Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography

Severn Teackle Wallis

WALLIS, Severn Teackle, lawyer, b. in Baltimore, Md., 8 Sept., 1816. He was graduated at St. Mary's college, Baltimore, in 1882, studied law with William Wirt and John Glenn, and in 1837 was admitted to the bar. Mr. Wallis early developed a taste for literature and contributed to periodicals many articles of literary and historical criticism, also occasional verses. He became a proficient in Spanish literature and history and was elected a corresponding member of the Royal academy of history of Madrid in 1843. In 1846 he was chosen a fellow of the Royal society of northern antiquaries of Copenhagen. In 1847 he visited Spain and in 1849 the U.S. government sent him on a special mission to that country to examine the title to the public lands in east Florida, as affected by royal grants during the negotiations for the treaty of 1819. From 1859 till 1861 he contributed largely to the editorial columns of the Baltimore “Exchange,” and he has also written for other journals. He was a Whig till the organization of the American or Know-Nothing party, after which he was a Democrat. In 1861 he was sent to the house of delegates of Maryland, and took an active part in the proceedings of the legislature of that year at Frederick. He was chairman of the committee on Federal relations, and made himself obnoxious to the Federal authorities by his reports, which were adopted by the legislature, and which took strong ground against the civil war, as well as against the then prevailing doctrine of military necessity. In September of that year Mr. Wallis was arrested with many members of the legislature and other citizens of the state, and imprisoned for more than fourteen months in various forts. He was released in November, 1862, without conditions and without being informed of the cause of his arrest. He then returned to the practice of the law in Baltimore. In 1870, on the death of John P. Kennedy, he was elected provost of the University of Maryland. In December, 1872, as chairman of the art committee of private citizens appointed by the Maryland legislature, he delivered the address upon the unveiling of William H. Rinehart's statue of Chief-Justice Taney. He has contributed to periodicals, and has published “Glimpses of Spain” (New York, 1849); “Spain: her Institutions, Polities, and Public Men” (Boston, 1853); a “Discourse on the Life and Character of George Peabody” (Baltimore, 1870); and numerous pamphlets on legal and literary subjects.

Severn Teackle Wallis, Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1889 Page 338.