The American Founding

<Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention: Act III, The Committee of Detail Report

Scene 1: The Structure and Powers of Congress

August 6: Twenty-Three Articles presented

The Convention received the Report of the Committee of Detail and adjourned to read the 23 Articles. Eight States present. Mercer from Maryland took his seat.

August 7: Articles I-IV and the suffrage issue

Ten States present. Began consideration of the Committee of Detail Report in a Committee of the Whole and covered the Preamble, Articles I, II, III, and part of Article IV.

Agreed (10 – 0) to Preamble and Articles I and II.

Took up Article III (two-branch legislature). Agreed (7 – 3) to delete reference to mutual veto between Houses of Congress. Discussed Congress meeting 1st Monday of December annually, and agreed to add, “unless a different day shall be appointed by law” (8 – 2). Motion for May meeting instead of December defeated (8 – 2). Agreed to Article III as amended. Took up Article IV, Section 1 (House elections). Ellsworth and Mason object to the attempt by G. Morris and Dickinson to impose electoral restrictions. Defeated more restrictive freehold qualifications on the electors (7 – 1 – 1).

August 8: Article IV deliberated

Agreed unanimously to Article IV, Section 1 concerning qualifications of the electors: “the qualifications of the electors shall be the same as those of the electors in the several States of the most numerous branch of their own legislature.”

Proceeded to Article IV, Section 2 (qualifications of House members). Agreed (10 – 1) to seven instead of three years citizenship. Agreed to substitute “inhabitant” instead of “resident”; defeated motions to require 3 years (9 – 2) and 1 year (6 – 4 – 1) of residence, and approved the section (11 – 0).

Agreed to Article IV, Section 3: 65 members in House from First Congress until the first census.

Took up Article IV, Section 4 (future apportionment of House). Agreed (9 – 2) to insert “not exceeding” before 40,000. Considered last clause of Section 4: “The Legislature shall… regulate the number of representatives by the number of inhabitants… at the rate of one for every forty thousand.” Defeated (10 – 1) a motion by G. Morris to insert “free” before inhabitants. G. Morris: “Slavery was a nefarious institution.” Agreed to add a provision introduced by Dickinson for at least one representative for each state in the House.

Moved on to Article IV, Section 5 (money bills). Approved motion to strike (7 – 4), thus challenging the Connecticut Compromise. Pinckney, G. Morris and Madison carry the day on this motion. Mason: “to strike out the section, was to unhinge the compromise of which it made a part.”

August 9: Article V dissected

Took up Article IV, Section 6 (sole power of impeachment, choose its own speaker) and 7 (filling vacancies) and approved both.

Considered Article V, Section 1 (selection of Senators and provision for vacancies).

Defeated motion to strike executive appointment to supply vacancies (8 – 1 – 1). Agreed to give each Senator one vote and each State two members.

Article V, Section 2 agreed, nem con.

Article V, Section 3 (qualifications): 30 years old, citizen for 4 years, resident.
Defeated motion to require 14 years of citizenship (7 – 4), and 13 years of citizenship (7 – 4).

Defeated motion to require 10 years, (7 – 4), agreed to 9 years (6 – 4 – 1).

Substituted “inhabitant” for “resident”.

Article V, Section 4 (Senate shall choose own officers) approved.

Took up Article VI, Section 1 (times and places of election) amended and approved.

Randolph objects to defeat of Article IV, Section 5 (Money Bills).

August 10: Article VI and Pinckney’s property qualifications

There were nine recorded votes. Eleven States voted except Delaware was absent for the first two votes. New Hampshire was divided on the final vote. Pennsylvania divided on the fifth vote.

Reheard Article IV, Section 2 (giving Legislature authority to establish property qualification for members). Motion by Pinckney to spell out property qualifications in the Constitution rejected on voice vote. Pinckney suggested $100,000 for President and $25,000 for representatives. “The motion of Mr. Pinckney was rejected by so general a no, that the States were not called.” Reconsidered (6 – 5) House residence requirement in Article IV, Section 2, and substituted three years for seven at request of Wilson.

Took up Article VI, Section 3 (Quorum requirements). Added power to compel attendance of absent members (10 – 0 – 1).

Agreed to Article VI, Section 4 (each House to judge qualifications and elections of its members).

Article VI, Section 5 (freedom of debate), passed nem con.

