
![]() George Wythe was born into a wealthy Virginia planter family and became a lawyer and a representative in the Virginia colony's House of Burgesses. He was the first Virginian to sign the Declaration of Independence and served as a member of the Continental Congress. He participated in Virginia's Constitutional Convention as well as serving as a delegate to the federal Constitutional Convention in 1787. In addition to being a judge, he was on faculty at the College of William and Mary, where his students included both Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall. At the 1787 Convention, Wythe served as the chair of the Rules Committee. He left the Convention to care for his dying wife before signing the Constitution, but worked to ensure its ratification in Virginia. Increasingly uncomfortable with the institution of slavery, Wythe emancipated all of his slaves at the end of the Revolutionary War.
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AuthorAuthor of What Makes a Great President?, Close Encounters With Accountability Citizen-ship, Thy King Dumb Come, & Accountability Citi-zenship, Stephen P. Tryon is a businessman & technologist with extensive experience in e-commerce, a retired Soldier, and former Senate Fellow. Archives
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