Andrew Hamilton (lawyer)
Andrew Hamilton (c. 1676 – August 4, 1741) was a Scottish lawyer in the Thirteen Colonies, where he finally settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was best known for his legal victory on behalf of the printer and newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger. This 1735 decision in New York helped to establish that truth is a defense to an accusation of libel. His eloquent defense concluded with saying that the press has "a liberty both of exposing and opposing tyrannical power by speaking and writing truth."
His success in this case has been said to have inspired the term, "Philadelphia lawyer," meaning a particularly adept and clever attorney, as in "It would take a Philadelphia lawyer to get him off." His estate in Philadelphia, known as Bush Hill, was used for the vice-president's house during the years that the city was the temporary capital of the United States.
Read more about Andrew Hamilton (lawyer): Emigration To Virginia, Early Career, Philadelphia Lawyer, Independence Hall, Bush Hill, The Woodlands, and Lancaster County, PA, Later Life, Family and Immediate Descendants, Legacy, Honors
Famous quotes containing the words andrew and/or hamilton:
“All the historians are Harvard people. It just isn’t fair. Poor old Hoover from West Branch, Iowa, had no chance with that crowd; nor did Andrew Jackson from Tennessee. Nor does Lyndon Johnson from Stonewall, Texas. It just isn’t fair.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Through Plato Aristotle came to believe in God, but Plato never attempted to prove His reality. Aristotle had to do so. Plato contemplated Him; Aristotle produced arguments to demonstrate Him. Plato never defined Him, but Aristotle thought God through logically and concluded with entire satisfaction to himself that He was the Unmoved Mover.”
—Edith Hamilton (1867–1963)