by David Barton
Christopher Columbus Langdell (1826-1906; Connecticut) Attorney, jurist, educator; taught school (1844); entered Harvard Law School (1851); began his law practise in New York City (1854); became the Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (1870-95); although he continued to instruct until 1900, he finally gave it up because of poor eyesight; married with no children; originator of the case-law method of study which resulted from his applying Darwin’s thesis of evolution to law; under the case-law method of study, law students take the decisions of judges as the standard of law rather than the literal wording of the Constitution.
John Langdon (1741-1819; New Hampshire) Public official; attended a local grammar school, served an apprenticeship as a clerk, went to sea, and undertook his own commercial ventures; an active supporter of the Revolutionary movement in various patriot assemblies; member of the Continental Congress (1775-76, 1787); member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives (1801-05) and its speaker his last two terms; member of the New Hampshire Senate (1784); delegate to the Constitution Convention where he signed the federal Constitution (1787); U. S. Senator (1789-1801) and helped frame the Bill of Rights; Governor of New Hampshire (1805-08, 1810-11); declined the nomination as vice-president (1812); vice-president of the American Bible Society (1816-19).
Henry Laurens (1724-1792; South Carolina) Merchant, soldier, public official, diplomat; received his business education in England (1744-47); returned to America and began mercantile pursuits (1747); Lieutenant-Colonel in a campaign against the Cherokees in the French-Indian War (1757-61); member of the House of Assembly (1757-74); lived in Europe (1771-74); member of the American Philosophical Society (1772-92); member of the Continental Congress (1775-76, 1777-80); vice-president of South Carolina (1776-77); was appointed Minister to Holland (1780) but was captured en route to his post and held prisoner in the Tower of London for fifteen months until finally released in exchange for Lord Cornwallis (1781); was one of the commissioners who arranged the peace with Great Britain and was a signer of the preliminary Treaty of Paris (1782); returned to America (1784); essentially retired, turning down positions in the Continental Congress, the State congress, and as a delegate to the federal Constitutional Convention.
Richard Law (1733-1806; Connecticut) Attorney, jurist, public official; graduated from Yale (1751); studied law under Jared Ingersoll and was admitted to the bar (1754); judge of the county court (1784); member of the General Assembly (1765); member of the State Council of Safety (1776-86); delegate to the Continental Congress (1777, 1781-82); along with Roger Sherman, he revised and codified the statute laws of Connecticut; member of the State Supreme Court (1784-86) and its Chief Justice (1786); appointed U. S. district judge for Connecticut by President Washington (1789); mayor of New London (1784-1806).
Charles Lee (1731-1782; England, Virginia) Soldier; served during the French and Indian War and was part of Braddock’s defeat in Pennsylvania (1755); adopted into the Mohawk tribe and married the daughter of a Seneca chief; wounded in Battle of Ticonderoga (1758); present at the capture of Ft. Niagara and Montreal (1760); appointed Major and fought in Portugal (1761); served in Poland and Constantinople (1763-65); granted 20,000 acres in Florida (1766); fought with Russia against Turkey (1769-1770); moved to Virginia (1775); when the conflict broke out between America and Great Britain, he renounced Britain and was given a Major-General position in the Continental Army (1775); supervised fighting in South Carolina and Georgia (1776); became extremely haughty and sharply criticized General Washington; the next day, he was captured in a humiliating manner by the British (1776); held prisoner by the British for a year; unknown to the Americans, he helped draw up a British plan for the defeat of the Americans; released in a prisoner exchange (1778); resumed command of a portion of the army but during the Battle of Monmouth demonstrated gross cowardice and was court-martialed (1778); because of his insulting remarks to Washington, several of Washington’s friends challenged Lee to duels (e.g., John Laurens, Anthony Wayne) in which he was wounded (1778); retired to Virginia and then moved to Philadelphia, where he died.
Henry Lee (1756-1818; Virginia) Soldier, public official; graduated from Princeton (1773); served in the Revolutionary War as Captain of a company of the Virginia Dragoons (1776); became part of the First Continental Dragoons (1777); Lieutenant-Colonel (1780-83) and was known as “Light Horse Harry”; member of the Continental Congress (1786-88); delegate to the State convention to ratify the federal Constitution (1788); Governor of Virginia (1792-95); commanded the U. S. forces in the Whiskey Rebellion (1794); Major-General (1798-1800); pronounced the eulogy on George Washington as the man “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen” (1800); injured in the Baltimore riots (1812) and his health never fully recovered.
Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794; Virginia) Public official; educated in England and then returned to America (1751); member of the House of Burgesses (1758-75); member of the Continental Congress (1774-79, 1784-85) where he made the resolution which led to the Declaration of Independence, proposing that “these States are of a right and ought to be free and independent States,” signed the Declaration of Independence (1776), and served as President of Congress (1784); member of the State House of Delegates (1777, 1780, 1785); authored the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation issued by Congress (1777); member of the State ratification convention for the federal Constitution (1788); U. S. Senator (1789-92), where he helped frame the Bill of Rights.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865; Illinois) Attorney, soldier, public official; born in Kentucky; attended a log cabin school and was self-educated in early years; served in the Black Hawk Indian War (1832); unsuccessfully ran for Illinois House of Representatives (1832); Post-Master of New Salem (1833-36); Deputy County Surveyor (1834-36); admitted to the bar (1836); member of the State House of Representatives (1834-41); member of the U. S. House of Representatives (1847-49); declined the Governorship of the Oregon Territory; unsuccessfully ran for U. S. Senate (1855, 1858); elected as the sixteenth U. S. President, and then elected to a second term which was cut short by his assassination (1860-65).
Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810; Massachusetts) Farmer, soldier, public official, jurist; member of the militia during the French and Indian War (1755); town clerk in Hingham, Massachusetts (1757); justice-of-the-peace (1762); member of the State legislature (1772-73); member of the Provincial State Congress (1774-75); Brigadier-General (1775); Major-General (1776); instrumental in the defeat of General John Burgoyne at the battle of Saratoga (1777); appointed Secretary of War by the Continental Congress (1781); was handed General Cornwallis’ sword at the surrender at the Battle of Yorktown (1781); took part in suppressing Shays’ Rebellion (1787); a federal commissioner appointed to form a treaty with the Creek Indians (1789); negotiated with the Indians north of the Ohio (1793); member of the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others (1794-1810).
Phillip Livingston (1716-1778; New York) Merchant, public official; graduated from Yale (1737); engaged in the mercantile business in New York City; member of the board of aldermen (1754-62); member of the Provincial House of Representatives (1763-69) and its Speaker (1768); delegate to the Stamp Act Congress (1765); member of the State Committee of Correspondence; member of the Continental Congress (1774-78) where he signed the Declaration of Independence (1776); president of the New York Provincial Convention (1775); member of the State Assembly (1776); member of the State Senate (1777); prominent in commercial and educational societies; died while attending the sixth session of the Continental Congress.
William Livingston (1723-1790; New Jersey) Attorney, public official, soldier; graduated from Yale (1741); admitted to the bar (1748); commissioner to settle boundary dispute with Massachusetts (1754); member of the New Jersey Provincial Assembly (1759-60); commissioner to settle boundary dispute with New York (1764); member of the Continental Congress (1774-76); Brigadier-General in the New Jersey militia (1775-76); Governor of New Jersey (1776-90); delegate to th
e Constitutional Convention where he signed the federal Constitution (1787); brother of signer of the Declaration Philip Livingston and cousin of Robert R. Livingston, who was on the committee which drafted the Declaration of Independence.
John Locke (1632-1704; England) Political philosopher, theologian, educator, diplomat; son of English gentry; entered Christ Church College of Oxford University (1652); received his bachelor’s degree (1656) and his master’s degree (1658); lectured at the College on Greek, rhetoric, and philosophy (1660); accepted a brief diplomatic mission to Madrid (1665); left London for France for health reasons (1675); went to Holland in 1683 and returned to England in 1688; his major works include A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), Two Treatises of Government (1690), An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1693), Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), and The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695).
John Lowell (1743-1802; Massachusetts) Attorney, soldier, public official, jurist; graduated from Harvard (1760); admitted to the bar (1762); officer in the militia (1776); member of the State House of Representatives (1778, 1780-82); delegate to the State constitutional convention (1780); founder of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780); member of the Continental Congress (1782-83); member of the State Senate (1784-85); judge of the Court of Appeals (1784-89); U. S. federal judge (1789-1802).
Rev. Martin Luther (1483-1546; Germany) Clergyman, son of a miner; largely responsible the Protestant Reformation in Germany; received a master’s degree from the University of Erfurt (1504); entered the monastery of the Augustinian order at Erfurt and was ordained a priest (1507); appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wittenberg (1508); became one of the most popular professors and many of his students supported him during his struggles with the officials of the Roman Catholic Church; when Luther denied the supreme power of the Pope, the Pope excommunicated him, but Luther burned that papal bull; as a protest against the work of Johann Tetzel, a Dominican monk whose teachings Luther thought harmed the church, Luther nailed his protest of those teachings to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg (1517); those points of contention are now known as Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses; although Luther had not intended to revolt against the Roman Catholic Church, his actions furthered the Protestant Reformation; he was ordered by the Pope to retract his beliefs and teachings (1521); Luther responded, “Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear arguments … my conscience is bound in the Word of God: I cannot and will not recant anything”; Luther was seized and carried to the Castle of Wartburg and was held as prisoner for 10 months (1521-22); contributed to German literature with his translation of the Bible (1521-22) in March 1522, Luther returned to Wittenberg to begin the work of organizing the new reformed church; from that point on, the story of his life is the story of the Reformation. (In the beginning, Luther had intended only to reform the Church of Rome but found instead that a new reorganized church was preferable. The Reformation was actually a spiritual revolution aimed at limiting and reducing ecclesiastical power over all phases of life, especially government. Its thrust was to replace centralized spiritual power with more popular control and self-government. Luther began by opposing corruptions in the church but moved toward pointing individuals to Christ and salvation through Him rather than through works; as he helped develop the image that God was not just a God of wrath but also a God of love and forgiveness.)
