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 The Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. sorts of society, and living in a very reckless way generally. The old city of Williamsburg possessed many attractions; and as he had the means, as the saying then was, he " lived like a gentleman." At the age of thirty, realiz ing that his resources were about gone, he suddenly stopped this career, never to resume it. He married a Miss Lewis about

this time; and his in dustry, learning, and eloquence soon se cured him a prominent place at the bar. He was a man of great self-control, and used to warn young men, by referring them to his own idle career in early life. He was ad mitted to the bar in Williamsburg in 1756. A short time after ward Thomas Jeffer son began his studies at William and Mary College, and through the influence of Dr. Small was taken under the instruction of Mr. Wythe. Jefferson him self tells of the fine influence he had upon GEORGE his life. "Mr.Wythe," said he, " continued to be my faithful and beloved mentor in youth, and my most affectionate friend through life. In 1767 he led me into the practice of the law, at the bar of the General Court, at which I continued till the Revolu tion shut up the courts of Justice." While a member of the House of Bur gesses, Wythe early and warmly espoused the cause of the colony in her contention with the mother country; but he opposed as unreason able and inexpedient the famous resolutions of Patrick Henry concerning the Stamp Act in May, 1765. But Henry's fiery eloquence

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got the resolutions through by a majority of one vote. We are all too familiar with the splendid fight Virginia made in the thrilling scenes immediately preceding the Revolu tion and during that memorable period to recount them here. In that great struggle, says Massachusetts' impartial and eloquent historian George Bancroft,1 " Virginia rose with as much unanimity as Connecticut or Massachusetts, and with a more com manding resolution." In 1775 Wythe put on his hunting-shirt, joined the volunteers, shouldered a musket, and participated in the military parades in Williamsburg dur ing the latter part of Lord Dunmore's ad ministration. His good sense, however, soon made him real ize that he could be more useful to the State in a civic po sition; so he aban doned the army. He had great contempt for Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the colony. WYTHE. One day in the Gen eral Court over which Governor Dunmore presided, a case came up in which Wythe and Nicholas appeared on one side, and George Mason and Edmund Pendleton on the other. Mr. Pendleton. Wythe's great rival, when the case was called, asked for a continuance, on the ground of the absence of his associate George Mason. Lord Dunmore indelicately said to Mr. Pendle ton, " Go on, sir, for you will be a match for both of the counsel on the other side." "With your Lordship's assistance," retorted Wythe sarcastically, at the same time bowing 1 Hist. U. S., vol. viii. p. 375.