page_title: Emory Washburn
section_title: Law professor
hierarchical_section_title: Emory Washburn / Law professor
caption_attribution_description: English: The rendition of Anthony Burns in Boston.
context_page_description: Emory Washburn was a United States lawyer, politician, and historian. He was Governor of Massachusetts for one term, and served for many years on the faculty of Harvard Law School. His history of the early years of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is still considered a foundational work on the subject.
  Born in Leicester, Massachusetts, Washburn attended Dartmouth and Williams before studying law. After establishing what grew to become a successful and distinguished law practice in Worcester, Washburn entered politics as a Whig. After serving several years in the state legislature, he was elected governor in 1853. Despite his support for a reform-minded agenda, he was swept out of office on the Know Nothing tide in 1854.
  Washburn joined the faculty of Harvard Law in 1856, where he was a popular and influential figure until his retirement in 1876. His publications, in addition to his history of the SJC, include a history of his hometown of Leicester and numerous treatises on legal subjects.
context_section_description: The following year he was offered a position as a lecturer at Harvard Law School, which became a full professorship in 1856.  The seat had previously been occupied by Judge Edward G. Loring, who Harvard's Overseers refused to retain after he ruled that Burns be returned to slavery.  For the next twenty years, Washburn served as one of three dominant figures (along with Theophilus Parsons and Joel Parker) in shaping the law school's practices and curriculum. Legal historian Charles Warren wrote of the three, "Parker was the great lawyer; Parsons the great teacher; and Washburn, the great man."  The three men established a collegial and open learning environment at the law school.  Washburn produced a significant number of legal treatises and books during his Harvard tenure; his Treatise on the American Law of Real Property formed the basis for Harvard's courses and later textbooks on the subject for the next century.  His interests in history and the law were comingled in these years, with a number of his publications covering aspects of both subjects.
  In 1860 Washburn joined in public calls for the repeal of the state's personal liberty laws.  These laws, which were designed to make enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as difficult as possible, were characterized by their opponents as an affront to the interests of slave owners, and as a source of heightened tension between north and south.  When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Washburn led calls for harmony in the law school, which had students from both northern and southern states.  He also served, despite his relatively advanced age, in a home guard militia unit, and supported the war effort by writing, giving speeches, and donating money.
  Washburn was a popular and dedicated teacher.  Students would sometimes attend his lectures just to hear him speak, and he was always willing to help students with matters both academic and personal.  He also regularly assisted recent graduates as they made their way into the profession.
  In 1870 the Law School hired Christopher Langdell to be its first dean.  Langdell began to institute significant changes in the school, which Washburn for the most part went along with.  He finally resigned his professorship in 1876, and opened a law practice in Cambridge.  He was encouraged to run for United States Congress, but refused.  He was instead convinced to stand once again for the Massachusetts House, to which he was elected.  He died in office on March 18, 1877 in Cambridge, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.
caption: An 1895 depiction of the 1854 protests surrounding the arrest and trial of Anthony Burns
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