Took up Article VI, Section 6 (rules, punishment for disorderly behavior, expulsion of members). Agreed (10 – 0 – 1) to require 2/3 vote for expulsion.

Took up Article VI, Section 7 (Requiring journal and a record of each vote at request of 1/5 of members present), passed (7 – 3 – 1).

August 11: Article VI continued

There were eight recorded votes. Eleven States voted. South Carolina divided on the final vote.

Continued on Article VI, Section 7. Agreed (6 – 4 – 1) to non-publication in the journal of “such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy.”

Took up Article VI, Section 8 (no more than 3-day adjournment without consent of other House nor to a location other than where they are sitting). Amended (10 – 1) to preclude adjournment to another place during a session.

Reconsidered Article V, Section 5 (money bills to originate in House, and not be subject to Senate amendment).

Agreed (8 – 2 – 1) to reconsider the money bills provision on Monday.

August 13: Reconsideration day and Dickinson’s remark: “Experience must be our only guide. Reason may mislead us.”

There were ten recorded votes. Eleven States voted. Pennsylvania divided on the fifth vote. Hamilton makes a rare appearance. He left the Convention on June 30. After today, he is gone again until September 6. New York has lacked a quorum since July 10. Hamilton spoke but New York could not vote.

Reconsidered Article IV, Section 2 (House age and citizenship). Defeated (7 – 4) Hamilton’s motion to eliminate seven-year citizenship requirement. Butler opposed this effort to “increase” the influence of “foreigners into our public councils.” Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia voted to support Hamilton’s motion. Defeated nine-year citizen requirement (8-3), and defeated five-year citizen requirement (7-3-1). Pennsylvania divided. Agreed to the section as reported.

Reconsidered Article V, Section 3 (age and citizenship for Senators), and defeated a motion (8 – 3) to reduce 9 years to 7.

Reconsidered Article IV, Section 5 (money bills). Randolph moved to reinstate exclusive power over money bills to the House. Mason and Randolph argued that a revolutionary principle was at stake. Madison and Blair, also from Virginia, saw no principle at stake. Dickinson urged that “experience” be the guide. Washington supported Randolph and Mason on prudential grounds. Defeated (7-4) the motion to reinstate original agreement on money bills. Virginia voted “yes.” Delegates voted (8-3) that the Committee on Detail report on money bills be accepted. Virginia voted “no.”

August 14: Article VI and ineligibility

There were three recorded votes. Eleven States voted.

Took up Article VI, Section 9 (ineligibility of members of legislature to other Federal Offices). Vote was 5-5-1. Georgia was divided on this first vote. Postponed until powers of Senate were determined.

Amended Article VI, Section 10 (legislative pay ). Voted 9-2 that the National Treasury rather than State Legislatures should pay the representatives. Massachusetts and South Carolina voted “no.” Agreed that pay be ascertained by law.

August 15: Reintroduction of Council of Revision

There were six recorded votes. Eleven States voting.

Approved Article VI, Section 11 (enacting style for bills).

Took up Article VI, Section 12 (either House may originate bills). Postponed (6 – 5) pending determination of powers to be given Senate.

Took up Article VI, Section 13 (Presidential veto). (See coverage on June 4, June 6, and July 21.) (See also coverage on June 4, June 6, and July 21.) Defeated (8 – 3) a motion that all bills should be submitted to the Executive and Judiciary before (Council of Revision) they become law. Only Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia in favor of the Council of Revision. Thus Madison's provision for the Committee of Revision was defeated for the fourth and final time.

Agreed (6 – 4 – 1) to 3/4 vote to override Presidential Veto. Pensylvania divided. Agreed (9 – 2) to 10 days instead of 7 for the President to return bills. New Hampshire and Massachusetts “no.”

August 16: Deliberation of the Enumeration of Congressional powers

There were four recorded votes. Eleven states voted.

Took up Article VII, Section 1 (enumeration of Congressional powers). The Committee of Detail tried to forge a middle ground between the open-ended grant of powers under the various versions of the Virginia Plan and the very specific listing of powers under the Articles of Confederation and the New Jersey Plan. Thus they recommended an “enumeration of powers” as well as a “necessary and proper” clause. Hamilton was absent.

Agreed, nem con, to power to lay and collect taxes, regulate international and interstate commerce, coin money, regulate foreign coin, and fix standards of weights and measures. Approved (6 – 5) adding “and post roads” to the power to “establish Post offices.” Pennsylvania “no,” and Virginia “yes.” Agreed (9 – 2) to strike out the words “and emit bills” in the 8th clause of Article VII, Section 1. New Jersey and Maryland “no.”

