- William Vans Murray
William Vans Murray (
February 9 ,1760 –December 11 ,1803 ) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman fromCambridge, Maryland . He served in theMaryland House of Delegates (1788-1790) and represented the fifth district ofMaryland in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1791 until 1793, and the eighth district from 1793 to 1797.Murray was also the U.S. Minister (ambassador) to the
Netherlands from 1797 until 1801, and supported the U.S. mission toFrance in peace negotiations.In 1784, as a law student in London, Murray wrote in defense of state government in America. This eventually ran to a series of six essays, which were published in Philadelphia during the Constitutional Convention there. Murray rejected the notion, advanced by
Montesquieu among others, that virtue was the root of democracy. The essays were addressed toJohn Adams , who was in London serving as the United States ambassador, and of whose Murray was a "political disciple."ref|bailynNotes
# Bailyn, Bernard. "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution". Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.
External links
* [http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu/resources/wroten/wroten_wvanmurray.html Shoreman Averted War With France - Delmarva Heritage Series]
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