William Vans Murray

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William Vans Murray (February 9, 1760–December 11, 1803) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman from Cambridge, Maryland. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates (1788-1790) and represented the fifth district of Maryland in the United 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 to France 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 to John Adams, who was in London serving as the United States ambassador, and of whose Murray was a "political disciple."^[1]

[edit] Notes

1. ^  Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.

[edit] External link

• Biographic sketch at U.S. Congress website

Preceded by George Gale	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 5th congressional district 1791 – 1793	Succeeded by Samuel Smith
Preceded by District created	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 8th congressional district 1793 – 1797	Succeeded by John Dennis