Benjamin Harris Brewster served as U.S. attorney general from 1881 to 1885 under President Chester Arthur. A prominent Pennsylvania attorney and state attorney general before his appointment, Brewster also served as a special commissioner under President James Polk to adjudicate the claims of the Cherokee Indians against the U.S. government. Brewster was born on October 13, 1816, in Salem County, New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton College in 1834 and then joined the Philadelphia law office of Eli Price to learn the law. During this period most lawyers did not attend law schools but instead "read the law." Brewster performed clerical and secretarial duties in the law office while studying the law in his spare time. In 1838 he was sufficiently prepared to take and pass the Pennsylvania bar exam. After his admission, he continued to practice law in Philadelphia.

Brewster's entry into politics and government service came about because his father-in-law...