August 17: Deliberation of the Enumeration of Congressional powers

There were 10 recorded votes. Delaware was absent on the first vote, but present for the rest. New Jersey was present for the first vote but absent for the rest.

Resumed discussion of Article VII, Section 1 (enumeration of Congressional powers).

Agreed (7 – 3) to elect Treasurer by joint ballot (Delaware not voting). Agreed to “establish inferior courts, and make rules on captures.” Agreed (7 – 3) to “define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas.” Virginia votes “no.” Agreed similarly to “counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, and offenses against the law of nations.”

Changed (7 – 2) the clause Congress shall “make” war to Congress shall “declare war.” New Jersey and Massachusetts absent. Hamilton was also absent.

The Framers apparently 1) wanted to avoid the idea that it is legitimate for a democratic republic, expressing its opinion through the Congress, to initiate, or MAKE, war but at the same time recognize the legitimate need for a democratic republic, through the executive branch, to defend itself from sudden invasion; 2) believed that “declare war” is more compatible than “make war” with the idea of a just war; and 3) they did not want Congress to be in the business of the day-to-day operations of making war in the sense of carrying out the specifics of military policy. Thus 4) we must ask the question where did MAKE WAR go when the Framers substituted DECLARE WAR? Did MAKE disappear or become CONDUCT or did MAKE go somewhere else?

“Separate questions having been taken on the 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 clauses of the 1st Section, 7 article as amended. They passed in the affirmative.”

August 18: Creation of Committee of 11

Referred a list of suggested additional Congressional powers to the Committee of Detail.

Agreed (6 – 4 – 1) to a Committee of 1 per state, chaired by William Livingston, to consider assumption of state debts. Pennsylvania divided. Clymer chosen from Pennsylvania.

Agreed (9 – 2) to meet daily, except Sunday, from 10:00 till 4:00, with no earlier adjournment allowed. Pennsylvania and Maryland voted “no.”

Continued discussion of Article VII, Section 1 (enumeration of Congressional powers). Agreed to add “and support” to the power to raise armies and agreed to strike “build and equip” in favor of “provide and maintain” navy. Agreed to add power to make rules for government and regulation of land and naval forces. Considered different motions giving authority over militia and referred them (8 – 2 – 1) to a committee. Connecticut and New Jersey voted “no.” Maryland divided.

August 20: Article VII and the Issue of a Bill of Rights

There were 11 votes recorded. Eleven states present. Williamson of North Carolina wrote to Governor Caldwell that Davie left on August 13 and that Alexander Martin would leave on August 27. North Carolina was divided on the third and tenth votes.

Pinckney introduced a list of 12 rights. Included are references to liberty of the press, the writ of Habeus Corpus, and that “no religious test or qualification shall ever be annexed to any oath of office under the authority of the U. S.” They are sent to the Committee of Detail.

G. Morris proposes the foundations for a Presidential Cabinet: Council of State, Domestic Affairs, Commerce and Finance, Foreign Affairs, War, and Marine. These are referred to the Committee of Detail.

Returned to Article VII, Section 1 (enumeration of Congressional powers). Necessary and Proper Clause passed. Defeated (8 – 3) Mason’s proposal to give Congress power to enact sumptuary laws. Mason did not carry Virginia.

Took up Article VII, Section 2 (defining treason). After debate and numerous amendments, Section 2 was approved.

Took up Article VII, Section 3 (direct tax, House apportionment and census). Agreed (9 – 2) to have first census within 3 years. South Carolina and Georgia “no.”

Scene 2: The Slavery Question and the Creation of the Judiciary

August 21: Report of the Committee of 11

There were seven recorded votes. Eleven States present.

Heard a report from the Committee of State Debt Assumption and Militia Regulation, and laid it on the table.

Included in the Committee of 11 Report was the clarification that debts would be incurred only “for the common defense and general welfare.” This was the first appearance of these two clauses.

Resumed discussion of Article VII, Section 3, and agreed to it (10 – 1). Delaware voted “no.”

Continued discussion of Article VI, Section 12 (origination of bills): Defeated (8 – 2 – 1) motion to apportion direct taxes to the number of representatives pending the first census. North Carolina divided.

