The New International Encyclopædia/Parker, Joel (jurist)

PARKER, Joel (1795-1875). An American jurist, born at Jaffrey, N. H. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1811 and, after studying law, practiced at Keene. He was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire in 1833 and became chief justice in 1838. In 1840 he was chairman of the committee on the revision of the State statutes, and in 1847 was called to a chair in the Harvard Law School. Conservative in politics, he opposed during the Civil War the exercise by the President of what he deemed unconstitutional powers. He published: Non-Extension of Slavery (1856); Personal Liberty Laws (1861); The Right of Secession (1861); Constitutional Law (1862); The War Powers of Congress and of the President (1863); Revolution and Reconstruction (1866); Conflict of Decisions (1875).