Charles Warren (March 9, 1868 – August 16, 1954) was an American lawyer and legal scholar who won a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for his book ''The Supreme Court in United States History'' (1922).

Early life

Warren was born in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, a great-great-grandson of

Mercy Otis Warren Mercy Otis Warren (September 25, 1728 – October 19, 1814) was an American activist poet, playwright, and pamphleteer during the American Revolution. During the years before the Revolution, she had published poems and plays that attacked royal ...

and the son of lawyer Winslow Warren (collector of the Port of Boston) and Mary Lincoln Tinkham. The family moved to

Dedham, Massachusetts Dedham ( ) is a New England town, town in, and the county seat of, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on Boston's southwestern border, the population was 25,364 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. First settled by E ...

, when Charles was three, where his biographer notes the family "remained active and loyal Democrats in a bastion of Republicanism." Warren was descended from three Mayflower passengers. Following family tradition, he attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, receiving an A.B. in 1889 and an A.M from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1892. Much later, in 1933, Warren would receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

Career

Warren began practicing law in Boston in Moorfield Storey's firm, but left after less than a year to accept a job as the private secretary to Massachusetts governor William Eustis Russell. Warren was an active member of the Young Men's Democratic Club, but lost both his attempts to gain elective office (as state senator in 1894 and 1895). On May 31, 1894, Warren founded the

Immigration Restriction League The Immigration Restriction League was an American nativist and anti-immigration organization founded by Charles Warren, Robert DeCourcy Ward, and Prescott F. Hall in 1894. According to Erika Lee, in 1894 the old stock Yankee upper-class f ...

with his fellow Harvard graduates Prescott F. Hall and Robert DeCourcy Ward. The organization advocated excluding new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe because of their allegedly inferior "racial qualities" compared to Anglo-Saxons. Warren supported this cause by publishing short stories in national magazines including 'Scribner's,' 'McClure's,' and the 'Atlantic.' He also opposed women's suffrage, bimetallism, protectionism and imperialism. The organization spread to other American cities, and lasted approximately two decades, disbanding after Hall's 1921 death. Warren joined Russell's law firm as an associate when the governor's term ended in 1894, and later formed Warren & Perry, where he practised law from 1897 to 1914. He handled various types of cases: criminal, real estate, domestic relations and corporate. His most famous case defended

James Michael Curley James Michael Curley (November 20, 1874 – November 12, 1958) was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served four terms as mayor of Boston between 1914 and 1955. Curley ran for mayor in every election for which he ...

, who was convicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States for taking the civil service examination for a constituent. In 1905, Warren became chair of the Massachusetts State Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1911, when a candidate backed by Martin Lomasney, one of the powerful machine politicians against which the patrician progressive worked, won. Warren then concentrated on his law practice and writing career, as well as became involved in national progressive politics. In addition to law review articles, Warren published two encyclopedic books which became the starting point for American legal historians for decades: ''History of the Harvard Law School and of Early Legal Conditions in America'' (3 Vol. 1909) and ''A History of the American Bar.'' Warren served on the executive committee of the Massachusetts

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

League in 1912. The successful presidential candidate appointed Warren Assistant

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

, and he served from June 1914 to April 1918. The looming World War caused Warren to become involved in internal security and international relations matters including drafting the

Espionage Act of 1917 The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code ( ...

. Warren also drafted legal briefs and argued before the United States Supreme Court approximately 30 times. After the war (and Wilson's death), Warren remained in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and received several appointments as special master from the Supreme Court for disputes involving state boundaries and water rights. The State Department also consulted Warren concerning neutrality matters in the 1930s. Publication of his three-volume ''History of the United States Supreme Court'' in 1922 cemented Warren's reputation as a legal scholar, and it won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1923. Warren disagreed with historian Charles A. Beard's economic analysis of the Constitution published in 1912, but by 1925 as a progressive Warren agreed that the court's conservative analysis was strait-jacketing Congress, a theme he elaborated in ''Congress, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court''. Justice

Louis Brandeis Louis Dembitz Brandeis ( ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to ...

cited the work (revised in 1935) in

Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins ''Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins'', , was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court held that the United States does not have a general federal common law and that U.S. federal courts must apply state law, not federal law, to la ...

(1938), which cut back on forum-shopping by wealthy litigants using the old case of

Swift v. Tyson ''Swift v. Tyson'', 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 1 (1842), was a case brought in diversity in the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York on a bill of exchange accepted in New York in which the Supreme Court of the United States determined that ...

(1842). Warren also published ''Bankruptcy in United States History'' in 1935, based on lectures he had given at

Northwestern University School of Law The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (formerly known as Northwestern University School of Law from 1891 to 2015) is the law school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university. The law school is l ...

. Other schools at which the legal historian lectured included the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

Boston University School of Law The Boston University School of Law (BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston. Established in 1872, it is the third-oldest law school in New England, after Harvard Law School and Yale Law School. Ap ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, and several others. Warren was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1939. Warren retired from public service in the 1940s. He married Annie Louise Bliss in 1904, and they celebrated their fiftieth anniversary before his death. They had no children.

Death and legacy

Warren died in Washington, D.C. A window in the

National Cathedral National Cathedral may refer to: * Iglesia Filipina Independiente National Cathedral, a cathedral of the Philippine Independent Church in Manila * National Cathedral of Ghana, a planned interdenominational cathedral in Accra * National Cathedral ...

is dedicated in his memory, above a commemorative plaque. At his alma mater, the research center for North American history, funded by his widow, is named after Warren. The Library of Congress received many of his papers. His autobiographical notes are held by the Massachusetts Historical Society and Columbia University's Oral History Collection.

Selected works

* ''History of the Harvard Law School and of Early Legal Conditions in America'' (1908) * * ''The Supreme Court in United States History'' (3 volumes, 1922) (2 vol. revised edition 1928) * ''The Supreme Court and Sovereign States'' (1924) * ''The Making of the Constitution'' (1928; rev. ed 1937) * ''Congress, the Constitution and the Supreme Court'' (1925; rev. ed. 1935) * ''Congress as Santa Claus; or, National Donations and the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution'' (1932) * ''Troubles of a Neutral'' (1934) * ''Bankruptcy in United States History'' (1935) * ''Odd Byways in American History'' (1942)

Early life

Career

Death and legacy

Selected works

References

Further reading