Andrew Gordon Magrath
[2] Magrath was nominated by President Franklin Pierce on May 9, 1856, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina vacated by Judge Robert Budd Gilchrist.[1] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 12, 1856, and received his commission the same day.In the trial of William C. Corrie for his ownership of the slave vessel Wanderer in 1858, Magrath rewrote the law from the bench by announcing that bringing enslaved people from Africa was not a crime if they had been enslaved prior to their purchase.[1] Magrath was a member of South Carolina's secession convention in 1860, and was the first speaker at the signing ceremony.After his release from prison in December 1865,[5] Magrath resumed private practice in Charleston from 1865 to 1893.