William Wirt (Attorney General)
William Wirt ( born November 8, 1772 in Bladensburg, Maryland, † February 18, 1834 in Washington, DC) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as Minister of Justice under the U.S. President James Monroe and John Quincy Adams.
Host was born in Maryland, the son of a Swiss father and a German mother. He was privately educated and studied law afterwards. In 1792 he was admitted as a lawyer in Virginia.
After several years as a lawyer, he was clerk in the House of Representatives from Virginia. In 1807 he was at the request of then-President Thomas Jefferson prosecutor in the treason trial of Aaron Burr. 1817 President Monroe appointed him as Minister of Justice in his cabinet. This office he held during the ensuing twelve years from to 1829. That is until today, the longest tenure of an American Minister of Justice. After his retirement from office, he retired to Baltimore.
In June 1830 he was asked by a delegation of the Cherokee Indians to defend their rights before the U.S. Supreme Court. He argued that the Cherokees not stood as a "foreign nation " under the jurisdiction of the State of Georgia. In this sense, he applied for the cancellation of all concerned, the Indian laws of the State of Georgia.
The Supreme Court agreed, although in this case did not have jurisdiction, but left open the possibility to decide in future cases in favor of the Indians. Therefore host waited just until such a case, it was. This happened in March 1831, when Georgia adopted a new law that further restricted the rights of the Indians. Again represented host the matter before the Supreme Court. This time, the Chief Justice John Marshall decided personally and explained that the laws of Georgia should not be applied to the Indians and the citizens of Georgia have no right to enter the Indian territory. This host had won a legal victory. In practice, the judgment should play a role but barely.
1832 joined host again in the spotlight of the public, by letting himself be set up in the presidential election in 1832 as the candidate of the Anti -Masonic Party ( Anti- Masonic Party ) for the highest state office; Previously, he was a member of the Democratic- Republican Party. The election ended with the re-election of the popular Andrew Jackson. Host, however, it became the first candidate of a third party, one state (Vermont ) to win for himself, which he received seven electoral votes in the Electoral College.
After this defeat, he retired from politics and worked until his death in 1834 as a lawyer.
In 1817 he published Life and Character of Patrick Henry, a highly acclaimed biography of Patrick Henry.