legislature.

"The election of former Superior Court Judge and State Bank President Ruffin to the Judgment Seat in 1829 ensured the survival of North Carolina's Supreme Court," according to Martin Brinkley (see link below). One of the ten greatest lawyers in American history, according to Dean Roscoe Pound of Harvard Law School , Ruffin single-handedly converted the civil law of North Carolina into an instrument of the economic money market. His letters on expropriation - the state's right to seize private property for the common good - paved the way for the development of the railways in North Carolina and enabled the Rip Van Winkle State to launch the industrial revolution . Ruffin's views have been cited as convincing in appellate courts across the United States . The impact of his decisions affected the emerging jurisprudence of the states known as the Southwest ( Alabama , Louisiana , Tennessee , Arkansas, and Mississippi ), which were populated by large numbers of North Carolina emigrants, making Ruffin a celebrity at home. General awe of the “Star Prophet”, as Ruffin was called, saved his court from being broken up by populist politicians.

Along with fellow judge William Gaston , who elected his colleague Chief Justice in 1833 (by tossing a coin according to a popular but presumably dubious report), he dominated their less talented fellow judges and wrote treatises that inspired a contemporary to say:

“No State of the Union… not even the United States, ever had a superior bench; few ever had its equal. "

Ruffin passed judgment in the North Carolina v. Man who affirmed the “absolute” power of a master over his slave .

Ruffin returned to his plantation in Alamance County in 1852 , but the legislature brought him back to court again in 1858. He stayed there for another year and then retired at the age of 78. In addition to his legal and political career, Ruffin was an innovative farmer. He was the President of the State Agricultural Society from 1854 to 1860 . He was also the administrator of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 24 years .

literature

Timothy S. Huebner: The Southern Judicial Tradition: State Judges and Sectional Distinctiveness, 1790-1890 . 1999.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Ruffin, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American politician and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH	November 16, 1787
PLACE OF BIRTH	King and Queen County , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH	January 15, 1870
Place of death	Hillsborough , North Carolina