william wirt
u.s. attorney general
biography
William Wirt was a lawyer, statesman, and author, born in Bladensburg, Maryland. He was admitted to the bar 1792, became assistant in prosecution of Aaron Burr 1807, was appointed U.S. district attorney for Virginia 1816. He was the U.S. attorney general (1817-29) under Presidents Monroe and John Quincy Adams the first to organize the work of that office and systematically preserve his official opinions. William Wirt was also the author of 'Letters of a British Spy' and 'Life of Patrick Henry'.
He recieved a grammar school education studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1792, and began practice in Culpeper County in Virginia, but soon resumed to private law practice. While acting as an assistant attorney in the prosecution of Aaron Burr for treason in 1807, Wirt displayed a learning and eloquence which established his reputation was one of the foremost lawyers.
In 1817, he was named attorney general of the United States by James Monroe and served until John Quincy Adams’ administration, appearing incases as McCuloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden, and the Dartmouth College case.
Wirt did much to systematize the operating methods of the department and was the first to preserve his opinions as precedents for the future.
William Wirt in 1832, was nominated by the Antimason party at a convention by a coterie of anti-Jackson politicians headed by Thurlow Weed and Thaddeus Stevens. Wirt, who was a former Mason, virtually repudiated the party’s principles in his acceptance statement, but no other candidate was available, after they had failed to get Justice John McLean to accept the candidacy. He would have withdrawn later if the National Republicans and Antimasons had been able to unite behind a single candidate to oppose Jackson. In the final results, William Wirt only received Vermont’s 7 electoral votes.
Wirt also attained considerable fame in his day as an author for his popular series, The Letters of the British Spy, which were principally sketches of public figures through the eyes of a British traveler. The Old Bachelor began coming out in 1810 appearing in 33 issues of the Richmond Inquirer.
