History Comes Alive: An Eloquence of Lawyers: Rhetoric, Liberty and Libel in Eighteenth Century Britain and America

Approximately half of those who attended the First Continental Congress in 1774 were lawyers, as were at least 25 of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. Yet, since 1750, many American lawyers had been sent to train in London's Inns of Court and to learn their trade by listening to arguments in Britain's highest and most ancient court, that of the King's Bench at Westminster Hall. It was considered vital to learn not just legal principles, but also the most effective form of rhetoric to publicly defend the rights of the people. The impact of legal and political rhetoric was widely respected in Britain and America, but so too was the physical performance and the ability to deploy powerful emotive arguments to persuade judges, juries and audiences. Thomas Erskine became the leading lawyer in King's Bench during the later eighteenth century. He was also an opposition MP and a Whig patriot lawyer like many in America. His emotive rhetoric won him significant trials for treason, freedom of the press and the right to trial by jury. Like Alexander Hamilton, Erskine's brilliance could also move a court to tears. Copies of Erskine's speeches were hugely popular amongst the Founding Fathers and bound copies can be found in the libraries of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington (who replied personally) and John Adams, who instructed his sons to read them. This lecture will highlight the transatlantic links between lawyers' rhetorical skills and their political beliefs. It also asks how and why emotion and physical expression proved so effective in American and British courtrooms during this period.