Joseph Hopkinson

Joseph Hopkinson (November 12, 1770 – January 15, 1842) was a United States representative from Pennsylvania, a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and a prominent lawyer, jurist, and man of letters in the early American republic. Born on November 12, 1770, in Philadelphia, in the Province of Pennsylvania, British America, he was the son of Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a member of the Continental Congress, and the first United States District Judge for Pennsylvania. In 1794, he married the daughter of Thomas Mifflin, the Governor of Pennsylvania, thereby linking himself to another leading family of the Revolutionary and early national period.

Hopkinson pursued a rigorous classical education at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1786 and an Artium Magister degree in 1789. He read law under two distinguished legal figures, William Rawle and James Wilson, completing his legal training in 1791. That same year he was admitted to the bar and entered private practice in Philadelphia and Easton, Pennsylvania, where he practiced law from 1791 to 1814. He also began an early association with his alma mater, serving as secretary of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in 1790 and 1791, and later as a trustee from 1806 to 1819 and again from 1822 until his death in 1842.

From the outset of his legal career, Hopkinson was involved in significant and often nationally visible cases. In 1795, he defended men charged with treason for their participation in the Whiskey Rebellion against a federal excise tax on distilled spirits, a key early test of federal authority. In 1798 he wrote the patriotic anthem “Hail, Columbia,” which became one of the most popular national songs of the era and was long used as a de facto national anthem. In 1799, he successfully represented Dr. Benjamin Rush in a notable libel suit against journalist William Cobbett, a case that drew wide public attention. His reputation as an advocate was further enhanced when he served as counsel for United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase in Chase’s impeachment trial before the United States Senate in 1804 and 1805, a proceeding that helped define the limits of impeachment as a political and judicial tool.

Hopkinson’s prominence at the bar extended to landmark constitutional litigation. In 1819, he argued several major cases before the United States Supreme Court, including Dartmouth College v. Woodward, Sturges v. Crowninshield, and McCulloch v. Maryland, all of which helped shape the contours of federal power, contract rights, and the relationship between the states and the national government. In the Dartmouth College case he was associated with Daniel Webster, contributing to one of the most celebrated constitutional arguments of the period. These appearances solidified his standing as one of the leading constitutional lawyers of his generation.

As a member of the Federalist Party representing Pennsylvania, Hopkinson contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office. He was elected as a Federalist from Pennsylvania’s 1st congressional district to the United States House of Representatives for the 14th Congress and was reelected to the 15th Congress, serving from March 4, 1815, to March 3, 1819. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, immediately following the War of 1812, when questions of national development, finance, and federal authority were at the forefront. During these years he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1818.

After leaving Congress, Hopkinson resumed an active legal and political career. He returned to private practice in Philadelphia from 1819 to 1820, then practiced in Bordentown, New Jersey, from 1820 to 1823, before again establishing himself in Philadelphia from 1823 to 1828. While residing in New Jersey, he served as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1821 to 1822, extending his public service beyond Pennsylvania. His legal work during these years continued to be substantial, and he remained a figure of influence in both state and national legal circles.

Hopkinson’s federal judicial career began with a recess appointment from President John Quincy Adams on October 23, 1828, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, vacated by Judge Richard Peters. Adams formally nominated him to the same position on December 11, 1828. The United States Senate confirmed his nomination on February 23, 1829, and he received his commission the same day. He served on the district court until his death on January 15, 1842. Among his most consequential judicial opinions was his 1833 decision in Wheaton v. Peters, which established foundational principles of modern American copyright law, clarifying the nature of statutory copyright and the limits of common-law literary property in the United States.

In addition to his judicial and legislative roles, Hopkinson was deeply engaged in civic, educational, and cultural affairs. He served as Chairman of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1837, participating in the revision of the state’s fundamental law. His long association with the University of Pennsylvania, as both secretary and trustee, reflected his commitment to higher education. In the arts and sciences, he was President of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and, after his election to membership in 1815, served as Vice-President of the American Philosophical Society, contributing to the intellectual and cultural life of Philadelphia.

Hopkinson also made a notable mark in American literary and editorial history. In 1795, he edited the first American edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare, published in Philadelphia, which was also the first complete Shakespeare edition issued outside the British Isles. He wrote the edition’s preface and “The Life of the Author,” producing what is regarded as the first published American literary criticism of Shakespeare. In this preface he criticized British editors such as Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson for having “clogged [London editions] with…successive explanations” and for engaging in public quarrels that, in his view, reflected a desire for self-aggrandizement and distracted from Shakespeare’s text. In response, he offered American readers an edition stripped of what he considered superfluous footnotes and urged them to engage with Shakespeare’s works on their own terms.

Joseph Hopkinson died in Philadelphia on January 15, 1842, while still serving as a United States district judge. He was interred in the old Borden-Hopkinson Burial Ground, now Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery, in Bordentown, New Jersey. His career spanned the formative decades of the United States, and through his work as lawyer, legislator, judge, educator, cultural leader, and author of “Hail, Columbia,” he played a significant role in shaping the legal, political, and cultural institutions of the early republic.