Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Judah, Samuel

Samuel Judah was a lawyer and politician. Born into a Jewish family, he attended public schools until 1812, then enrolled in Rutgers College (originally called Queen's College) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1816, he became the college's first Jewish graduate. From October 1816 to October 1818, he served as apprentice to New Brunswick attorney George Wood. Judah was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1818. In 1819, he moved to Merom, Indiana to start his own law practice. Soon after, he moved his practice to Vincennes, Indiana. He became a Jacksonian in 1824, and later served as a delegate to the Democratic Party's first convention. In 1825, he married Harriet Brandon. They had eleven children together, six of whom died in infancy. Judah served in the Indiana House of Representatives, from 1827 to 1829. In 1829, President Andrew Jackson appointed him U.S. district attorney for Indiana, a position Judah kept until 1833. In 1834, he became a member of the Whig Party. He lost a bid for election to the U.S. Senate in 1836, but, in 1837, he was again elected to the Indiana House of Representatives, where he served from 1837 to 1841, including as speaker of the House from 1840 to 1841. In 1838, he became a member of Vincennes University's Board of Trustees and the university's attorney. In 1839, he also served as chairman of the first Whig convention. Beginning in 1842, he worked on behalf of Vincennes University in a case that, in 1846, evolved into Vincennes University v. State of Indiana. In 1855, Judah took $26,728 in legal fees for his work on the case, which led to a lawsuit by his fellow university Board of Trustees that eventually went to the Indiana Supreme Court, but resulted in no penalties for Judah. His legal career benefitted from the notoriety of this case, which lasted into the 1860s. In 1850, he possessed real estate valued at $7,500; by 1860, he had both a personal estate valued at $25,000 and real estate valued at $25,000. Judah became a Republican in 1854, but did not run for political office again.

Ruth Marcus Patt, "Samuel Judah, Class of 1816: Rutgers' First Jewish Graduate," The Journal of Rutgers University Libraries 47 (1985), 82-85, 87; Ralph D. Gray, "Judah, Samuel," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 12:292-93; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Vincennes, Knox County, IN, 249; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Vincennes, Knox County, IN, 63; Gravestone, Greenlawn Cemetery, Vincennes, IN.