Severn teackle wallis biography of michael

Both inspired literary productions. He proved a prolific writer, leaving addresses, verses, and criticisms which, when collected for publication by admiring friends, filled four volumes Writings of Severn Teackle Wallis, Memorial Edition, He was a frequent contributor to the daily press, and his anonymous articles on current topics were often recognizable from their terseness, pungency, wit, and wealth of illustration.

His first appearance as a candidate was inwhen he was defeated for the legislature. In he made an unsuccessful bid for the office of state's attorney, but in refused the post of district attorney proffered him by President Buchanan. He joined in the reform movement of in Baltimore, writing an influential address, and the following year was a member of the committee which drew up a series of reform bills adopted by the legislature in ; one of these measures was an election law which made possible a reform government for Baltimore.

Inafter the struggle between the sections had brought open rupture, his sympathies were with the Confederacy, although he did not advocate secession. He was elected against his wishes a delegate to the special Assembly held at Frederick in Apriland as chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations of the House of Delegates, he expressed his views in several reports, arguing vigorously against the doctrine of military necessity.

This action made him obnoxious to the Washington government, and along with other prominent Marylanders he was arrested in September and suffered imprisonment for fourteen months. His letters to the press in the heated campaign ofwhen he supported the Reform ticket, are among the choicest of Maryland polemics. Subsequently, despite frail health, he participated actively in the campaigns of toin which his thoughtful eloquence was a powerful weapon.

From until his death he was president of the Maryland Historical Society. For almost half a century Wallis was regarded as the leader of the Maryland bar. He argued thousands of cases before the state courts and appeared before the United States Supreme Court in many important cases. Thomas Scharf; Philadelphia, Pa. Everts; Chapter 40, THe Bench and Bar.

Reply Quote. Newer Topic Older Topic. Print View RSS. Inhe visited Spain and in the U. Government sent him on a special mission to that country to examine the title to the public lands in their former colony of East Florida on the peninsulaas affected by royal Spanish Crown grants during the negotiations for the treaty ofwhich provided for the American annexation of Floridaand creation of the Territory of Florida.

While the high school moved to its first new building at the southwest corner of West Centre and North Howard Streets, dedicated Wallis maintained a frequent and constant interest in the premier local public school and in the public schools system as a whole. From untilWallis contributed largely to the editorial columns of the local newspaper, the Baltimore "Exchange"and wrote for other journals as well.

He was a Whig until the organization of the American or "Know-Nothing" partyafter which when it faded as a political and moral force, he was a Democrat. In AprilWallis was elected to the lower House of Delegates of Maryland in the General Assembly of Marylandand took an active part in the special proceedings of the Maryland Legislaturecalled into special session that Spring by Gov.

Thomas H. Hicksas the authority of the Governor of Maryland at Frederick instead of the state capital at Annapolis which was then occupied by Massachusetts and New York militia under the command of Gen. Benjamin F. Butlerdeciding on the issue of secession and the state's relationship to the pending crisis and the forming war policies of President Abraham Lincoln.

He was chairman of the committee on Federal relations, and made himself obnoxious to the Federal authorities by his reports, which were adopted by the Legislature, and which took strong ground against the possibilities of Civil Waras well as against the then prevailing "doctrine of military necessity". In September 12 of that year, four months after Butler's occupation of the state's major city, Wallis was arrested with many other members of the Maryland Legislature and other citizens of the city and state including the new police marshal George Proctor Kaneand newly elected reform mayor George William Brownand imprisoned for more than severn teackle wallis biography of michael months in Fort McHenryFort Lafayetteand Fort Warren for not citing a Union Oath before a succession vote.

He was finally released by Novemberwithout conditions and without being informed of the official cause of his arrest. He then returned to the private practice of the law in Baltimore. In Decemberas chairman of the art committee of private citizens appointed by the Maryland Legislature, he delivered the address upon the unveiling of sculptor William Henry Rinehart's statue of Maryland's own Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taneyof the United States Supreme Courteight years after his death, having served since and the similarly long tenure of Chief Justice John Marshall.

Severn teackle wallis biography of michael

Inthe U. He was a frequent contributor to the Baltimore Exchangethe publisher of several pamphlets on legal and literary subjects, and in was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries in Copenhagen, Denmark. Politically, he was a Whig and then a Democrat, but was always closely associated with the pro-Confederate Maryland elite. Inhe was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and was active in the special proceedings of the Maryland Legislature over the question of secession.