Took up Article VII, Section 4 (no export taxes by States). Defeated (7 – 3) move to allow export taxes for revenue only. Defeated (6 – 5) motion to permit export taxes with 2/3 majority vote. Approved Section (7 – 4).

Took up Article VII, Section 4, Clauses 2 and 3 (no interference with the slave trade). Congress cannot tax or prohibit “the migration or importation of such persons as the several States shall think proper to admit.”

L. Martin, supported by Mason, suggests that the slave trade be prohibited or at least taxed. He argued that the importation of slaves “was inconsistent with the principles of the revolution.” Rutledge rejoined, “Interest alone is the sovereign principle with Nations.” Ellsworth: “The morality or wisdom of slavery are considerations belonging to the States themselves.”

Three clearly identifiable positions have emerged on the issue of the slave trade: 1) the slave trade violates American principles. Thus ban, or at least discourage, the slave trade because it “was inconsistent with the principles of the revolution and dishonorable to the American character.” This was the position articulated by Luther Martin of Maryland on this day and supported by the Virginia delegation as well as delegates from New Hampshire, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. 2) Rutledge best represented the second position. This position was supported by the other delegates from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia delegations: “Religion and humanity had nothing to do with this question — Interests alone is the governing principle with Nations — The true question at present is whether the Southern States shall or shall not be parties to the Union.” 3) The third position was that occupied by Connecticut. Mr. Ellsworth summed up the issue thus: He was in favor of ” leaving the clauses as it stands. Let every State import what it pleases.”

August 22: Article VII, Section 4: Slavery

Resumed discussion of Article VII, Section 4.

C. Pinckney stated, “if slavery be wrong, it is justified by the example of all the world.” Rutledge warns that North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia will not sign the Constitution without certain slavery protection clauses. Dickinson considered the importation of slaves “as inadmissible on every principle of honor and safety. “Randolph added that he “could never agree to the clause as it stands” and urged that the entire section be referred to a committee to seek a compromise solution. Sherman: “it was better to let the Southern States import slaves than to part with them, if they made that a sine qua non.” Baldwin assured his colleagues that if Georgia were left to herself, “she may probably put an end to the evil.” King thought the whole subject “should be considered in a political light only.”

Voted (7 – 3 – 1) to commit Article VII, Sections 4 and 5 to an 11-member committee chaired by Livingston. The members of the committee: Langdon, King, Johnson, Livingston, Clymer, Dickinson, L. Martin, Madison, Williamson, C. C. Pinckney, and Baldwin. North Carolina was divided on submitting to a committee. Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania voted not to commit. C. Pinckney and Rutledge were not selected. Dickinson, L. Martin, and Madison have each expressed their strong opposition to the slave trade. It is important to note that the delegates were determined to revisit the slavery provisions of the Committee of Detail Report and seek an alternative position.

Voted (9 – 2) to commit Section 6 to the same committee.

Took up Article VII, Section 2 (prohibit bills of attainder and ex-post facto laws). Agreed (7 – 3 – 1). North Carolina divided.

The report of the Committee of 5 was postponed (6 – 5).

The report of the Committee of 11 on Assumption of State Debts was taken up. After brief discussion it was agreed (11 – 0), “The Legislature shall discharge the debts and fulfill the obligations of the United States.”

August 23: Discussion of Articles VII-IX

There were eight recorded cotes. Eleven states present and voted on the first six votes. Ten states voting on the last two votes. New Hampshire absent for these two votes. North Carolina divided on the last vote.

Took up Article VII, Section I (powers of Congress). After considerable discussion and minor alterations agreed to Section 1. The Necessary and Proper Clause generated little debate.

Passed Article VII, Section 7 (no titles of nobility) nem con.

Took up Article VIII. Approved adding a prohibition against Federal officers accepting foreign titles or gifts without consent of Congress. Also accepted a restatement of Supremacy Clause.

Took up Article IX (Senate treaty power and appointment of Judges and ambassadors), and postponed.

Took up Article VII, Section 1 (calling up militia to execute laws), amended and approved it.

Madison again, supported by Reheard Article IV, Section 2 (giving Legislature authority to establish property qualification for members). Motion by Pinckney to spell out property qualifications in the Constitution rejected on voice vote. Pinckney suggested $100,000 for President and $25,000 for representatives. “The motion of Mr. Pinckney was rejected by so general a no, that the States were not called.” Reconsidered (6 – 5) House residence requirement in Article IV, Section 2, and substituted three years for seven at request of Wilson and C. Pinckney, proposed a motion to restore Congressional veto power over State laws. Wilson thought, “this is a key-stone wanted to complete the wide arch of Government we are raising.” Sherman and Williamson “thought it unnecessary.” The motion was defeated (6 – 5).

