Samuel Smith (S.S.) Nicholas (1796 - November 27, 1869) was a jurist in the state of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

and an author of

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

essays. Nicholas started his career as a merchant in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. He studied law and moved to Kentucky, where he became a judge of the

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

. He was also known for his assistance in compiling the 1852 revised code of Kentucky. During his tenure, Nicholas wrote the following works:
Conservative Essays, Legal and Political

Martial Law

A Review of the Argument of President Lincoln and Attorney General Bates, in Favor of Presidential Power to Suspend the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus

South Carolina, Disunion, and a Mississippi Valley Confederacy

Habeas Corpus, The Law of War, and Confiscation
Judge Willard Saulsbury, Sr. quoted the works of Nicholas in his speech on the resolution proposing to expel

Jesse D. Bright Jesse David Bright (December 18, 1812 – May 20, 1875) was the ninth Lieutenant Governor of Indiana and U.S. Senator from Indiana who served as President pro tempore of the Senate on three occasions. He was the only senator from a Northern sta ...

, and said "...we all know that since the commencement of this struggle no man has written or spoken more earnestly than has Chancellor Nicholas, of Kentucky..."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas, Samuel Smith 1796 births 1869 deaths Presidents of the University of Louisville Judges of the Kentucky Court of Appeals American legal writers 19th-century American writers 19th-century American judges