Samuel Smith (S.S.) Nicholas (April 1797 - November 27, 1869) was a

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

in the state of

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

and an author of

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essays. Born in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

, and orphaned at the age of eight, Nicholas was raised by his uncle, Baltimore merchant and Maryland Senator Samuel Smith. At the age of sixteen, he was sent as his uncle's

supercargo A supercargo (from Italian or from Spanish ) is a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on a ship. The duties of a supercargo are defined by admiralty law and include managing the cargo owner's trade, selling the mer ...

on voyages to South America and China. In the early 1820s, Nicholas became a

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

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. In 1825, he went to

Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city and the county seat, seat of Franklin County, Kentucky, Franklin County in the Upland Sou ...

, where he studied law under George M. Bibb. He gained prominence quickly and was appointed to Kentucky's highest court, the

Court of Appeals An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellat ...

, by Governor Thomas Metcalfe, and he received his commission on December 23, 1831. After resigning in 1837, he was elected that year to represent

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

in the

Kentucky House of Representatives The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a ...

. In 1850, he was appointed by Governor John J. Crittenden to revise the Code of Practice of Kentucky. He did so with Charles A. Wickliffe and Squire Turner, and in 1852, they released the revised code of Kentucky. Nicholas also 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, 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

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas, Samuel Smith 1797 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 Kentucky state court judges Members of the Kentucky House of Representatives 19th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly