Talk:Benjamin Robbins Curtis

Confusion

I was working on improving the writing, but I could not decide whether you meant "legally trained" or "legally degreed" in the introduction. They mean different things, right? Awadewit (talk) 14:29, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Actually both. Went to law school (Harvard Law School was brand new, and he got a law degree. If you google Joseph Story and Rufus Hooker Ashmun you'll find Story's eulogy of the latter, and it will give you a concept of how new this all was. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 14:44, 2 April 2010 (UTC) Stan

See if the change I made is correct. Awadewit (talk) 14:57, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Removed sentence

As I was copyediting, I was unsure of the need for the following sentence: The same year he briefly returned to Cambridge where he took another course on law. - Could you provide more information that would give context for this? Awadewit (talk) 14:40, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Post graduate work, I think. Take a look at the NY Times piece. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 14:44, 2 April 2010 (UTC) Stan

A 19th-century book review does not seem like the most reliable source to me - it's tone is not particularly objective and it is not the best place to glean information about Curtis. Awadewit (talk) 00:48, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps source too close?

This source looks very similar to sections of the article. We need to make sure that the article uses original wording. Awadewit (talk) 14:46, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

We quote "he was elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature. He was appointed chairman of a committee charged with the reform of state judicial procedures, and within two years presented the Massachusetts Practice Act of 1851. It was considered a model of judicial reform and was approved by the legislature without amendment." and give that section as a source. So yes, they are not merely similar, they are identical. If you want to mix it up and alter it so it is no longer a quotation, feel free. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 20:07, 2 April 2010 (UTC) Stan

Yes, as you can see here, I extended those very quotation marks so that the article would not copy directly from the source. However, now almost the entire paragraph is a quote - it is not a good idea to quote so much, so I would suggest you paraphrase a bit more, particularly since you have copied such a large portion of the source - you are probably no longer at fair use percentages. Also, I'm concerned that other parts of the article might have been copied like this one was. Awadewit (talk) 02:22, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

Fixed. Thank you. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 02:34, 3 April 2010 (UTC) Stan

Reason for resignation

According to what I've read, the immediate cause for his resignation was that after he had submitted his written dissent in Dred Scott, Chief Justice Taney started surreptitiously rewriting his own written opinion (at a time when it was supposed to be final), which in addition to being rather skulkingly underhanded, also was the reason for significant delays in the appearance of the printed court decision. After Taney pretty much lied about this, Taney and Curtis had a somewhat snippy exchange of notes, and Curtis resigned. Curtis's dissent was the most influential of the two Dred Scott dissents at the time, partly because McLean was widely suspected of having personal political ambitions... AnonMoos (talk) 08:48, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 4 external links on Benjamin Robbins Curtis. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100320130936/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history/supremecourthistory_history_assoc_027curtis.htm to http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history/supremecourthistory_history_assoc_027curtis.htm
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/curtis.htm
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/taney.htm
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 01:59, 31 October 2016 (UTC)