- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One
- I. 1790: Secretary Jefferson and the Foreign Affairs Power
- II. 1791: The National Bank and the Point of Interpretation
- III. 1793: The Supreme Court and the Metaphysics of Sovereignty
- IV. 1794: <i>Kamper v. Hawkins</i> and the Role of the Judiciary
- V. 1798 (1): Justice Paterson and the Missing Fundamental Principle
- Part Two
- VI. 1798 (2): How to Think about the Sedition Act
- VII. 1800: Marshall and the Role of the Political Branches
- VIII. 1802: How Not to Think about the Judiciary Repeal Act
- IX. 1804: <i>Turpin v. Locket</i> and the Place of Religion
- X. 1806: <i>Hudgins v. Wright</i> and the Place of Slavery
- XI. 1808–1809: A Forgotten Crossroads in Constitutional History
- Part Three
- XII. 1817: President Madison Vetoes His Own Bill
- XIII. 1818: The Congress Thinks about Internal Improvements
- XIV. 1821: The Attorney General and the Rule of Law
- XV. 1829: Writing <i>State v. Mann</i>
- Part Four
- XVI. 1859: The Supreme Court and the Metaphysics of Supremacy
- XVII. 1862: Four Attorneys General and the Meaning of Citizenship
- XVIII. 1873: <i>Slaughterhouse</i> Revisited
- XIX. 1904: Clay May, the Railroad, and Justice Holmes
- XX. 1927: Justice Brandeis and the Final End of the State
- XXI. 1944: Constitutional Injustice
- Part Five
- XXII. 2002: Common Ground after Two Centuries
- Conclusion
- Index
1821: The Attorney General and the Rule of Law
1821: The Attorney General and the Rule of Law
- Chapter:
- XIV. 1821: The Attorney General and the Rule of Law
- Source:
- A Community Built on Words
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
William Wirt was one of the greatest public lawyers of the early Republic. As a young Republican lawyer he was a member of the defense team representing the defendant in a notorious Sedition Act prosecution, United States v. Callender, and later sat at the opposite table as one of the prosecutors in United States v. Burr. In later years he served briefly as U.S. attorney in Virginia and then for almost twelve years (1817–1829) as attorney general of the United States, the longest period anyone has held that office. Wirt did as much to shape the position of attorney general as anyone before or since, and long enjoyed a reputation, as an early-twentieth-century court put it, as a “learned...great and able lawyer.” One of Wirt's central accomplishments was his regularization of the attorney general's role as the executive branch's chief interpreter of the law.
Keywords: rule of law, attorney general, William Wirt, Sedition Act, executive branch, interpreter of law
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One
- I. 1790: Secretary Jefferson and the Foreign Affairs Power
- II. 1791: The National Bank and the Point of Interpretation
- III. 1793: The Supreme Court and the Metaphysics of Sovereignty
- IV. 1794: <i>Kamper v. Hawkins</i> and the Role of the Judiciary
- V. 1798 (1): Justice Paterson and the Missing Fundamental Principle
- Part Two
- VI. 1798 (2): How to Think about the Sedition Act
- VII. 1800: Marshall and the Role of the Political Branches
- VIII. 1802: How Not to Think about the Judiciary Repeal Act
- IX. 1804: <i>Turpin v. Locket</i> and the Place of Religion
- X. 1806: <i>Hudgins v. Wright</i> and the Place of Slavery
- XI. 1808–1809: A Forgotten Crossroads in Constitutional History
- Part Three
- XII. 1817: President Madison Vetoes His Own Bill
- XIII. 1818: The Congress Thinks about Internal Improvements
- XIV. 1821: The Attorney General and the Rule of Law
- XV. 1829: Writing <i>State v. Mann</i>
- Part Four
- XVI. 1859: The Supreme Court and the Metaphysics of Supremacy
- XVII. 1862: Four Attorneys General and the Meaning of Citizenship
- XVIII. 1873: <i>Slaughterhouse</i> Revisited
- XIX. 1904: Clay May, the Railroad, and Justice Holmes
- XX. 1927: Justice Brandeis and the Final End of the State
- XXI. 1944: Constitutional Injustice
- Part Five
- XXII. 2002: Common Ground after Two Centuries
- Conclusion
- Index
