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HOPKINSON, Joseph, (son of Francis Hopkinson),
a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Philadelphia, Pa., on November 12,
1770; was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in 1786; studied law; was
admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1791 where he practiced his profession, except for the period of
one year at Easton, Pa.; wrote the anthem Hail Columbia! in 1798; was associated with Daniel
Webster in the Dartmouth College case; counsel for Justice Samuel Chase in his impeachment trial
before the United States Senate in 1804 and 1805; elected as a Federalist to the Fourteenth Congress;
reelected to the succeeding Congress (March 4, 1815-March 3, 1819); was not a candidate for
reelection in 1818; moved to Bordentown, N.J., in 1820; member of the New Jersey house of
assembly; returned to Philadelphia, Pa., in 1823; judge of the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1828-1842; chairman of the State constitutional convention in 1837;
secretary of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in 1790 and 1791; trustee,
1806-1819 and 1822-1842; died in Philadelphia, Pa., January 15, 1842; interment in the old
Borden-Hopkinson Burial Ground, Bordentown, N.J.
BibliographyKonkle, Burton Alva. Joseph Hopkinson,
1770-1842, Jurist-Scholar-Inspirer of the Arts: Author of Hail Columbia. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1931.
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