Joseph Story.—With Chancellor Kent, Joseph Story (1779–1845) shares the glory of having laid the foundations of American equity jurisprudence. Story graduated from Harvard in 1798 and was admitted to the bar in 1801. Becoming a leader of what was later the Democratic party, in 1808 he entered Congress and in 1811 was appointed an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. From 1829 on he was also a professor of law at Harvard. For some time after Marshall’s death he was acting Chief-Justice. Many of his opinions in patent and admiralty law are still authoritative. Some of his writings are “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States” (1833), “The Conflict of Laws” (1834), “Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence” (1835–1836), and treatises on agency, partnership, bills, and notes.
Henry Wheaton.—Less known than Story, yet in his day a prominent figure in the legal world, was Henry Wheaton (1785–1848), of Providence, Rhode Island, a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1802. He was a lawyer, an editor, and a diplomatist (from 1837 till 1846 Minister Plenipotentiary to Prussia). His “Elements of International Law” (1836, republished in several editions, and translated into French, Chinese, and Japanese) remains one of the leading authorities. Another important work was his “Histoire du progrès des gens en Europe depuis le paix de Westphalie jusqu’au Congrès de Vienne” (1841, English translation 1846). He was widely respected for sound learning and diplomatic ability.
Francis Lieber.—Francis Lieber (1800–1872), a native of Berlin and a Ph.D. of the University of Jena (1820), came to America virtually a political exile, and, though an ardent worshipper of freedom, was at first, as Dr. Harley remarks, obliged to make his home in the very heart of the slave power. For twenty-one years he was professor of history and political economy in South Carolina College, being “the first great teacher in this country of history and politics as co-ordinated subjects.” From 1856 till 1860 he held the chair of political economy in Columbia College; and from 1860 till his death he was professor of political science in the Columbia Law School. The great works on which his fame rests are his “Political Ethics” (1838), “Legal and Political Hermeneutics” (1839), and “Civil Liberty and Self-Government” (1853). In writing these books he was a pioneer, and pointed out some important principles of American liberty. In his later years he gave much attention to international and military law. From his proposals originated the Institut de Droit International, started at Ghent in 1873, “the organ for the legal consciousness of the civilised world.”
William Beach Lawrence.—Another writer whose name is linked with Columbia College is William B. Lawrence (1800–1881). Born in New York City, he graduated from Columbia in 1818, was admitted to the bar in 1823, and gave attention chiefly to international law. For a time he lectured at Columbia on political economy, defending free trade. Removing to Rhode Island, he served as acting Governor in 1852. In 1872–1873 he lectured on international law in the Columbian University at Washington. His works are marked by breadth of view and soundness of judgment. They include “The Bank of the United States” (1831), “Institutions of the United States” (1832), “Discourses on Political Economy” (1834), “The Law of Charitable Uses” (1845), “Commentaire sur les éléments du droit international” (1868–1880), and “The Treaty of Washington” (1871).
Theodore Dwight Woolsey.—Theodore D. Woolsey (1801–1889) had a varied preparation for his notable career. Graduating at Yale in 1820, he studied law in Philadelphia, theology at Princeton, and Greek at Leipsic, Bonn, and Berlin. From 1831 till 1846 he was professor of Greek at Yale. Becoming president of Yale in 1846, he thenceforward confined his teaching to history, political science, and international law, and became eminent as a writer on subjects in these fields. Among his works are “An Introduction to the Study of International Law” (1860), “Essays on Divorce and Divorce Legislation” (1869), “Political Science” (two volumes, 1877), and “Communism and Socialism, in Their History and Theory” (1880).
Henry Wager Halleck.—Chiefly known as a soldier, and as general of the armies of the United States from July, 1862, till March, 1864, Henry W. Halleck (1815–1872) was after all more skilled in the science of war than in its practice in the field. He studied at Union College and West Point, from which he graduated in 1839. Before the Lowell Institute in 1845 he lectured on the science of war; his lectures, published as “Elements of Military Art and Science,” were much used later as a training manual. The chief of his other works, “International Law, or Rules Regulating the Intercourse of States in Peace and War” (1861), abridged in 1866 for college use, still ranks among the highest authorities.
