George Wythe – Tutor of Patriots

George Wythe (1726 in Chesterton, Virginia (present day Hampton)– June 8, 1806), was a lawyer, a judge, a prominent law professor and “Virginia’s foremost classical scholar.”^[1] Wythe’s signature is positioned at the head of the list of seven Virginia signatories on the United States Declaration of Independence. He was the first professor of law in America,^{[citation needed]} earning him the title of “The Father of American Jurisprudence.”^{[citation needed]} Wythe served as a representative of Virginia and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention—though he left the Convention early and did not sign the final version of the Constitution.

Wythe served as mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia from 1768 to 1769. In 1779 he was appointed to the newly created Chair of Law at William and Mary, becoming the first law professor in the United States. Wythe’s pupils included Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, James Monroe, and John Marshall.

Of these men, Wythe was closest to Thomas Jefferson — so close that Jefferson once described Wythe as a “second father.”^{[citation needed]} At a time when law students often read law for a year or less, Jefferson spent five years reading law with George Wythe, and the two men together read all sorts of other material; from English literary works, to political philosophy, to the ancient classics.

Wythe was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, voting in favor of the resolution for independence and signing the Declaration of Independence. He helped form the new government of Virginia, was elected Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1777, and also as part of a committee designed the Seal of Virginia, inscribed with the motto “Sic Semper Tyrannis“, which is still in use today. In 1789 he became Judge of the Chancery Court of Virginia.

In 1787, George Washington appointed Wythe along with Alexander Hamilton and Charles Pinckney to draw up rules and procedures for the Constitutional Convention.

A slaveholder, Wythe became an abolitionist, freeing his slaves and providing for their support. Wythe provided for his slaves, Lydia Broadnax and her son Michael Brown, in his will. The will also contained a provision for Brown’s education. Jefferson biographer Fawn M. Brodie has alleged Broadnax was Wythe’s concubine, and Brown was his son.

Wythe’s other heir, his grand-nephew, George Wythe Sweeney, decided to avoid this dilution of his fortune by poisoning the slaves with arsenic. In the process, he killed Wythe as well, though Wythe lingered long enough to change his will to eliminate his bequest to his murderer. Broadnax survived the poisoning.^[4]

It was the only punishment his killer received. In Sweeney’s trial he was acquitted of murder in Virginia, primarily because of a law that forbade the testimony of black witnesses.^[5] Sweeney was tried for forgery, and convicted, but that was overturned on appeal and Sweeney is said to have gone to Tennessee, stolen a horse, and served a term in a penitentiary. The rest of his life was then lost to history. ^[6]

Wythe, in his will, left his extraordinary book collection to Thomas Jefferson who described Wythe as “… my ancient master, my earliest and best friend, and to him I am indebted for first impressions which have [been] the most salutary on the course of my life.”

Wythe is buried at St. John’s Church in Richmond, the same church in which Patrick Henry made his “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” speech.

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Charles August Lindbergh – The Unassuming Patriot

This [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President (Woodrow Wilson) signs this bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized….the worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill.

Charles August Lindbergh (January 20, 1859 – May 24, 1924) was a United States Congressman from Minnesota’s 6th congressional district from 1907 to 1917. He opposed both American entry into World War I, and the 1913 Federal Reserve Act.

Charles August Lindbergh studied law at the University of Michigan Law School, graduating in 1883 and being admitted to the bar the same year. In 1887, Lindbergh married Mary LaFond, with whom he had two daughters, Lillian and Eva. Mary LaFond died in 1898. In 1901, Charles married Evangeline Lodge Land (1876 – 1954). They separated in 1909, their only child being the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, who also became an antiwar leader.^[2]

Political career

He served as prosecuting attorney for Morrison County, Minnesota from 1891 through 1893. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1906, as a Republican, serving in the 60th, 61st, 62nd, 63rd, and 64th congresses. In 1916 he unsuccessfully campaigned for a seat in the United States Senate. At the time of his death, Lindbergh was a candidate for Governor on the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party ticket, and would have been the first Minnesota Governor from the party, had he been elected.

In 1913, he wrote Banking, Currency, and the Money Trust, and in 1917 he wrote “Why is Your Country at War?,” attributing high finance as America’s involvement in World War I. According to Eustace Mullins, plates of this book were confiscated and destroyed by Government agents.^[3]

Charles August Lindbergh died in Crookston, Minnesota of brain cancer. He has a memorial plaque in the columbarium at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. According to his wish, son Charles scattered his ashes over the place near Sauk River, where the first Lindbergh home once stood.^[4]

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J. Reuben Clark – The Champion of the Constitution

Joshua Reuben Clark, Jr. (1871-09-01 – 1961-10-06) was an American attorney, civil servant, and a prominent leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Born in Grantsville, Utah Territory, Clark was a prominent attorney in the Department of State, and Under Secretary of State for U.S. president Calvin Coolidge. In 1930 Clark was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.

He received his BS from the University of Utah where he was valedictorian and student-body president. He received his law degree from Columbia University and also was an associate professor at George Washington University. Both the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University were named in his honor.

Daniel Boone – The Frontier Politician

“I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.” ~ D. Boone

Daniel Boone [October 22 (November 2 new style), 1734 – September 26, 1820] was an American pioneer and hunter whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the U.S. state of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. Despite resistance from American Indians, for whom Kentucky was a traditional hunting ground, in 1775 Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky. There he founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.^[2]

Boone was a Militia officer during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which in Kentucky was fought primarily between settlers and British-allied American Indians. Boone was captured by Shawnees in 1778 and adopted into the tribe, but he escaped and continued to help defend the Kentucky settlements. He was elected to the first of his three terms in the Virginia General Assembly during the war, and fought in the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782, one of the last battles of the American Revolution. Boone worked as a surveyor and merchant after the war, but he went deep into debt as a Kentucky land speculator. Frustrated with legal problems resulting from his land claims, in 1799 Boone resettled in Missouri, where he spent his final years.

Boone remains an iconicly, if imperfectly remembered, figure in American history. He was a legend in his own lifetime, especially after an account of his adventures was published in 1784, making him famous in America and Europe. After his death, he was frequently the subject of tall tales and works of fiction. His adventures—real and legendary—were influential in creating the archetypal Western hero of American folklore. In American popular culture, he is remembered as one of the foremost early frontiersmen, even though the mythology often overshadows the historical details of his life.^[3]

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Frédéric Bastiat – A French Founding Father

Claude Frédéric Bastiat was born in 1801, in France. As he grew he experienced many of the hardships that come with Wars and Governement Economic intervention. Being an exporter by trade, he was able to see their effects first hand. Coming of age during the Napoleonic wars, and then living through another of France’s revolutions, he was seasoned with understanding of what an oppressive and overwhelming government can do to the people. He wrote many works and shared many speaches, seaking for a freeing of the economy and the people, rather than forcing them to live under monarchical or socialistic forces. He could be declared to be the Thomas Jefferson of France, well read, well written and easy to understand. We could all learn a great deal by reading some of his great although brief works like The Law.

“Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of property. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice.” – from The Law

Stephen Palmer – The Torchbearer

A galant conservator of the principles of liberty, Stephen Palmer strives each day to share and live the principles that the founders fostered in our great land. Stephen has strived to help create an online community and bastion of freedom at causeofliberty.com. There he and other community members share and edify eachother in their mission for liberty. We honor Stephen for being a true pyro in his own life. Keep that flame Burning.