Difference between revisions of "George Wythe, America's First Law Professor"

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Title page from Hemphill's 1933 M.A. thesis, "George Wythe, America's First Law Professor and the Teacher of Jefferson, Marshall, and Clay."

"George Wythe, America's First Law Professor" is a thesis by W. Edwin Hemphill (1912 – 1983), for a Master of Arts degree from Emory University.^[1] Hemphill was an archivist, historian, and editor, and contributed greatly to George Wythe scholarship, among his other historical pursuits. In 1937, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, with a dissertation also on George Wythe."^[2]

The goal of Hemphill's thesis is to establish Wythe as the first professor of law in America, providing interpretation of the historical and documentary evidence for Wythe's education and legal experience, and his instruction of Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Henry Clay.

Cover page

Approved for the Committee:

Theodore H. Jack

Date May 25, 1933

Accepted:

Goodrich C. White

Dean of the Graduate School

Date June 7, 1933

Title page

Preface

It is a surprising circumstance that no biography of George Wythe -- not even a small "Life" -- has ever been published. Such a treatise would be worthwhile and valuable (to mention only one reason) for the light which it would throw on the history of American education in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

The study is a preliminary step, perhaps, in that direction. Its aim is to prevent a factual and interpretative account of George Wythe's legal professsorship and of his relationships with his three greatest pupils. An adequate consideration of the influence upon American history which he exerted directly through them could not be confirmed within the present scope, but in the three chapters devoted to them we have suggested at least the main trends which future thought on the subject will follow.

The most complete edition of the writings of Jefferson, that published by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, has been used throughout whenever possible; its lacunae must be filled from a number of sources.

Table of contents

Chapter I

Page 1

Posterity has come to think of George Wythe (1726-1806), when indeed it thinks at all of him, as a Virginian eminent in three distinct respects: as a patriot and statesman, as a lawyer and judge, and as a teacher. It is without doubt true that his name deserves a considerable measure of recognition for his services in each of these phases of his career. Much disagreement might be aroused by raising a hypothetical question as to the relative importance of the three. This shall not now be done.

It is pertinent, however, to call attention to the noticeable shifting of emphasis among the three which the thought of a century or more has developed. In his own day and for half a century after his death George Wythe seemed notable primarily for his work in the political and legal fields. As the perspective has enlarged through the last fifty years, interest in Wythe has centered largely on his contribution to these prominent activities through his services as the instructor of many of their foremost leaders.¹

1. A review of the earlier biographical sketches, contrasting them with the more recently published viewpoints of S. C. Mitchell and D. R. Anderson, should suffice to indicate the justice of this conclusion.

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In his formal professorship of law or informally in his law office or through the medium of private tuition, George Wythe was the teacher of nearly all the able public men from

Virginia who were trained during the last half of the eighteenth century, -- a glorious period in national life. How large his influence on American History one can only guess, when one runs over the long list of men who gained from him the inspiration and training for their leadership in American political thought.¹

Such a list of those who are known to have been taught by Wythe should include Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay, James Monroe, Spencer Roane, Henry St. George Tucker, John Wickham, Daniel Call, William Munford, William Branch Giles, James Innis, Archibald Stuart, George Nicholas, James Breckinridge, Ludwell Lee, Peter Carr, John Brown, John Coalter, Buckner Thurston [sic], and Littleton Waller Tazewell.² Frequently have speculations been made that the painter's canvas might immortalize such a group in the classical manner; for example, a verbiose Virginian, having spoken of Wythe as "instilling into the minds of his pupils those principles which implied them to imitate his virtues

1. Dice Robins Anderson, "The Teacher of Jefferson and Marshall." South Atlantic Quarterly, XV, 327.

2. Cf. esp. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, "George Wythe." Great American Lawyers, I, 71-72. This enumeration of a score of Wythe's more prominent pupils is presented, without comment, for whatever the bare names may mean. It should be stated that an occasional claim, not sufficiently corroborated by the present investigation to be accepted, has been found that James Madison and Edmund Randolph might be included in the list.

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and even to eclipse the splendor of his fame," exclaims in a footnote, "What a patriotic cartoon -- a School of Virginia greater than the School of Athens -- might the brush of the Virginia artist depict in Wythe laying down the law"¹ in the midst of such pupils!

There is only one extant indication from Wythe's pen that he considered the training of publicists to be an important phase of his activities. Renewing acquaintance by correspondence with an intimate associate in the Continen- tal Congress he wrote:

A letter will meet with me in Williamsburg where I have again settled, assisting, as professor of law and police in the university there, to form such characters as may be fit to succede those which have been ornamental and useful in the national councils of America.²

A less direct testimony to the same fact comes from the pen of Wythe's favorite pupil. Directing from abroad the education of his nephew, Peter Carr, Thomas Jefferson counted it the highest possible blessing that his relative could be under his master's tutelage. In answer to Wythe's report of Carr's studies under other William and Mary professors and under his own private tuition,³ Jefferson

1. Hugh Blair Grigsby, The Virginia Convention of 1776, 123.

2. George Wythe to John Adams, December 5, 1783, reproduced in facsimile in Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, III, facing 384.

3. Cf. George Wythe to Thomas Jefferson, December 13, 1786. William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, XX, 213. This publication will hereafter be cited as W. & M. Coll. Quar.

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wrote:

I return to you a thousand thanks for your goodness to my nephew. After my debt to you for whatever I am myself, it is increasing it too much to interest yourself for his future fortune. But I know, that to you, a consciousness of doing good is a luxury ineffable. You have enjoyed it already, beyond all human measure, and that you may long live to enjoy it, and to bless your country and friends, is... [my] sincere prayer....¹

What a compliment and what affection these sentences convey!

Wythe's instructions, it might well be noted, were not limited to law. He once inserted in the local newspaper this advertisement:

I propose in October, when the next course in law and police will commence, to open a school for reading some of the higher Latin and Greek classics and of the approved English poets and prose writers, and also for exercises in Arithmetic. [Signed.] George Wythe.²

This self-imposed addition to his already numerous duties as a state chancellor and law professor was undertaken without thought of financial compensation from those who availed themselves of his active philanthropy.³ Later, in Richmond, he continued teaching as a diverting avocation. William Munford, whom Wythe had befriended in an unusually

1. Thomas Jefferson to George Wythe, September 16, 1787, Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (ed. by Albert Ellery Bergh), VI, 300. This edition of Jefferson will be cited henceforth as Jefferson, Writings, without reference to its editorship.

2. W. & M. Coll. Quar., X, 274, quoting (Williamsburg) Virginia Gazette, July, 1787.

3. Tyler, loc. cit., 70.

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See also

• Examinations of George Wythe Swinney for Forgery and Murder
• George Wythe Courts the Muses
• George Wythe, the Colonial Briton: A Biographical Study of the Pre-Revolutionary Era in Virginia
• Wythe the Teacher

References

1. ↑ Hemphill, William Edwin, "George Wythe: America's First Law Professor and the Teacher of Jefferson, Marshall and Clay," MA thesis, Emory University, 1933.
2. ↑ Hemphill, "George Wythe the Colonial Briton: A Biographical Study of the Pre-Revolutionary Era in Virginia," PhD diss., University of Virginia, 1937.