Agreed to revised Article VII, Section 1 (debts). “The Legislature shall fulfill the engagements and discharge the debts of the United States, and shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.”

Resumed discussion of Senate power to make treaties, appoint Ambassadors and Judges, and referred proposal to the Committee of Five.

August 24: Committee of 11 reports on slavery

There were 13 recorded votes. North Carolina absent on the first vote; Pennsylvania absent on the first three votes. Eleven States voted on the fourth through the ninth votes. Ten States voted on the last four votes. North Carolina absent for the last three votes and Massachusetts absent for the tenth vote. Connecticut divided on the ninth and tenth vote. Maryland divided on the ninth vote.

Heard a report from the Livingston Committee on Slave Trade Article VII, Sections 4, 5, and 6 (no interference with slave trade, capitation taxes in proportion to census, no navigation acts without 2/3 vote in each House). Committee recommended prohibiting Congressional interference with the slave trade until 1800, keeping Section 5, striking section 6 and permitting a tax to be imposed on migration and importation.

Agreed to reconsider debt provisions and interstate commerce clause (Article VII, Section 1).

Took up Article IX, Sections 2 and 3 (controversies among states, controversies arising from conflicting land grants). Voted (8 – 2) to strike out both sections.

Took up Article X, Section 1 (Executive). Agreed on one Executive but defeated four different methods of electing the President including direct election by the people (9 – 2) and by electors (6 -5).

Took up Article X, Section 2 (Executive powers and duties).

Ordered adjournment at 3 o’clock for the future.

August 25: The Slavery Question (see also July 23, August 8, 21, 22, 26, and 29)

There were nine recorded votes. Eleven States present for the first four votes. New Jersey absent for votes 5-9. Maryland was divided on the fifth vote.

Approved (10 – 1) debt provision. Defeated (10 – 1) motion to include common defense and general welfare clause in Article VII, Section 1.

Took up Article VII, Section 4 (slave trade). C. C. Pinckney who was a member of the Livingston Committee, “moved to strike out the words ‘the year eighteen hundred’ and insert 1808 instead.” Agreed (7 – 4) to change from 1800 recommendation of the Livingston Committee to 1808 concerning the prohibition on Congress with respect to the international slave trade. (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia voting against. They wanted 1800.) Madison stated, “twenty years will produce all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to import slaves.” He also “thought it wrong to admit into the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.” G. Morris wanted the clause to say this was a compliance with “North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.” Dickinson urged that the clause be confined to those states “now existing.” Agreed nem. con. Also approved a slave trade import tax not to exceed $10.00 per person.

Approved, nem. con., Article VII, Section 5 as reported.

Postponed Article VII, Section 6.

Article X, Section 2. Defeated (6 – 3 – 1) motion allowing appointment to Federal offices by State Executives.

August 27: Articles X and XI discussed

There were eleven recorded votes on this day. Eight states were present for votes 1-5 and votes 8-11. Seven states – the minimum for a Convention quorum – were present for votes 6-7. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina missed votes 1-11 because these states failed to meet their own internal quorum requirement for the entire day. Georgia was absent for votes 6-7. Maryland was evenly divided on vote 6. What is interesting is the extensive non-attendance.

Continued on Executive powers in Article X.

Agreed (6 – 2) that President would be “commander-in-chief of the militia when called into the actual service of the United States.” Massachusetts, New Jersey and North Carolina absent. Delaware and South Carolina “no.”

Took up Article XI, Section 1: “The Judicial Power of the United States…” Agreed to Johnson’s motion to add “both in law and equity” after the words “United States.” Approved Section 1 (6 – 2)

Took up Article XI, Section 2. Defeated (7 – 1) removal of justices by Executive on request of Legislature. Connecticut disagreed.

Began discussion of Article XI (judicial powers).

Took up Section 1: “The Judicial Power of the United States…” Agreed (6-2) to Johnson’s motion to add “both in law and equity” after the words “United States.” Three states absent. Approved Section 1 (6-2).

Took up Section 2: Defeated (7-1) removal of justices by Executive on request of Legislature. Approved Section 2 (6-2).

