Theodore Dwight Woolsey

The Catholic Lawyer Volume 3 Number 4 Volume 3, Autumn 1957, Number 4 Article 14 Theodore Dwight Woolsey John V. Thornton Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/tcl Part of the Catholic Studies Commons This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Catholic Lawyer by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BOOK REVIEWS THEODORE DWIGHT WOOLSEY, by George A. King, S. J. Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1956. Pp. xiii, 305. $4.00. Reviewed by JOHN V. THORNTON* This book, authored by Rev. George A. in 1801, in the first year of the presidency King, S.J., has been aptly described by of Thomas Jefferson, Woolsey died in New Prof. Frank Freidel of Harvard as a "sym- Haven, Connecticut, in 1889 during the pathetic and systematic estimate of Wool- presidency of Benjamin Harrison. A great- sey's writings."' Father King's aim was not grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the famed to write an autobiography of Theodore New England divine and scholar, and a Dwight Woolsey. His work does not, and nephew of Timothy Dwight, a minister and does not purport to, tell very much of the president of Yale, Woolsey came into the personal life of the late, great president of world with a rich inheritance of the clerical Yale. We learn not primarily of Woolsey and academic, and he added mightily to that the man but rather of the ideas which were double heritage in the course of his almost expounded in his writings and interviews. ninety years on this earth. Nor did he in Thus it is that the 'Volume bears the expres- any sense neglect the family side of life. In sive subtitle, "His Political and Social 1833 he married Elizabeth Martha Salis- Ideas." We may perhaps hope that some bury, and their union was blessed with nine day Father King will tell us of Woolsey's children, including the noted Theodore Sal- private life. If the combination of scholarly isbury Woolsey, who won a substantial research and splendid writing ability which reputation in his own right in the field of were brought to bear on this study of Wool- international law. After the death of his sey's intellect were applied to an analysis of first wife, Woolsey married Sarah Sears Woolsey's heart and spirit, the result would Prichard in 1854 and had four children be a book to rival, if not exceed, the excel- by her. lence of the present one. Woolsey's more than half century of Woolsey lived one of those long, ener- teaching at Yale commenced in 1823 when getic, and productive lives which appear to he accepted a tutorship, while at the same have been characteristic of his century. His time continuing his studies for the Congre- life spanned an era of great change during gationalist ministry, to which he was later which this country grew from a recently ordained. 2 During his first fifteen or twenty emancipated agricultural colony into a vast 2 Woolsey was not formally ordained to the minis- industrial empire. Born in New York City try until he became president of Yale. Up until 1899, when the selection of President Arthur *Adjunct Associate Professor of Law, New York Twining Hadley broke the tradition, the presi- University School of Law, and Member of the dency of Yale was regarded as a pastoral office, New York Bar. and ordination in the Congregationalist ministry I Preface, p. ix. was a prerequisite to holding the position. 3 CATHOLIC LAWYER, AUTUMN 1957 years at Yale, Woolsey taught the classics an early and determined opponent of slav- and did his job so well that he emerged as ery, he favored gradual freedom for the a leading Greek scholar. Then, in 1846, negro, and insisted that the South should be Yale, at that time the largest college in persuaded by legal means as to the error of America with some 400 students, called its ways. Unlike extremists such as William him to its presidency. Upon accepting this Lloyd Garrison and John Brown, Woolsey position, Woolsey retired from the chair of wished to avoid mutual recrimination be- Greek literature and entered upon the teach- tween the factions so that intellect rather ing of history and political science, fields than emotion could resolve the problem. As in which comparatively little had previously it turned out, of course, the views of Wool- been done in American colleges. After sey and other moderates on both sides of 1853, he narrowed his concentration to the Mason-Dixon line did not prevail, and international law and became a recognized a bloody civil conflict, rather than intellec- authority in that field. He was not, inci- tual discourse, was the final arbiter of the dentally, a lawyer, although, many years slavery question. Perhaps there is a lesson before, he had read law for a year in the in all this for the nation today in dealing Philadelphia law office of a relative. with the problem of integration of the races Woolsey remained as president of Yale in the public schools and elsewhere. until 1871 when, upon reaching the biblical Woolsey's opinions on communism are age of three score and ten, he resigned. His also of considerable import in today's world. contributions to society by no means ended In analyzing the nature and forecasting the with retirement, however. He had never effects of the communist system, Woolsey been a mere academician, and, indeed, as proved both a shrewd observer and a capa- early as 1825, had been a co-founder of the ble prophet. Thus, only some thirty years Antislavery Association. Retirement by no after The Communist Manifesto was pub- means quenched the fires of his abundant lished, and long before communism had at- energy. After 1871 he continued as a mem- tained any political power in the world, ber of the Yale Corporation and as a lec- Woolsey declared: turer on international legal problems at the The communistic theories are built on the Yale Law School, and, until past the age of tyranny of society over its members. No eighty, served as chairman of the Board for authority in despotical states over their sub- the Revision of the New Testament, in addi- jects goes so far; no authority in states of the antique pattern could have crushed in- tion to engaging in numerous other activi- dividual rights to an equal degree. Liberty ties. Indeed, up to the year before his death, is destroyed, that equality of condition may he was active and quite hale and hearty. He take its place. Equality of rights is divorced, 4 died on July 1, 1889, still mentally alert and as far as it exists, from personal freedom. with complete faith in God, saying: "My In the sphere of relations between church work is done, and I am ready. God bless and state, Woolsey similarly had things to '3 you all and God bless dear old Yale." say which have value for the present genera- Woolsey's views in various fields are not tion. He believed that the state should pro- without significance for our time. It might tect religion, and even that the establishment be noted, for example, that, although he was of a state church was permissible, provided 3 P. 269. 4 P. 218. BOOK REVIEWS that the non-members of that church were dren are released from their classes for re- allowed the free exercise of their worship.A ligious instruction off the premises, are He was, furthermore, of the opinion that constitutionally unobjectionable.8 The Zor- bible reading and school prayers were ap- ach case is not mentioned in the book, propriate in the public schools. If minority which, in my judgment, makes this portion groups, such as Catholics, did not wish to of it somewhat misleading. have their children present at such readings This is a picayune flaw, however, in what and prayers (which Woolsey apparently otherwise impresses me as a top-notch piece assumed would be from a Protestant, or a of work. Father King is especially to be composite Protestant-Catholic, text), their commended for the crisp, easy-to-under- children could absent themselves during stand manner in which he writes.9 Woolsey's such exercises and their priests visit the own writing style was sometimes ponderous school at some other appropriate time to and obscure, but Father King's clear and impart religious instruction. Woolsey, then, incisive approach presents the essence of envisioned a kind of "released time" pro- Woolsey's thoughts in a most readable fash- gram although, under his scheme, religious ion. I particularly enjoyed his analysis of instruction would take place within the Woolsey as a proponent of the natural law. schoolhouse- a method which, in recent Although Woolsey abandoned the term years, has been held unconstitutional by the "natural law" and substituted the phrase Supreme Court in the McCollum case., I "doctrine of rights," he was, as Father King might point out, incidentally, in connection makes clear, an ardent believer in basic nat- with this mention of the McCollum case, ural law concepts. Thus, in his writings on that Father King's discussion of the legal international law, he expressed the view that aspects of the problem of religion and the the rights of man and the rights of states schools seems to be a little too abbreviated originated in God and that international law and thus somewhat inaccurate in its charac- could claim validity only in so far as it was terization of the impact of the decisions of a manifestation or particularization of the the United States Supreme Court.

Load more