Henry Charles Carey.—In his day the foremost champion of governmental protection to private industry was Henry C. Carey (1793–1879). The eldest son of Matthew Carey, the Philadelphia publisher, he devoted his early years to carrying on the bookselling and publishing business, retiring in 1835. His essay on “The Rate of Wages” (1835) was soon expanded into “The Principles of Political Economy” (1837–1840), which found favour abroad and was translated into Swedish and Italian. His other leading works were “The Credit System of France, Great Britain, and the United States” (1838), “The Past, the Present, and the Future” (1848), “Letters on the International Copyright” (1853), “The Principles of Social Science” (1858), and “The Unity of Law” (1873). Carey was originally a free-trader, but early became a supporter of protection on the ground of temporary expediency. Some of his views have been attacked as unwarranted and dogmatically expressed; it must be conceded, however, that he had a strong grasp of facts and that his works are an invaluable contribution to economic and social science.
David Ames Wells.—For many years, it is safe to say, the leading economist in America was David A. Wells (1828–1898). He was descended from Thomas Welles, Governor of Connecticut in 1655–1658, was born at Springfield, Massachusetts, and was graduated from Williams College in 1847 and from the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard in 1852. For some years he taught physics and chemistry, and was engaged also in writing school text-books on these subjects. An essay (“Our Burden and Strength”) on the resources and financial ability of the United States (1864) brought Wells into prominence, while it did much to restore confidence in the Federal Government. President Lincoln summoned Mr. Wells to Washington, and appointed him chairman of the Revenue Commission of 1865–1866. As special commissioner of the revenue (1866–1870) he completed vast reforms in the complex system of revenue which had grown up during the war. Thereafter he was largely engaged in writing and speaking on economic topics. Among his books are “Robinson Crusoe’s Money,” illustrated by Nast (1876), “Our Merchant Marine: How It Rose, Increased, Became Great, Declined, and Decayed” (1882), “Practical Economics” (1885), “A Study of Mexico” (1887), “The Relation of the Tariff to Wages” (1888), and “Recent Economic Changes” (1898).
Francis Amasa Walker.—Born in Boston, Francis A. Walker (1840–1897) graduated from Amherst at twenty, then served in the Union Army, becoming a brigadier-general. In 1869 he was put at the head of the Bureau of Statistics; he was superintendent of the Ninth and the Tenth Census, and held other prominent positions, including (1873–1881) the professorship of political economy and history at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale and (1881–1897) the presidency of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a prolific writer; of his economic works we can mention only “The Indian Question” (1874), “The Wages Question” (1876), “Money” (1878), “Money in its Relations to Trade and Industry” (Lowell Institute lectures, 1879), “Political Economy” (1883), “Land and its Rent” (1883), and “International Bimetallism” (1896). Walker’s influence as an economist was felt especially in connection with the theory of wages. “The central idea of his theory,” says Dr. Sherwood, “that the amount of wages under free competition tends to equal the product due to the labour, has been generally accepted, although not altogether as the direct result of his writing.”
Henry George.—The theories of Henry George (1839–1896) have been widely discussed. They were first put forth in “Our Land and Land Policy” (1871), in which he held that the burden of taxation should be borne by the land and not by industry, and that thus opportunities for progress would be equalised. His most important book was “Progress and Poverty” (1879), which in a few years made George virtually the apostle of a new economic and social creed. Conservative economists have been slow to accept his single-tax theory; it has, however, called attention to the enormous waste and wrong that result from granting public franchises to private corporations without due compensation. His theory of wages, that they arise from a value created by the efficiency of the labourer, has been generally accepted and may be regarded as a real contribution to economic science.