Austin Abbott
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Austin Abbott (December 18, 1831 – April 19, 1896) was a lawyer and academic. He is probably best remembered as being the government counsel in the trial of Charles J. Guiteau for the assassination of President James Garfield.
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1831. He graduated from New York University in 1851. The following year, he was admitted to the bar and became a partner in the legal firm Abbott Bros., a firm he stayed with through 1870. He married Ella E. D. Gilman in 1854. He assisted commissioners in preparing the codes of New York in 1865. In 1881, he took the case against Guiteau and won. The case was one of the first highly publicized uses of the insanity defense in the United States. He would later become the dean of the law school at New York University, and the professor of pleading, equity, and evidence there as well. He was Dean of the Law School of the University of the City of New York from 1891 until his death.
He wrote several books, including the novels:
- Come Cut Corners: The Experiences of a Conservative Family in Fanatical Times, 1855
- Matthew Caraby, 1859 (with his brothers, including Benjamin Vaughan Abbott)
His non-fiction works include the following books, as well as several briefs and other legal writings:
- Reports of Practice Cases Determined in the Courts of the State of New York, Volume 1, 1855 (with his brother Benjamin Vaughan Abbott)
- Reports of Decisions of the Court of Appeals of New York, 1850-69, (4 volumes), 1873-1874
- New Cases, Courts of the State of New York, 31 volumes covering 1876-1894,
- Abbott's Digest of New York Statutes and Reports, new 6 volume edition, 1873
- Official Report of the Trial of Henry Ward Beecher, 2 volumes, 1875.
- To be merged:
Austin Abbott, LL.D., (1831-96) was an American lawyer, born in Boston, Mass., the son of Jacob Abbott. He graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1851 and was admitted to the bar in the following year. He was in partnership with his brothers, Benjamin Vaughan and Lyman (afterward editor of the Outlook). He gained a national reputation as counsel for Henry Ward Beecher in Theodore Tilton's suit against him. He aided his brother Benjamin in the preparation of his well-known digests of laws and was himself a prolific legal author. His works, mostly of a practical character, included a comprehensive digest of New York Statutes and Reports, a treatise on Trial Practice, and a useful collection of legal forms, all of which proved to be useful to the profession.
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
[edit] References
- Who Was Who in America:Historical Volume, 1607-1896. Chicago: Quincy Who's Who, 1967.