George Madison (1763-1816; Kentucky) Soldier and public official; became a soldier in the Revolution (1780); Major in the Kentucky volunteers; long history of military service, including several battles against the Indians (wounded in one such fight in 1792) and several battles in the War of 1812, including that of Frenchtown (1813) where he was taken prisoner and held until 1814; he was also auditor of public accounts in Kentucky for at least twenty years and was elected Governor of Kentucky, but died a few weeks before he entered office (1816); vice-president of the American Bible Society.
James Madison (1751-1836; Virginia) Public official; graduated from Princeton (1771); member of the Committee of Safety (1774); delegate to the State constitutional convention (1776); member of the State legislature (1776); member of the Governor’s Council (1778-79); member of the Continental Congress (1779-83); member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1784-86); delegate to the Constitutional Convention where he signed the federal Constitution (1787); along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, he co-authored the Federalist Papers which were instrumental in securing the ratification of the Constitution (1788); member of the U. S. House of Representatives (1789-97) where he helped frame the Bill of Rights; member of the Virginia Assembly (1799); Secretary of State under President Thomas Jefferson (1801-09); served two terms as the President of the United States (1809-17); after his Presidency, retired to his estate, “Montpelier”; served as a delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention (1829).
William Marbury (1762-1835; Maryland) Was appointed as a Federalist justice-of-the-peace in the District of Columbia in the waning days of the Federalist administration of President John Adams; when incoming Anti-Federalist President Thomas Jefferson refused to honor the appointment, Marbury sued Jefferson’s Secretary of State, James Madison, to receive his appointment; that suit led to the infamous 1803 Marbury v. Madison case which today’s legal and judicial activists claim validated the principle of judicial review.
John Marshall (1755-1835; Virginia) Soldier, attorney, public official, diplomat, jurist; informally educated at home by his parents; became an officer in the Minutemen; fought in the Battles of Great Bridge (1775), Brandywine (1777), Germantown (1777), and Monmouth (1778); studied law at William & Mary College and admitted to the bar (1780); delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates (1780); member of the Executive Council (1782-95); member of the House of Burgesses (1782-88); delegate to the State ratification convention for the federal Constitution (1788); Commissioner to France (1797-98); declined appointment from President John Adams as Associate-Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court (1798); member of the U. S. Congress (1799-1800); declined the post of Secretary of War but accepted the appointment as Secretary of State under President John Adams (1800); appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court as Chief Justice by President John Adams (1801-35); due to his unorthodox ruling in Marbury v. Madison in 1803, he is credited with being the principal founder of judicial review; delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention (1829); vice-president of the American Bible Society; officer in the American Sunday School Union.
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993; Maryland) Attorney, and jurist; graduated from Lincoln University (1930); studied Law at Howard University (1933); worked for the NAACP as director of its Legal Defense and Educational Fund; in charge of a number of cases argued before the Supreme Court challenging racism and racial oppression (Smith v. Allwright, 1944; Shelly v. Kraemer, 1948; Brown v. Board of Education, 1954); nominated to be circuit judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President John Kennedy (1961); appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson, becoming the first African American to serve on the Court (1967-92); considered a liberal, and his opinions included affirming the rights of individuals to have obscene materials in their home, upholding affirmative action, and strongly opposing the constitutionality of the death penalty.
Luther Martin (1744-1826; Maryland) Attorney, educator, public official, jurist; graduated from Princeton (1766); taught school in Queenstown, Maryland (1766-71); admitted to the bar (1771); delegate to the Annapolis Convention (1774); Attorney-General of Maryland (1778-1805, 1818-20); declined appointment to the Continental Congress (1784); was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention but refused to sign the federal Constitution because it failed to end slavery and inadequately protected States’ Rights (1787); counsel in the impeachment trial of Justice Samuel Chase (1805) and in the Aaron Burr treason trial (1807); Chief Justice of the Court of Oyer and Terminer in Baltimore (1814-16); was an alcoholic, which led to a stroke (1820) after which he resigned
from the bench (1822).
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876; England) Educated under the supervision of her uncle; became deaf when very young and her interest turned to literary composition; travelled extensively in the United States (1834-36) and later recorded her impressions in a book entitled Society in America; her writings are numerous and diverse, including books on travel, history, politics, philosophy, as well as children’s books.
George Mason (1725-1792; Virginia) Public official; educated by private tutors and his own independent study; became member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1759); drafted Virginia’s first constitution which contained the famous Declaration of Rights from which Thomas Jefferson drew for the Declaration of Independence; member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1776-88); delegate to the Constitutional Convention but refused to sign the federal Constitution because it neither abolished slavery nor adequately protected States’ rights (1787); returned to Virginia and led the opposition in the Virginia ratification convention largely responsible for the addition of the federal Bill of Rights (the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution); declined position as one of Virginia’s first two U. S. Senators in order to retire to private life; titled “The Father of the Bill of Rights.”
