James Mitchell Varnum
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James Mitchell Varnum (December 17, 1748 – January 9, 1789) was an American lawyer and a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
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[edit] Early life
James Mitchell Varnum was born in Dracut, Massachusetts. As a young man he went to Rhode Island to attend Brown University, where he graduated in 1769. In Rhode Island he met his future wife.
[edit] Military career
Along with Nathanael Greene he served in the Kentish Guards. He served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving from 1777 until 1779. Varnum advocated allowing African Americans to enlist in the Continental Army, which resulted in the reformation of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment as an all-black unit. Varnum was a disciple of General Charles Lee and a serous critic of the position of Inspector General held in 1778 by Baron Von Steuben, writing George Washington a letter expressing his concern with the power and security access of this position. After Varnum resigned his Continental Army commission because of personal business matters, he was appointed major general of Rhode Island militia. He represented Rhode Island in the Continental Congress (1780–1781 and 1787).
[edit] Legal career
Varnum was also well known as a jurist. He successfully represented the defendant in Trevett v. Weeden one of the earliest cases of judicial review. In 1787, Varnum was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territory, and moved to Marietta, Ohio, to take up his duties; he was one of the early pioneers to the Northwest Territory. He died less than two years later, and was buried just south of the Oak Grove Cemetery and near Mound Cemetery in Marietta.
His home, the Gen. James Mitchell Varnum House in East Greenwich, Rhode Island is seen as a tourist attraction today. Varnum's brother was Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Joseph Bradley Varnum.
