The Harvard Country Boys Who Shaped America

Okay, round two. Name something that's not boring. Laundry?

Ooh, a book club. Computer Solitaire, huh? Ah, sorry. We were looking for Chumba Casino. Ch-Ch-Ch-Chumba.

That's right. Chumbacasino.com has over 100 casino-style games. Join today and play for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Ch-Ch-Ch-Chumba.

Chumbacasino.com. And we're back on Dealing Together, where we help good people who fell for bad deals. First caller? I had to buy three identical sweaters to get the fourth free. Ooh, you got fleeced. Next caller, what's your deal? I paid for 20 tanning sessions, but had to use them in a month. Now I'm orange.

Ooh, you got burned. Next caller. I traded in my old Samsung at AT&T for a new Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus. Hmm, how's that bad? I got to choose from their best plans. So, what went wrong?

Oh, nothing went wrong. And you're calling to... To request a song? You want a song? Of course. The choice is yours.

Kick your fist. Our best smartphone deals. Your choice of plan. Learn how to get the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus with Galaxy AI on us with eligible trade-in. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Offers vary by device subject to change. S24 Plus 256 gigabyte offer available for a limited time. Terms and restrictions apply.

See AT&T.com slash Samsung for details. 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 1874 to 1902. His devoted proteges include future Supreme Court Justices Holmes, Brandeis, and Hand, just to name a few. 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 is Andrew Porwancher. Andrew is a professor of legal history at Arizona State University.

Let's take a listen. 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 antebellum New England, the typical Harvard man belonged to what became known as the 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 modest circumstances in a small town in western Massachusetts rural countryside. Against the odds, James would earn an endowed chair at Harvard Law, where he mentored future generations of Supreme Court Justices. Chauncey would also come to teach at Harvard, ranking among 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 when they first met in the 1840s in Northampton, Massachusetts, a village of some 4000 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. Between the ages of 11 and 22, they would school together, read together, discuss together.

When they were teenagers, Northampton experienced a strong religious revival. James later remembered how Chauncey remained relatively unaffected, showing early signs of his future 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 Chauncey anticipated enrolling 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 Mrs. Ann Lyman, who had a well-earned reputation for helping local youth, changed both of their lives forever. Mrs. 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 see Chauncey take up a spot alongside James at Harvard, but there were obstacles for hearer to clearer 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 not exactly focused on the kinds of subjects that Chauncey thrilled to. Mrs. 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 1848 for the entrance exam, they found that Mrs. Lyman had already arrived in Cambridge herself to petition the Harvard president on Chauncey's behalf. She told James, I have seen the president and said all I could for Chauncey, and I have no doubt he will get in.

Mrs. Lyman's confidence proved well-founded, as Chauncey would indeed 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, and diligent of the two. Chauncey preferred to be adrift 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 practice, while Chauncey proved irregular in his work, his sleep, and his diet. James married a proper Brahmin daughter, while Chauncey never married at all. Chauncey's recurring battles with depression and alcoholism kept him from realizing his full potential. He 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 the center of the Brahmin circle. But Chauncey only flirted with its edges. It was in 1875, when they were in their 40s, that James' journey permanently deviated from Chauncey's. That summer, James retreated to a summer home on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine. The island had 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 back his old friend once more. James received a letter from Chauncey in early September indicating, quote, James went to greet the banger boat's arrival at Mount Desert on the appointed day, but Chauncey was nowhere to be seen.

And so James awaited the subsequent boat 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 of the paper was the day of his funeral. As it turns out, Chauncey's landlord had 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. James was, of course, deeply bereaved. They had forged a friendship in boyhood that took them from the Meadows of rural 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. And now, at the age of 45, 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 which I had but imperfectly appreciated.

It was my oldest and most intimate friend that had gone. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to Andrew Porwancher. 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 about America's founding principles and history. To learn more, visit JackMillerCenter.org.

The story of the Harvard's country boys, here on Our American Stories. That's ChumbaCasino.com. The Chiefs have won the Super Bowl. NFLShop.com has everything you need to celebrate the back-to-back Super Bowl champions. NFL Shop is your ultimate destination for the largest assortment of officially licensed jerseys, t-shirts, headwear, and more. Help your team with the official Chiefs Super Bowl trophy collection today.

To shop now, go to NFLShop.com. With so many streaming devices out there today, what sets Roku apart? Roku players are made for one thing, to get you the entertainment you want quick and easy. That means a simple home screen with your favorites front and center, channels like iHeartRadio that launch in a snap, and curated selections of TV for when you only sort of know what to watch. Not to mention all the free TV you can stream, including over 300 free live channels on the Roku channel. Find the perfect Roku player for you today at Roku.com. Happy streaming!