Michael Burleigh's study
of European religion and politics
requires us to imagine a very different Europe than the one we behold today — not the polity
of bureaucrats in Brussels but a Europe
of statesmen and revolutionaries who aimed at the most extravagant notions
of national destiny.
Rather, their approach was much more theoretical than practical.60 In 1779, Thomas Jefferson, then the Governor
of Virginia, established «a Professorship
of Law and Police» at William and Mary College.61 George Wythe, a signer
of the Declaration
of Independence and, not coincidentally, the lawyer under whom Jefferson apprenticed, was appointed.62 The purpose
of the course
of study Wythe taught was less about producing practicing lawyers than it was educating the
statesmen of the New Republic.63 Wythe did attempt to blend in some practical training with his lectures and readings through the use
of a moot court and a moot legislature, though there is no indication that Wythe
required any writing on the part
of the students.64