GEORGE WYTHE.

THE representatives of Virginia, in the congress of 1776, have always held a very high rank among the members of that assembly, remarkable as it was for intelligence, patriotism, and prudence. They were seven in number: GEORGE WYTHE, RICHARD HENRY LEE, THOMAS JEFFERSON, BENJAMIN HARRISON, THOMAS NELSON, JR., FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE, and CARTER BRAXTON.

The following account of Mr. Wythe is much less circumstantial than is required by the dignity of the subject. The most important actions of his public life, are so blended with the general history of the country, and his name so conjoined with the other patriots of the revolution, as to admit very little distinct or particular detail. Of his private and domestic transactions, he has left himself no remembrance, and his friends, by whose aid we hoped to supply the deficiency, appear to have postponed this principal object, to indulge in expressions of affection for his memory, and have furnished us rather a panegyric, than a history of his life. We shall endeavour, however, from the few materials within our reach, to exhibit such a general view of his character as, we hope, will not be unacceptable to our readers.

GEORGE WYTHE was born in the year 1726, in the county of Elizabeth city, on the shores of the Chesapeake, in the then colony of Virginia. He was descended from a respectable family, and inherited from his father, who was a farmer, an estate amply sufficient for all the purposes of ease and independence. His mother was a woman of great strength of mind, and of singular learning; amongst other acquirements, she possessed an accurate knowledge of the Latin language, and under her tuition, he received the rudiments of his education.

The instructions which he received at school, by some unaccountable negligence, were extremely limited; being confined to mere reading and writing the English language, with a very superficial knowledge of arithmetic. But his powerful mind, exerting its own efforts, soon supplied his defect of scholastic education; for, with the sole assistance afforded by his mother, he became one of the most accomplished Latin and Greek scholars of his country; and by his unaided exertions, attained a very honourable proficiency in other branches of learning. To grammar, rhetoric and logic, which he is said to have studied with great success, he added, at an early age, an extensive acquaintance with civil law; a profound knowledge of mathematics, as well as of natural and moral philosophy.

Of these various attainments, so honourable to his industry and genius, much of the merit, no doubt very justly, is ascribed to the affectionate and tender zeal of his mother: it is related that she not only taught him the Latin, but assisted also his acquisition of the Greek, though altogether unacquainted with that language; uniting for this purpose, in his studies, and by inspecting an English version of the

works which he read, enabling herself to aid his progress and to ascertain the accuracy of his translations.

Of this excellent mother he was bereaved during his minority. He lost also, near the same time, his father, of whom there is given a very amiable character, for simplicity and candour of behaviour, parental tenderness, and for prudence in the management of his fortune. Being thus in the possession of money, and exposed, in the luxuriance of youthful passions, to the seductions of pleasure, he suspended during several years, all useful study, and spent his whole time in idle amusements and dissipation. But to whatever levities he may have been betrayed, it is evident from the subsequent events of his life, that his principles of honour remained uncorrupted. When he had attained his thirtieth year, he shook off all these youthful follies, and employed himself in the most indefatigable study; and from this period till the close of his life, protracted to the length of eighty years, lived in the practice of the most rigid and inflexible virtue.

To his friends he often expressed the deepest regret that so many years of time had thus been irretrievably lost to him; and when we reflect on the many splendid monuments of his wisdom, and patriotic devotion to the best interests of his country, which have given him an imperishable name in her records, an instructive lesson may be drawn from his generous repentance. No man ever stood higher in the estimation of his countrymen; and no one better merited this distinction; yet after fifty years had been spent in the exercise of all that is noble in man, the venerable patriot still sighed over the short period of youthful aberration, as so much valuable time unemployed in conferring benefits on his country and on mankind.

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He studied the profession of the law under the direction of Mr. John Lewis, an eminent practitioner; and at an early period was called to the bar of the general court, then filled by men of great eminence and ability in their profession. For a short time he continued their equal, but by reason of his extensive learning, correctness of elocution, and his logical style of argument, he quickly arrived at the head of the

bar.

As a lawyer, the character of Wythe bears the severest scrutiny. In his hands the dignity of the profession was never prostrated to the support of an unjust cause: in this he was so scrupulous, that where doubts were entertained of the truth of his clients' statements, he even required the solemnity of an oath previous to his defence; and if deception was in any manner practised upon him, the fee was returned, and the cause abandoned. Such disinterestedness procured him universal esteem; and as he was no less distinguished by correctness and purity of conduct in his profession, than by his great learning, and his industry and fidelity to those who employed him, promotion succeeded confidence, and on the organization of the new government, he was invested with the most considerable judicial rank which his country could bestow upon him. As chancellor of Virginia, he continued to dispense the most exact justice until the day of his death.

Early in life he was elected to represent his native county in the house of burgesses; of which he continued a member until the dawn of the revolution. His cotemporaries in the house, were men of the highest standing in Virginia for rank and talent; and in the memorable year of 1764, when the resolutions of the British parliament preparatory to the passage of the stamp act, were communicated to the house of

burgesses, he found himself called upon to act with such worthies as Robert C. Nicholas, Edmond Pendleton, Richard Bland, Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee and Benjamin Harrison. And his holding a prominent station amongst these most celebrated names of our country, is no equivocal evidence of his abilities and merits.

On the 14th of November 1764, he was appointed a member of a committee of the house of burgesses, to prepare and report a petition to the king; a memorial to the house of lords, and a remonstrance to the house of commons, on the subject of the proposed stamp act. The latter paper was drawn up by Wythe, and following his own principles, his language was that of boldness and truth; going far beyond the timid hesitations of his colleagues, who viewed it as bordering on treason, consequently his draft was subjected to many material modifications. These documents were reported on the 18th of December, and after much warm debate and considerable amendments tending to soften the asperity of complaint, received the concurrence of council.

From the general tenor of these papers, it is obvious that revolutionary opposition to the regal government, was not then intended. For, although the rights of the colony, so far as they respected exemption from taxation, except by her own representatives, are firmly set forth and insisted on; yet the language is supplicatory, and the miserics about to be inflicted on an impoverished community by the excessive weight of the projected law, are feelingly anticipated. Remonstrance alone was intended, and the colonies looked with anxiety to the parent country for favourable replies to most dutiful petitions; but remonstrance was ineffectual, and in January 1765, the stamp act was passed, to have operation