Thomas Baltzell was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lawyer and politician who was the first popularly elected chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court

Florida Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the State of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges: the Chief Justice and six Justices who are appointed by the Governor to 6-year terms and remain in office if retained in a general election near the end of each...

. Baltzell was also a Florida Territory

Florida Territory

The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Florida...

 Senator and a Florida State Representative

Florida House of Representatives

The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The House is composed of 120 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 156,677.The House convenes at...

 as well as a Florida Constitutional Convention

Florida Constitution

The Constitution of the State of Florida is the document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of Florida, and establishes the basic law of the state....

 delegate for two of the state's Constitutions.

Baltzell was born in Frankfort, Kentucky

Frankfort, Kentucky

Frankfort is a city in Kentucky that serves as the state capital and the county seat of Franklin County. The population was 27,741 at the 2000 census; by population it is the 5th smallest state capital in the United States...

 and studied law with Kentucky Attorney General

Attorney General of Kentucky

The Attorney General of Kentucky is an office created by the Kentucky Constitution. . Under Kentucky law, he serves several roles, including the state's chief prosecutor , the state's chief law enforcement officer , and the state's chief law officer...

 Solomon P. Sharp

Solomon P. Sharp

Solomon Porcius Sharp was attorney general of Kentucky and a member of the United States Congress and the Kentucky General Assembly. His murder at the hands of Jereboam O...

, attaining his license at age 20. Following his friend Florida Governor William Pope Duval

William Pope Duval

William Pope Duval was the first civilian governor of Florida Territory, serving from April 17, 1822 until April 24, 1834.-Early life:...

, Baltzell moved to Florida in 1825. Baltzell was well known to have a fiery temper which surfaced in October 1832 when he and James Westcott

James Westcott

James Diament Westcott, Jr. was a United States Senator from Florida.-Early life and career:Westcott was born in Alexandria, Virginia where his father, James Sr., was transitioning from newspaper publisher to politician. James Jr.'s grandfather was a captain in the American Revolutionary War...

 engaged in a duel

Duel

A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...

 near the Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 border. Baltzell was uninjured while Westcott was only slightly injured and eventually became a U.S. Senator

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

.

Soon after his duel with Westcott, Baltzell was elected to represent Jackson County

Jackson County, Florida

Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. The population as of the 2000 census was 46,755. As of 2005, the population was estimated to be 48,985 . Its county seat is Marianna, Florida.- History :...

 on the Florida Territorial Legislative Council. In 1834, Governor Duval appointed Baltzell as justice of the peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 for Escambia County

Escambia County, Florida

Escambia County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Florida. The 2010 population was 297,619. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 296,772. Its county seat is Pensacola.- History :...

. That year he married Harriet King. The couple had six children by 1850. In 1838, Baltzell served on the Constitutional Convention and signed the 1838 Florida Constitution. Later that year, he ran for the territory delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 on an anti-bank

Second Bank of the United States

The Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816, five years after the First Bank of the United States lost its own charter. The Second Bank of the United States was initially headquartered in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, the same as the First Bank, and had branches throughout the...

 stance but lost to Charles Downing

Charles Downing

Charles Downing was a Delegate to the US House of Representatives from the Florida Territory. He was born in Virginia, although it is unknown when. In his life, Downing studied law, and after being admitted to The Florida Bar, practiced in St. Augustine, Florida...

.

Baltzell was on the Tallahassee City Commission from 1840 to 1842 and served on the Florida Territorial Senate from 1844 to 1846. Florida became a state in 1845 and the legislature elected Baltzell as the middle circuit Supreme Court judge. He was on the bench from the court's first session in January 1846 until 1850. He then won the first popular elections for Chief Justice beginning his term in 1854.

In 1859, Chief Justice Baltzell's temper became noteworthy when he ordered the arrest of fellow Justice Bird M. Pearson

Bird M. Pearson

Bird Murphy Pearson was a Florida lawyer, planter and a Democratic politician who served on the Florida Supreme Court from 1856 to 1859, one of the first to be popularly elected. He replaced Thomas Baltzell as Chief Justice. He was born in 1803. He died October 9, 1859.Person was born in Union...

 when Pearson was tardy for the session. When Pearson arrived, Baltzell was overruled. With elections approaching, Baltzell became embroiled in a public feud with another justice, Charles H. DuPont, over a lower-court judge. In the end, DuPont won the 1859 election ending Baltzell's time on the Supreme Court.

With the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 raging, Baltzell recovered from his Supreme Court loss and won a seat in the Florida House of Representatives from 1862 to 1863. After the war, Baltzell was a member of the 1865 Florida Constitutional Convention. The Constitution was ineffective and Radical Reconstruction ensued. Florida was readmitted to the United States in 1868, two years after Baltzell's death in Tallahassee.