William Wirt (Attorney General) (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! William Wirt (November 8, 1772 - February 18, 1834) was an American author and statesman who is credited with turning the position of United States Attorney General into one of influence. Born in Bladensburg, Maryland, to a Swiss father and a German mother, Wirt was privately educated, studied law and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1792. He began practice at Culpeper Courthouse, Virginia. After several years as a lawyer, he became clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates, then chancellor of the Eastern District of Virginia. In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson asked him to be the prosecutor in Aaron Burr's treason trial. President James Monroe named him the ninth Attorney General of the United States in 1817, a position he held for 12 years, through the administration of John Quincy Adams, until 1829. William Wirt has the record for the longest tenure in history of any U.S. attorney general. After his retirement he resided in Baltimore.