 Robert
Grier was born in Pennsylvania on March 5, 1794. He was the eldest of 11
children. Grier was admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania after graduating
from Dickinson College and reading for the bar. In 1833, Grier was
appointed to a position as a state district court judge, where he
remained until he was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1846. Grier
replaced his fellow Pennsylvanian
Henry
Baldwin, whose mental illness had led to the Marshall Court's
disintegration. Grier was sympathetic to the southern position on
slavery. After James Buchanan, also a Pennsylvanian and the 1856
Democratic nominee for the presidency (which he won), lobbied Grier, he
voted with the southern majority. Grier remained on the Supreme Court
through the Civil War. His mental faculties slowed in the late 1860s,
and agreed to retire in 1870 after a delegation of justices suggested he
do so. He died later that year. |
