Difference between revisions of "Spencer Roane"

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Spencer Roane (1762-1782), judge and political writer, was born in Essex County, son of William Roane, a burgess for Essex. Spencer Roane received his early education from Scottish tutors, and enrolled in the College of William & Mary about 1777.^[1] There, he attended George Wythe’s law lectures, became active in Phi Beta Kappa, and developed a taste for literature.^[2] Roane was considered a “prodigy of his generation” and “one of [George Wythe’s] most brilliant pupils.”^[3] He continued his legal studies in Philadelphia and by reading Coke in his free time. Roane was admitted to the bar in 1782.^[4]

Roane became a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1783-84, where he worked closely with Richard Henry Lee and served on committees with Patrick Henry and John Marshall.^[5] He later served as an advisor to Governor Patrick Henry and as a state senator.^[6] Throughout his political career, Roane remained a staunch Jeffersonian Republican and was opposed to the new Constitution, preferring instead a revision of the Articles of Confederation.^[7]

In 1789 Roane began his judicial career as a judge of the General Court, a position he held until 1794 when the Virginia legislature elected him to the Supreme Court of Appeals.^[8] There he was known for “attack[ing] each case eagerly and penetratingly” and for “clear and vigorous opinions.”^[9] Roane’s decisions reflected his progressive, liberty-driven political ideology.^[10] He was known for penning opinions that were “mindful of precedent and the law as science, but also keenly alert to the public policies of his own progressive age.”^[11] Although Jefferson desired Roane to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, this was made impossible when John Marshall was appointed in 1800.^[12]

Spencer Roane furthered his political ideologies in 1804 when he founded the Richmond Enquirer.^[13]In it, under several different pen names, Roane advanced his opinions in articles that were “lengthy and not without extreme and abusive language.”^[14] Although his articles were well-received by Jeffersonian Republicans, they greatly bothered the Federalists and “reinvigorated the extreme states-rights theory.”^[15]Nevertheless, Roane did not consider his vision of powerful individual states as incompatible with union.^[16]

Roane died in 1822 in Warm Springs, Virginia, but not before his son, William H. Roane, was seated as a United States Senator.^[17]

References

1. ↑ Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. "Roane, Spencer" by C. C. Pearson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963), 8:242.
2. ↑ Ibid.
3. ↑ Alonzo Thomas Dill, George Wythe Teacher of Liberty (Williamsburg, Virginia: Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1979), 51.
4. ↑ Dictionary of American Biography, "Roane, Spencer," 642.
5. ↑ Ibid.
6. ↑ Ibid.
7. ↑ Ibid
8. ↑ Ibid.
9. ↑ Ibid.
10. ↑ Ibid.
11. ↑ Ibid.
12. ↑ Ibid.
13. ↑ Ibid.
14. ↑ Ibid., 643
15. ↑ Ibid.
16. ↑ Ibid.
17. ↑ Lyon G. Tyler, "Roane Family," William and Mary Quarterly Historical Magazine 18, no. 4 (April 1910), 267.