The Harvard Country Boys Who Shaped America

On this episode of Our American Stories, this is the story of how two country boys rose to the highest heights of Harvard Yard, yet their lives would have two dramatically different fates. Here to tell the story Andrew Porwancher. He is a professor at Arizona State University and is also a Jack Miller Center Fellow.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories amid the halls
of Harvard Law. A professor of legend, James Bradley Thayer
shaped generations of students from eighteen seventy four to nineteen
oh two. His devoted proteges include future Supreme Court justices Holmes, Brandeis,
and Hand, just to name a few. This is the

(00:32):
story of how two country boys rose to the highest
heights of Harvard Yard. Their lives would have two dramatically
different fates. Here to tell the story is Andrew poor Wantcher.
Andrew is a professor of legal history at Arizona State University.
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
There was little in the childhoods of James Bradley Thayer
and Chauncey Wright that suggested either of them was destined
for the rarefied quads of Harvard Yard. After all, in
their world, the world of anti Bellum New England, the
typical Harvard Man belonged to what became known as the

(01:14):
Boston Brahmin, the elite of society. The sons of the
Brahmin grew up in the fashionable neighborhood of Beacon Hill.
They attended posh private schools. They stood to inherit vast
family fortunes. By contrast, James and Chauncey were born into

(01:35):
modest circumstances in a small town in western Massachusetts rural countryside.
Against the odds, James would earn an endowed share at
Harvard Law, where he mentored future generations of Supreme Court justices.
Chauncey would also come to teach at Harvard, ranking among

(01:58):
the most innovative and influential philosophers of his generation. This
is the story of their improbable rise into the Brahmin stratosphere,
and in equal measure, this is the story of their
enduring friendship along the journey. James and Chauncey were adolescents

(02:21):
when they first met in the eighteen forties in Northampton, Massachusetts,
a village of some four thousand souls. Chauncey visited James's household,
often sometimes staying for all three meals in a day.
The two boys passed their days trekking across meadows and
peeking into empty factories, and their exploration was intellectual as well.

(02:44):
Between the ages of eleven and twenty two, they would
school together, read together, discuss together. When they were teenagers,
Northampton experienced a strong religious revival, James later remembered our
Chauncey remained relatively unaffected, showing early signs of his future

(03:05):
philosophical vocation. In James's words, Chauncey kept throughout an attitude
of amused observation, a state of mind which had in
it not merely the distrust or indifference of a Unitarian,
but the cool curiosity of a philosopher. Neither James nor

(03:27):
Chauncey anticipated in rolling at the nexus of the Brahmin universe,
Harvard University in Cambridge, mass James simply lacked the funds,
and Chauncey lacked the support of his father to attend
college at all. But a local town matriarch named missus

(03:48):
Am Lyman, who had a well earned reputation for helping
local youth, changed both of their lives forever. Missus Lyman
contributed toward James's tuition, outfitted his room with furniture, and
even sewed shirts for him to wear in his new
life as a Harvard Man. She was equally determined to

(04:11):
see Chauncey take up a spot alongside James at Harvard,
but there were obstacles for here to clear to that
end of course, she first had to persuade Chauncey's father
to let him attend college, and Chauncey presented complications all
his own. The admissions test, which emphasized classical languages, was

(04:32):
not exactly focused on the kinds of subjects that Chauncey
thrilled to. Missus Lyman preemptively took measures to ensure that
a low exam score would not preclude Chauncey's acceptance to Harvard.
When he and James appeared in Cambridge in the summer
of eighteen forty eight for the entrance exam, they found

(04:52):
that Missus Lymon had already arrived in Cambridge herself to
petition the Harvard president on Chauncey's behalf. She told j James,
I have seen the President and said all I could
for Chauncey, and I have no doubt he will get in.
Missus Lyman's confidence proved well founded, as Chauncey would indeed

(05:13):
join James at Harvard. Chauncey, more than James, could readily
be termed a genius, James once recalled with a mix
of admiration and envy. It grew more and more surprising
to us to see how little he read and how
much he knew. James was consistently the more productive, organized,

(05:36):
and diligent of the two. Chauncey preferred to be a
drift in thought. It turned out that assiduous work, more
than raw genius, translated to a life of distinction. James
ranked far higher than did Chauncey in their graduating class.
Then in their early adulthood, James steadily succeeded at legal

(05:56):
practice well. Chauncey proved irregular in his work, his sleep,
and his diet. James married a proper Brahmin daughter. Both
Chancey never married at all. Chauncey's recurring battles with depression
and alcoholism kept him from realizing his full potential. He

(06:17):
was still brilliant, writing influential essays about philosophy for taste
making publications. He even taught at Harvard, But in contrast
to James, who was graced with a named chair on
the faculty of Harvard Law, Chauncey was tasked merely with
the sporadic course on a temporary basis. James had reached

(06:39):
the center of the Brahmin circle, Chauncey only flirted with
its edges. It was in eighteen seventy five, when they
were in their forties, that James's journey permanently deviated from Chauncey's.
That summer, James retreated to his summer home on Mount
Desert Island off the coast of Maine. The island had

(07:01):
been the site of numerous trips over the years for
James and Chauncey. Under the summer skies, Chauncey would offer
his characteristically eccentric musings, which James and other friends jokingly
dubbed the Mount Desert Philosophy. With James rejuvenating yet again
in Mount Desert that summer, he looked forward to welcoming

(07:21):
back his old friend once more. James received a letter
from Chauncey in early September indicating quote, if I do
not get from you any discouragement, I propose to go
down by the banger boat on Tuesday next. James went
to greet the banger boat's arrival at Mount Desert on
the appointed day, but Chauncey was nowhere to be seen,

(07:45):
and so James awaited the subsequent vote from Bangor, and
again Chauncey wasn't on it. James soon discovered why he
recalled instead of welcoming my friend, I opened the Boston
Paper to read of his sudden death, and the date

(08:07):
of the paper was the day of his funeral. As
it turns out, Chauncey's landlord that discovered him unconscious, collapsed
over his desk, the victim of a stroke, likely induced
by his drinking habit. He died within a matter of hours.

(08:29):
James was, of course, deeply bereaved. They had forged a
friendship in boyhood that took them from the meadows of Burial, Massachusetts,
to the quads of Harvard Yard. For decades, they studied, conversed,
and explored together. Yet James managed to claim his stake
in a Brahmin world that Chauncey never inhabited quite as fully.

(08:54):
And now, at the age of forty five, Chauncey was
suddenly no more. As James poignantly mused when his death came,
it brought to me the sad reflection that I had
been for many years near a wisdom and a sweetness

(09:15):
which I had but imperfectly appreciated. It was my oldest
and most intimate friend that had gone.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Andrew Poorwancher and he is a Jack Miller Center Fellow.
This story is adapted from his book The Prophet of
Harvard Law. The Jack Miller Center is a nationwide network
of scholars and teachers dedicated to educating the next generation

(09:47):
about America's founding principles and history. To learn more, visit
Jackmillercenter dot org. The story of the Harvard's Country Boys.
Here on our American Stories