Andrew T. Judson

Andrew Thompson Judson (November 29, 1784 – March 17, 1853) was a U.S. Representative from Connecticut and later a United States federal judge.

Born in Eastford, Connecticut, Judson's father, also named Andrew, was first pastor of the third church in Ashford and the source of most of Judson's initial education. Judson then read law and was admitted to the bar in 1806. He moved to Montpelier, Vermont, where he began the practice of law. He returned to Connecticut and settled in Canterbury in 1809, where he engaged in private practice until 1819.

Judson served as a Connecticut state representative in 1816. In 1818, he was one of the most active members of the Toleration Party, which had for its object the separation of church and state. After a severe struggle the Tolerationists, aided by the Democrats, succeeded in setting aside the charter that was granted by Charles II, and adopting a new constitution which has been the fundamental law of Connecticut since that time. He served as state's attorney for Windham County 1819 to 1833, and as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives 1822 to 1825, and of the Connecticut Senate from 1830 to 1832.

Judson was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress and served from March 4, 1835, until July 4, 1836, when he resigned to take a judicial office. On June 28, 1836, Judson was nominated by President Andrew Jackson to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut vacated by William Bristol. Judson was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 4, 1836, and received his commission the same day. Judson served until his death in Canterbury, Connecticut, March 17, 1853. He was interred in Hyde Cemetery.

On Racial Equality

In response to New York abolitionist Samuel J. May, concerning the highly controversial integrated school established by Prudence Crandall, Judson stated,

The colored people can never rise from their menial condition in our country; they ought not to be permitted to rise here. They are an inferior race of beings, and never call or ought to be recognized as the equals of the whites.^[1]

Bibliography

• Andrew T. Judson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Andrew T. Judson at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
•  Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1892). "Judson, Andrew Thompson". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.  This source gives Ashford as his place of birth. It also puts Judson in the Connecticut legislature by 1816, but doesn't say anything about his length of service there.

References