Took up Article XI, Section 3. Postponed clause considering the impeachment of Judges. Discussed distinction between original and appellate jurisdiction. Agreed to add, “to which the United States is a Party” to “controversies.” Approved (8 – 2) several other perfecting amendments. Johnson moved to insert the words “this Constitution and the” before the word “laws” in “The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court shall extend to all cases arising under the laws passed by the Legislature of the United States.” This passed nem. con. on the understanding that the jurisdiction was “limited to cases of a Judiciary nature.”

Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina experienced difficulties meeting quorum requirements.

Johnson of Connecticut moved that the power of the Judiciary shall extend to all cases “both in law and equity” arising under “this Constitution.” Madison was concerned: did this give the Judiciary an unrestrained reach into all cases involving law and equity. Johnson assured the delegates that he meant, “that the jurisdiction given was constructively limited to cases of a Judiciary nature.” Johnson did not intend his motion to be an invitation to the Judiciary to open up the Constitution and make decisions of a political nature. With this assurance, the motion was agreed to nem. con.

Approved Article XI, Section 2 (6-2). Delaware and Maryland “no.”

Took up Article XI, Section 3. Postponed clause considering the impeachment of judges. Discussed distinction between original and appellate jurisdiction. Agreed to add, “to which the United States is a Party” to “controversies.”

Approved (8-2) several other perfecting amendments.

Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina experienced difficulties meeting quorum requirements.

August 28: Articles XI-XV discussed

Heard a report from August 25th committee (regulation of commerce).

Continued discussion of Article XI.

Took up Section 3 (appellate jurisdiction). Approved Section 3 (9 – 1).

Took up Section 4 (local trial by jury and Writ of Habeas Corpus). Amended to provide for crimes committed outside any state. Agreed (7 – 3) to add that the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless where in cases of Rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. Agreed to Section 4.

Agreed to Section 5 (limit punishment under impeachment).

Took up Article XII (limits on State powers). Agreed (8 – 1 – 1) to add prohibition on emitting bills of credit, or making anything but gold or silver legal tender. Maryland voting against. Agreed (7 – 3) that no State could pass bills of attainder or ex post facto laws. Defeated (8 – 3) prohibiting laying of embargoes. Agreed to Article XII as amended.

Took up Article XIII (additional prohibition on States). Agreed (6 – 5) to prohibit States from taxing exports as well as imports without consent of Congress. Agreed (9 – 2) that net receipts of State taxation of imports and exports go into Federal Treasury. Agreed to Article XIII.

Took up Article XIV (mutual privileges and immunities). Approved it (9 – 1 – 1).

Took up Article XV (extradition): “Any person charged with treason, felony or high misdemeanor in any State, who shall flee from justice, and shall be found in any other State, shall, on demand of the Executing power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and renewed to the State having jurisdiction of the offence.” Soon after, “high misdemeanor” replaced by “other crime.” Agreed to Article XV, nem con.

There were 12 recorded votes on this day. Madison noted that New Jersey was absent for the first three votes, but present and voting later. Someone was temporarily absent. Madison recorded Massachusetts absent for the seventh vote. This also must have been a temporary absence. Maryland was evenly divided on the third vote. Georgia was divided on the final vote of the day.

Butler and Pinckney from South Carolina wanted the provision concerning the flight from justice in one state to be extended to slaves who fled for freedom. They moved “to require fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals.” Reheard Article IV, Section 2 (giving Legislature authority to establish property qualification for members). Motion by Pinckney to spell out property qualifications in the Constitution rejected on voice vote. Pinckney suggested $100,000 for President and $25,000 for representatives. “The motion of Mr. Pinckney was rejected by so general a no, that the States were not called.” Reconsidered (6 – 5) House residence requirement in Article IV, Section 2, and substituted three years for seven at request of Wilson objected as a matter of principle. Sherman did not want to deal with the issue of fugitive slaves as extradited criminals. According to Madison: “Mr. Butler withdrew his proposition in order that some particular provision might be made apart from this article.”

Where did Butler’s idea come from? The answer is the Confederation Congress meeting in New York on July 14, 1787. The Congress agreed to prohibit slavery in the Northwest Territories at once — 1787 — rather than 1800 in exchange for a Fugitive Slave Clause. And thus the Northwest Ordinance was passed.

August 29: Articles XVI-XVII deliberated

Took up Article XVI (full faith and credit). Heard motion to establish uniform bankruptcy laws. Committed both Article XVI and motion to Committee on State Commitments with 5 members, chaired by John Rutledge.

