... Was there ever a profound common lawyer known in one of the Eastern states? There never was, nor never can be one from those states. The basis of their law, is neither Common, not Civil. It is an original if any compound can be so called. It's foundation seems to have been laid in the spirit & principles of Jewish law, incorporated with some words & phrases of Common law, and an abundance of notions of their own. This makes an amalgam sui generis; and it is well known that a man first & thoroughly initiated into the principles of one system of law, can never become pure and sound in any other. Ld. Mansfield was a splendid proof of this. Therefore I say there never was, nor can be, a profound Common lawyer from those states. Sullivan had the reputation of preeminence there as a common lawyer. But we have his History of land titles, which gives us his measure.

(TJ to Albert Gallatin, 1810)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbc3&fileName=rbc0001_2007jeffca...