Joel Tiffany

Born in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, on September 6, 1811, Joel Tiffany became a lawyer, teacher, and author whose work reflected the big public questions of his time. He studied law in Ohio, was admitted to the bar in 1834, and later practiced and taught while raising a large family.

Tiffany is best remembered for legal and political writing, including A Treatise on the Unconstitutionality of American Slavery and later works on government and constitutional law. His career also took him to Albany, New York, where he served as a reporter to the New York Court of Appeals and produced published court reports sometimes known as the Tiffany Reports.

Later in life he moved to Hinsdale, Illinois, where he became an important local civic figure and is remembered as the village's first president. He died on July 1, 1893, leaving behind a body of work that shows how strongly 19th-century debates about law, liberty, and public life shaped American writing.