Lives of the Presidents of the United States

Lives of the Signers

Page 402

George Wythe was born in the county of Elizabeth city, Virginia, in the year 1726. His mother, who was a woman of superior acquirements, instructed him in the learned languages, and he made considerable progress in several of the solid sciences, and in polite literature. Before he became of age, he was deprived of both his parents; and inheriting considerable property, he became addicted, for several years, to dissipated courses and habits of profligacy. But at the age of thirty, he abandoned entirely his youthful follies, and applied himself with indefatigable industry to study; never relapsing into any indulgence inconsistent with a manly and virtuous character.

Having studied the profession of law, he soon attained a high reputation at the bar, and was appointed from his native county to a seat in the House of Burgesses. He took a conspicuous part in the proceedings of this assembly, and some of the most eloquent state papers of the times were drawn up by him. The remonstrance to the House of Commons, which was of a remarkably fearless and independent tone, was the production of his pen. By his patriotic firmness and zeal, he powerfully contributed to the ultimate success of his country.

In 1775, Mr. Wythe was elected a delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He assisted in bringing forward and urging the Declaration of Independence, and affixed his name to that deathless instrument. During this latter year, he was appointed, in connexion with Thomas Jefferson, Edward Pendleton, and others, to revise the laws of the State of Virginia. In the year 1777, Mr. Wythe was chosen speaker of the House of Delegates, and during the same year was made Judge of the High Court of Chancery. On the new organization of the Court of Equity, in a subsequent year, he was appointed sole Chancellor, a station which he filled, with great ability, for more than twenty years.

In the course of the Revolution, Mr. Wythe suffered much in respect to his property. By judicious management, however, he contrived to retrieve his fortune, and preserve his credit unimpaired. Of the Convention of 1787, appointed to revise the Federal Constitution, he was an efficient member. During the debates, he acted for the most part as chairman. He was a warm advocate for the Constitution, and esteemed it the surest guarantee of the peace and prosperity of the country. He died on the 8th of June, 1806, in the eighty-first year of his age, after a short but very excruciating sickness. By his last will and testament, Mr. Wythe bequeathed his valuable library and philosophical apparatus to his friend, Mr. Jefferson, and distributed the remainder of his little property among the grand-children of his sister, and the slaves whom he lad set free.

See Also

• American Biographical and Historical Dictionary
• Biographie Universelle
• Discourse Refuting Statements Made That George Wythe at One Time Led a Life of Dissipation
• Encyclopaedia Americana
• Encyclopedia Americana
• Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography
• Eulogium on the Late Chancellor Wythe
• Lempriere's Universal Biography
• Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence
• Memoirs of the Late George Wythe, Esquire
• National Cyclopaedia of American Biography
• S. Bassett French Biographical Sketch

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