Ethical Politicians?America’s School for StatesmenRegardless of our political persuasions, many believe that our politicians today do not measure up to the standards of ethical leadership of our Founding Fathers’ generation. There is a reason for this perception.

Unlike politicians now, numerous early American leaders were actually trained in ethics and statesmanship before they began their government careers. This amazing, largely forgotten story is brought to life in First in Law, First in Leadership.

For all who are disillusioned with today’s politics, this is an inspiring, must-read. The nation’s first law school, founded during the American Revolution, produced an outsized number of state and national forerunners in the country’s emerging executive, legislative, and judicial systems.

Until then, no one had been trained specifically to become a principled Servant Leader. Taught by Founding Father George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who was renowned for his scholarship and firm ethical values, Wythe’s former students filled the country’s highest offices at his death in 1806.

Moreover, they can be credited for rescuing the United States Constitution from failure in Virginia, a bellwether state, during its ratification rounds among the 13 former colonies. Taylor Reveley, President Emeritus of William & Mary and former Dean of the Law School that Wythe founded there, notes:“George Wythe’s paradigm matters to our national success in the 21st century, just as it did in the 18th.

He was a Servant Leader by both powerful personal example and by his instruction of an amazing number of other early American Leaders. “Suzanne Munson has breathed new life into the great Wythe.

How wonderful it would be if George Wythe graced our own time. ”First in Law, First in Leadership is a sequel to Suzanne Munson’s Wythe biography, Jefferson’s Godfather, an account of George Wythe’s profound influence on his young student Thomas Jefferson.

She lectures frequently on the Wythe-Jefferson legacy. .