William Mathews

“ Edwards's roof Wirt stayed twenty months, spending his time in teaching, in classical and historical studies, in writing, and in preparation for the bar, which he had chosen as his future profession. With the advantages of a vigorous constitution and a good person and carriage, but with the drawbacks of a meagre legal equipment, a constitutional shyness and timidity, and an over-rapid, brusque, and indistinct utterance, he began his legal career at Culpeper Court-House, Va. ”

“ In 1830 Wirt delivered an address to the literary societies of Rutgers college, which, after its publication by the students (New Brunswick, 1830) , was republished in England, and translated into French and German. His other publications are “The Two Principal Arguments in the Trial of Aaron Burr” (Richmond, 1808) ; “Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry,” which has been severely criticised both for its hero-worship and its style, the subject of the biography having been regarded by many as a creation of the rhetorician rather than an actual personage (Philadelphia, 1817) ”

“ He was a member of the Presbyterian church, and in his last years took great interest in missionary societies, and was president of the Maryland Bible society.
Wirt's earliest work was the noted “Letters of the British Spy,” which he first contributed to the Richmond “Argus” in 1803, and which won immediate popularity. They are chiefly studies of eloquence and eloquent men, are written in a vivid and luxuriant style, and may be regarded, in spite of the exceptional excellence of “The Blind Preacher,” as rather a prophecy of literary skill than its fulfilment. ”