A peculiar humanism

by William E. Wiethoff

In early nineteenth-century America, and especially in the Old South, the use of oratory appealed to legal professionals - judges as well as advocates. Consistent with the humanism proclaimed in classical and neoclassical works, appellate judges perceived their civic duties to demand oratorical skill as well as legal expertise. In A Peculiar Humanism, William E. Wiethoff assesses the judicial use of oratory in reviewing slave cases and the struggle to fashion a humanist jurisprudence on slavery despite the customary restraints placed on judicial advocacy. Drawing attention to a neglected intersection of law and letters, Wiethoff analyzes the proslavery discourse embedded in antebellum judicial opinions by examining the public addresses, judicial narratives, and private papers of sixty-nine appellate judges. Wiethoff documents the judges' familiarity with the humanist tradition and surveys their attempts to equate humanism with self-interest and humanity with the desire for peace, prosp