Took up recommendation by the Livingston Committee on Slave Trade to strike out Article VII, Section 6 (2/3 vote needed to approve Congressional regulation of international and interstate commerce). Committee report approved (7 – 4).

Returned to Article XV and passed a fugitive slave clause (11 – 0) to be added at the end of the Article: “if any Person bound to service or labor in any of the United States shall escape into another State, he or she shall not be discharged from such service or labor in consequence of any regulations subsisting in the State to which they escape; but shall be delivered up to the person justly claiming service or labor.”

Took up Article XVII (admission of new states) and passed (6 – 5).

There were five recorded votes on this day. Eleven states voted.

Madison wrote a footnote on General Pinckney’s remark about “the liberal conduct” of the “Eastern States towards the view of South Carolina.” Pinckney “meant the permission to import slaves. An understanding on the two subjects of navigation and slavery, had taken place between those two parts of the Union.”

Butler introduced a revised version of the Fugitive Slave Clause separate from the extradition clause, and the world “criminal” was dropped. This passed 11-0.

If the Congressional veto over state legislation has been defeated and replaced by the supremacy clause, who enforces it? The answer is the federal judiciary.

Why did the slavery clauses of the Committee of Detail Report generate the most opposition of any clauses in the August 6 draft of the Constitution? How come the South Carolina delegates, and following their lead, the delegates from North Carolina and Georgia, manage to leverage their minority numerical position to extract concessions from the majority of the delegates and the majority of the states in attendance?

Madison’s argument on June 6 is that they needed to create a Constitution that will control the tyrannical conduct of the majority including, but not limited to, the tyrannical conduct of a majority. “In the most enlightened period” of all time, we see the rule of the majority over a minority based on “the mere distinction of color.”

Scene 3: Adoption of the Report; Creation of Brearly Committee

August 30: Articles XVII-XXI adopted

There were 15 recorded votes on this day. Eleven states voted. Maryland missed the eleventh vote, but was present for all the others. North Carolina missed the seventh vote, but was present for all the other votes. Delaware voted; Read was present rather than probably present.

Continued discussion on Article XVII (admission of new states). Agreed (8 – 3) to permit the admission of new States on equal terms, prohibit dividing or combining states without consent of State Legislatures, and grant Congress authority to govern public lands, territory or other property of the United States.

Took up Article XVIII (guarantee of republican form of government): “The United States shall guaranty to each State a Republican form of Government; and shall protect each State against foreign invasions, and, on the application of the Legislature, against domestic violence.” Dropped “foreign” and retained “domestic violence” over “insurrection” (6 – 5). Amended and agreed (9 – 2).

Took up Article XIX (amending process) and agreed.

Took up Article XX (oath for officers of the government). Added “or Affirmation.” Added, “no religious test shall ever be required,” which passed nem con. Agreed (8 – 1 – 2) to Article XX.

Discussed Article XXI (mode of ratification of the Constitution): “The ratification of the Conventions of ____ States shall be sufficient for organizing this Constitution.”

August 31: Discontent within Agreement

There were 15 recorded votes on this day, the last day of Act III. Ten states voted on the first motion and eleven states voted on all of the other motions. Delaware missed the first vote. Massachusetts was absent for the last vote, but present for the preceding votes. North Carolina was absent for the fourth and fifth vote, but present for the other 13 votes. Connecticut was divided on the second vote and Maryland was divided on the fourteenth vote.

“The Leftovers Committee,” or Brearly Committee of “Postponed Parts,” was selected, one delegate from each of the 11 states. The composition of this committee, and the desire to come to a workable compromise, once again depicts the shifting disposition of the delegates to the Convention over the long haul of the deliberations.

The presence of Sherman, Brearly, Dickinson, Carroll, and Baldwin meant that the State Legislatures would be centrally involved in the election of the President. They were important delegates in the creation and passage of the partly national, partly federal Connecticut Compromise that settled the controversy over popular representation and the equal representation of state. Even with the absence of New York, the old New Jersey Coalition of June was still alive and well and could point to the precedent of the Connecticut Compromise — even though the internal composition of the Coalition had changed.

Continued discussing Article XXI (mode of ratification of the Constitution). Shall the blank be filled with the number 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 or 13? Agreed (9 – 1), to add “between the said states,” to limit the effect of ratification to states actually ratifying. Rejected (6 – 4) attempt to overturn provision requiring ratification by specially elected conventions rather than ratification by State Legislatures. Debated number of states required to secure ratification of the Constitution.

