Warren, Charles, 1868-1954

Lawyer and historian.

Charles Warren graduated from Harvard in 1889.

Lawyer.

Warren graduated from Harvard in 1889, and served as Overseer of Harvard.

Lawyer and historian. Educated at Harvard (A.B., 1889, L.L.B.,1892). Practiced law in Boston (1892-1893, 1894-1914). Private secretary to Governor William E. Russell of Massachusetts (1893-1894) and active in the Democratic Party in Massachusetts. A founder and secretary (1894-1897) of the Immigration Restriction League, Chairman of the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission (1905-1911). Assistant attorney general of The United States (1914-1918). Practiced law in Washington, D.C. after 1918. Served as the American member of the Trail Smelter International Arbitral Tribunal to settle a dispute between the United States and Canada, 1936. Author of numerous books including a volume of short stories, The Girl and the Governor (1900) and The Supreme Court in United States History (3 v., 1922), which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1923. President of the Harvard Alumni Association (1941-1942). See sketch in Dictionary of American Biography.

Biographical Note

Charles Warren, constitutional authority and historian, was born in Boston on March 9, 1868. He received an A.B. from Harvard in 1889 and graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1892. In 1904, he married Annie Louise Bliss. They had no children.

In 1893, Warren served as private secretary to Massachusetts Governor William E. Russell, and the following year he was a founder of the Immigration Restriction League. From 1905 to 1911, he served as chairman of the Massachusetts State Civil Service Commission.

In 1914, Warren was appointed assistant attorney general of the United States. He became an expert on the problems of neutrality and international law, and argued or briefed 39 cases before the Supreme Court before resigning the post in 1918. After the war, Warren served as special master for several Supreme Court cases involving boundary lines and water rights.

A prolific and influential writer, Warren's works included The History of the Harvard Law School and Early Legal Conditions in America (1909), History of the American Bar, Colonial and Federal, to 1860 (1911), as well as numerous articles in law journals, and lighter works, including short stories. His 3-volume The Supreme Court in United States History (1922), won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1923.

During WWII, Warren served on the President's War Relief Control Board. After the war, he retired from public affairs.

-Warren died in Washington on August 16, 1954.