Hugh S. Legaré

Hugh Swinton Legare ( born January 2, 1797 in Charleston, South Carolina, † June 20, 1843 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American lawyer, diplomat, politician and Minister of Justice ( Attorney General ).

Study and career

Legare, who was descended from Huguenots and Scots, suffered at the age of five years, a vaccine poisoning, which disabled its growth. He first completed a general education studies at the University of South Carolina, which he finished in 1814 as the best in class award. Subsequently he studied until 1817, the law. Later he studied during a trip to Europe in 1818 French in Paris, and in 1819 Roman law, philosophy, mathematics and chemistry in Edinburgh, before he was admitted to the bar in 1822 in South Carolina.

Political career

Offices in South Carolina and a diplomat

Legare began his political career in 1820 with the election of the Members of the House of Representatives from South Carolina, where he remained until 1821 and then again from 1824 to 1830. After that, he was until 1832 the Attorney General of South Carolina. In this office he was an advocate of the rights of individual states as well as an outspoken opponent of the so-called Nullifikationsdoktrin, said that individual states have the right to federal laws that were harmful to them not to implement.

From 1832 to 1836 he was chargé ( charge d'affaires ) in the newly independent Belgium two years earlier.

Congressman and Minister of Justice under Tyler

On September 13, 1841, President John Tyler appointed him as Minister of Justice ( Attorney General ) in his cabinet. This office he held until his death on June 20, 1843 in Boston after the unveiling ceremony for the Bunker Hill monument. Of 8 May 1843 to his death he acted after the resignation of Daniel Webster as Secretary of State ad interim.

Publications

• The Writings of Hugh Swinton Legare, South Carolina, 1846. (2 volumes)