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A Treatise on the Law of Executors and Administrators
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The Law of Bailments, Including Pledge, Innkeepers and Carriers
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James Schouler was an American lawyer and historian.
Background
James was born on March 20, 1839 in West Cambridge (now Arlington), Massachussets, United States. He was the son of William Schouler, a native of Kilbarchan, Scotland, who was brought to America in early life, and Frances Eliza Warren, who came of colonial Massachusetts stock. In Scotland the name is often spelled Scouler; this conforms to the pronunciation still used by the American family.
From Cincinnati, where the family were living at the time, James went to Harvard in 1855. His father's journalistic ventures were never financially successful, and while the son was at Harvard William Schouler returned to Boston in greatly straitened circumstances.
Education
Schouler stadied at Harvard, became editor of the Harvard Magazine, and won prizes in public speaking. He received his bachelor's degree in 1859.
Career
Schouler taught for a year in St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, then he began the study of law in the office of George D. Guild in Boston. At this time, also, he served as private secretary to his father, who had just been appointed adjutant-general of Massachusetts.
He was admitted to the bar in 1862, but soon responded to Lincoln's call for volunteers and was commissioned second lieutenant of the 43rd Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers. He went with his regiment to the coast of North Carolina, where he was detailed on signal service and saw little fighting.
On his return to Boston in 1863 he took up the practice of law. A few years later he won an important case in the Supreme Court of the United States involving war claims against the government (Hosmer vs. The United States); this was the beginning of a fairly lucrative practice, much of which was concerned with war claims.
In 1869 he opened a branch office in Washington, but as his deafness increased he turned more and more to legal writing. He had begun to contribute articles to the American Law Review (July 1867 - October 1869), and for a time (1871 - 73) he published in Washington a legal quarterly, The United States Jurist. Treatises on the laws of domestic relations (1870), personal property (2 vols. , 1873 - 76), bailments (1880), executors and administrators (1883), and wills (1887) established his reputation as a legal writer and brought him large royalties.
In 1891 he was invited by Herbert B. Adams to give a course of lectures on American history to graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University and this connection continued until 1908; he then retired.
Schouler had published an article, "Our Diplomacy during the Rebellion, " in the North American Review in April 1866, and about that time began to think of writing a history of the United States supplementing Bancroft. In 1873 he began serious work, but he was delayed in completing the first volumes by difficulties in finding a publisher. Five of the seven volumes of his History of the United States of America under the Constitution (covering altogether the period 1783-1877) appeared between 1880 and 1891, the sixth in 1899, and the seventh in 1913.
The latter's History of the People of the United States (8 vols. , 1883 - 1913) appeared almost contemporaneously. The two works were written from quite different points of view and from different sources. To a large extent they supplement each other.
His other historical writings of importance were: Thomas Jefferson (1893); Historical Briefs, with a Biography (1896); Constitutional Studies, State and Federal (1897); Alexander Hamilton (1901).
Schouler spent the remaining years of his life on his summer home at Intervale, New Hampshire.
Achievements
James Schouler was best known for his historical work History of the United States under the Constitution, 1789-1865. This was the first attempt to cover in a scholarly way the period from the Revolution to the Civil War, he also explored some sources that had not been used before. His others important works: Constitutional Studies, State and Federal (1897); Eighty Years of Union, Being a Short History of the United States, 1783-1865 (1903); Americans of 1776 (1906).
For more than twenty years he gave annual courses of lectures in the law schools of Boston University and the National University at Washington, that were remembered for his eccentric style.
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Views
Schouler preferred primarily political and constitutional interpretation, he did not neglect social and economic forces. He never mixed such topics as population, agriculture, industry, commerce, education, literature, and religion with political events. He recognized, though to a lesser extent than McMaster, the importance of economic matters, but attempted no economic interpretation of history.
Quotations:
Schouler says: "Original records and information are preferable to all others; but secondary sources of knowledge I have largely accepted as a laborsaving means, where I could bring my own accumulated knowledge and habits of verification to bear upon them, so as to judge fairly of their comparative worth".
Membership
Schouler was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1907.
Personality
Schouler was an industrious worker. Schouler was a man of striking appearance, cordial and kindly in manner, and not lacking in humor. He was always glad to confer with his students, although it was frequently necessary for them to write out the questions or topics on which they sought his advice.
A fever which Schouler contracted on his way home from the North Carolina expedition greatly aggravated a physical defect which had already developed to some extent and which was to influence profoundly the whole future course of his life, that of deafness.
Interests
Music was his main recreation and Schouler was a constant attendant at symphony concerts, using a mechanical device which enabled him to derive some pleasure from them.
Connections
On December 14, 1870, James Schouler married Emily Fuller Cochran of Boston; the union proved a happy one, although there were no children. She died in 1904.
