Felix Grundy briefly served as U.S. attorney general from 1838 to 1839 during the presidency of Martin Van Buren. A prominent criminal attorney and Democratic Party politician with ties to Andrew Jackson, Grundy also served in all three branches of government during his long career of public service.

Grundy was born on September 11, 1777, in Berkley County, Virginia, which is now part of the state of West Virginia. Raised in Kentucky, Grundy's frontier childhood deprived him of a formal education. However, Grundy was able to become a lawyer by the practice known as "reading the law." During this period, very few lawyers received their legal education through a law school. Grundy, like thousands of other young men of the time, worked in a law office doing clerical tasks and studying law books. Through this apprenticeship he obtained a sufficient education pass the Kentucky bar exam in 1797. He quickly established a...