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 HANNIS TAYLOR AYLOR, HANNIS, son of a North Carolina merchant, educated in the best schools of his native state from his fourth to his seventeenth year, student of law all his life, outlining his great historical treatise when twenty-one years old, lawyer in Mobile, Alabama, twenty-two years, state solicitor of Baldwin county, United States minister plenipotentiary to Spain for four years, counsel for United States in Alaska boundary case tried at London, England, professor of constitutional and international law, Columbian university, special counsel for the government of the United States before the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission, diplomat, author and jurist; was born in Newbern, North Carolina, September 12, 1851. His father, Richard Nixon Taylor, son of William and Mary Taylor, was a merchant of systematic industry, and temperate in all things. His mother, Susan (Stevenson) Taylor was the daughter of James C. and Elizabeth Stevenson. His first paternal ancestor in America was William Taylor, who came from Paisley in Scotland about the date of the American revolution. His uncle, also William Taylor, was the inventor of submarine armor.

Hannis Taylor was a precocious but strong lad, having a special fondness for books and study. He began attending school when four years old, was a pupil at Newbern academy, Wilson's and Lovejoy's schools and the University of North Carolina, 1867-68, but did not graduate, leaving college to take up the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1870 and practised in Mobile, Alabama, 1870-92. He was state solicitor for Baldwin county, Alabama, his first public employment. In 1893 President Cleveland appointed him United States minister plenipotentiary to Spain and he served from May, 1893, to September, 1897. He also served as counsel for the United States in the Alaska Boundary case, tried at London during the fall of 1903. He occupied the time between September, 1897, and December, 1901, in completing his treatise on "International Public Law," characterized by the "Harvard Law Review" as "the best American work since Wheaton," and by the "Law Quarterly Review"