Hannis Taylor
TAYLOR, 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 Newbem 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 " of London, England, as "the fullest treatise in the language on its subject." He was appointed in 1904 by President Roosevelt as special counsel of the government of the United States before the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission. His life work, the preparation of his great treatise entitled "The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, in which is drawn out by the light of the most recent researches the gradual development of the English constitutional system, and the growth out of that system of the Federal Republic of the United States," was begun in 1872, the first volume was published in 1889 and the second volume, completing the work, in 1898. This work was formally adopted as a text-book by the senate of the University of Dublin and is used in the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh and as a text-book or book of reference by many of the leading American universities and law schools. The seventh edition of Volume I and the third edition of Volume II had already appeared in 1904, and "A Treatise on the Jurisdiction and Procedure of the Supreme Court of the United States " was published in 1905.
He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh and from the University of Dublin, in June, 1904, in person; and from the Universities of North Carolina, of Alabama, of Mississippi, Tulane university of Louisiana, Washington and Lee university, and the University of Virginia.
He was married May 8, 1878, to Leonora, daughter of William A. and Eliza Le Baron of Mobile, Alabama; and their five children were living in 1906. Doctor Taylor, taking his own experience as his authority, advises young men if they desire to succeed, to take some serious subject or undertaking and work it out through years of persistent effort.
Source: (14)