Emory Washburn
Emory Washburn | |
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22nd Governor of Massachusetts | |
In office January 12, 1854 – January 4, 1855 | |
Lieutenant | William C. Plunkett |
Preceded by | John H. Clifford |
Succeeded by | Henry J. Gardner |
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
In office 1826 1838 1877 | |
Member of the Massachusetts Senate | |
In office 1841 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Leicester, Massachusetts | February 14, 1800
Died | March 18, 1877 Cambridge, Massachusetts | (aged 77)
Political party | Whig |
Signature | ![]() |
Emory Washburn (February 14, 1800 – March 18, 1877) was an American lawyer, politician, and historian. He was Governor of Massachusetts for one term (from 1854 to 1855), and served for many years on the faculty of Harvard Law School. His history of the early years of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is considered a foundational work on the subject.
Born in
Washburn joined the faculty of Harvard Law in 1856, where he was a popular and influential figure until his retirement in 1876. His publications, in addition to his history of the SJC, include a history of his hometown of Leicester and numerous treatises on legal subjects.
Early life
Emory Washburn was born on February 14, 1800, in Leicester, Massachusetts, to Joseph and Ruth (Davis) Washburn, both of whom came from families with deep roots in New England.[1][2] He was the sixth of seven children. His father died when he was seven years old, and the local pastor, Zephaniah Swift Moore, became a major influence in his early years. He first attended Leicester Academy, and then entered Dartmouth College, where Moore taught languages, at the age of thirteen.[1][3] He accompanied Moore when the latter moved to Williams College in 1815, graduating two years later in a class of seven; he was influential in establishing an alumni association at Williams, serving as its first president.[3]
Our judgements [are] like our watches: none go just alike but each believes his own.
— Washburn notation made while a law student[3]
Washburn then embarked on the study of law, first with Charles Dewey, a Williamstown judge and lawyer, and then at Harvard Law School under Asahel Stearns. Although he did not graduate from Harvard, he was admitted to the bar and opened a practice in Charlemont, Massachusetts. After six months there he returned to his hometown of Leicester, where he practiced until 1828. In that year he moved to Worcester, where he would live and practice for the next thirty years.[3] In 1830 he married Marianne Cornelia Giles, with whom he had three sons and one daughter.[4]
Political career
Washburn was elected to the
In 1853 Washburn traveled to England to research
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/GovHenryJGardner.jpg)
One major event that took place during Washburn's tenure was
The 1854 campaign saw the rise of the secretive
Law professor
The following year he was offered a position as a lecturer at Harvard Law School, which became a full professorship in 1856. The seat had previously been occupied by Judge Edward G. Loring, who Harvard's Overseers refused to retain after he ruled that Burns be returned to slavery. For the next twenty years, Washburn served as one of three dominant figures (along with Theophilus Parsons and Joel Parker) in shaping the law school's practices and curriculum. Legal historian Charles Warren wrote of the three, "Parker was the great lawyer; Parsons the great teacher; and Washburn, the great man."[20] The three men established a collegial and open learning environment at the law school. Washburn produced a significant number of legal treatises and books during his Harvard tenure; his Treatise on the American Law of Real Property formed the basis for Harvard's courses and later textbooks on the subject for the next century. His interests in history and the law were comingled in these years, with a number of his publications covering aspects of both subjects.[21]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/The_rendition_of_Anthony_Burns_in_Boston.jpg/220px-The_rendition_of_Anthony_Burns_in_Boston.jpg)
In 1860 Washburn joined in public calls for the repeal of the state's personal liberty laws. These laws, which were designed to make enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as difficult as possible, were characterized by their opponents as an affront to the interests of slave owners, and as a source of heightened tension between north and south. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Washburn led calls for harmony in the law school, which had students from both northern and southern states.[22] He also served, despite his relatively advanced age, in a home guard militia unit, and supported the war effort by writing, giving speeches, and donating money.[23]
Washburn was a popular and dedicated teacher. Students would sometimes attend his lectures just to hear him speak, and he was always willing to help students with matters both academic and personal.[24] He also regularly assisted recent graduates as they made their way into the profession.[25]
In 1870 the Law School hired
Historian
Washburn had a long and abiding interest in local and state history. In 1826 he published a short history of Leicester in a Worcester magazine. This work formed the basis for his Historical Sketches of the Town of Leicester, Massachusetts, published in 1860.
Publications
- Washburn, Emory (1840). Sketches of Massachusetts Judicial History. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 255. OCLC 12348114.
- Washburn, Emory (1855). Brief Sketch of the History of Leicester Academy. Boston: Phillips, Sampson. OCLC 8999551.
- Washburn, Emory (1860). Historical Sketches of the Town of Leicester, Massachusetts. Boston: J. Wilson. OCLC 1727577.
- Washburn, Emory (1860–1862). A Treatise on the American Law of Real Property. Boston: Little, Brown. OCLC 426759176.
- Washburn, Emory (1863). A Treatise on the American Law of Easements and Servitudes. Philadelphia: George W. Childs. OCLC 3004970.
- Washburn, Emory (1876). Lectures on the Study and Practice of the Law (5th ed.). Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 9780837727295.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Warren, p. 202
- ^ Ammidown, p. 219
- ^ a b c d Spector, p. 119
- ^ a b Spector, p. 120
- ^ Spector, p. 122
- .
- ^ Spector, pp. 122–123
- ^ Warren, p. 203
- ^ Reno, p. 700
- ^ a b Spector, p. 124
- ^ Holt, pp. 786–787
- ^ Formisano, pp. 334–335
- ^ Holding, pp. 77–79
- ^ Von Frank, pp. 133–148
- ^ Von Frank, p. 239
- ^ Von Frank, pp. 288–291
- ^ Mulkern, p. 75
- ^ Gienapp, p. 136
- ^ Mulkern, p. 76
- ^ Spector, p. 125
- ^ Spector, pp. 126–128
- ^ Warren, pp. 262–265
- ^ Warren, p. 274
- ^ Warren, pp. 313–314
- ^ Warren, p. 315
- ^ Warren, pp. 362–401
- ^ Spector, p. 134
- ^ a b Spector, p. 121
- ^ Dunbar, B. (1987). Members and Officers of the American Antiquarian Society. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society.
- ^ Emory Washburn Papers
- ^ Reno, p. 701
- ^ Spector, p. 128
References
- Ammidown, Holmes (1874). Historical Collections, Volume II. New York: self-published. OCLC 4400736.
- Formisano, Ronald (1983). The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s–1840s. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 18429354.
- Gienapp, William (1988). The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 437173404.
- Holding, Rapha (2010). Governors of the United States: Powers and Limitations. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. OCLC 639862558.
- Holt, Michael (1999). The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 231788473.
- Mulkern, John (1990). The Know-Nothing Party in Massachusetts. Boston: Northeastern University Press. OCLC 20594513.
- Reno, Conrad (1901). Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar, Volume 3. Boston: Century Memorial Publishing. OCLC 426554681.
- Spector, Robert (April 1978). "Emory Washburn: Conservator of the New England Legal Heritage". The American Journal of Legal History. 22 (2): 118–136. JSTOR 844621.
- Von Frank, Albert (1998). The trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery in Emerson's Boston. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. OCLC 37721476.
- OCLC 2159714.