Defeated (9 – 1) motion requiring all 13 states to ratify. Defeated (7 – 4) motion requiring 10 states to ratify. Agreed (8 – 3) to motion requiring 9 states to ratify. Agreed (10 – 1) to Article XXI as amended.

Took up Article XXII (Authorization of the Constitution by Confederation Congress). Agreed (8 – 3) to strike provision requiring Confederation Congressional approval of the Constitution. Defeated (7 – 4) proposal, in effect, permitting Confederation Congress to rewrite the Constitution. Defeated (8 – 3) motion to postpone discussion on Article XXII. Agreed (10 – 1) to Article XXII as amended.

Discussed Article XXIII (transition from Confederation Government to Constitutional Government). Agreed with amendments.

Took up Committee of 11 Report of Article VII, Section 4 (Export taxes and duties). Agreed to provision not to give preference to one state over another. Agreed (8 – 2) to proposal to prohibit requiring ships bound for one state to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. Agreed on uniformity clause.

Concluded discussion of Committee of Detail Report.

Referred all leftover proposals to a Committee of one delegate from each state: Gilman, King, Sherman, Brearly, G. Morris, Dickinson, Carroll, Madison, Williamson, Butler, Baldwin. This was known as the Brearly Committee.

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George Washington

George Washington

State: Virginia

Age at Convention: 55

Date of Birth: February 22, 1732

Date of Death: December 14, 1799

Schooling: Private Tutors, Honorary L.L.D. from Harvard 1776

Occupation: Planter and Slave Holder, General of the Continental Army, Lending and Investments, Real Estate Land Speculations, Public Security Interests

Prior Political Experience: Virginia House of Burgesses 1759-1774, Continental Congress 1774-1775, Commander in Chief of Continental Army 1775-1783

Committee Assignments: President of the Convention

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. He spoke only once near the end of the deliberations, but the record suggests that he had a profound influence on the scope and direction of the discussions. William Pierce stated that “having conducted these States to independence and peace, he now appears to assist in framing a Government to make the People happy. Like Gustavus Vasa, he made be said to be the deliverer of his Country.”

New Government Participation: He supported ratification of the Constitution by the State of Virginia. He was unanimously elected by the Electoral College as President of the United States (1788 – 1796). He used his Presidential powers to put down the Whisky Rebellion (1794).

Biography from the National Archives: The eldest of six children from his father’s second marriage, George Washington was born into the landed gentry in 1732 at Wakefield Plantation, VA. Until reaching 16 years of age, he lived there and at other plantations along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, including the one that later became known as Mount Vernon. His education was rudimentary, probably being obtained from tutors but possibly also from private schools, and he learned surveying. After he lost his father when he was 11 years old, his half-brother Lawrence, who had served in the Royal Navy, acted as his mentor. As a result, the youth acquired an interest in pursuing a naval career, but his mother discouraged him from doing so.

At the age of 16, in 1748, Washington joined a surveying party sent out to the Shenandoah Valley by Lord Fairfax, a land baron. For the next few years, Washington conducted surveys in Virginia and present West Virginia and gained a lifetime interest in the West. In 1751-52 he also accompanied Lawrence on a visit he made to Barbados, West Indies, for health reasons just before his death.

The next year, Washington began his military career when the royal governor appointed him to an adjutantship in the militia, as a major. That same year, as a gubernatorial emissary, accompanied by a guide, he traveled to Fort Le Boeuf, Pennsylvania, in the Ohio River Valley, and delivered to French authorities an ultimatum to cease fortification and settlement in English territory. During the trip, he tried to better British relations with various Indian tribes.

In 1754, winning the rank of lieutenant colonel and then colonel in the militia, Washington led a force that sought to challenge French control of the Ohio River Valley, but met defeat at Fort Necessity, Pennsylvania—an event that helped trigger the French and Indian War (1754-63). Late in 1754, irked by the dilution of his rank because of the pending arrival of British regulars, he resigned his commission. That same year, he leased Mount Vernon, which he was to inherit in 1761.

In 1755, Washington reentered military service with the courtesy title of colonel, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, and barely escaped death when the French defeated the general’s forces in the Battle of the Monongahela, PA. As a reward for his bravery, Washington rewon his colonelcy and command of the Virginia militia forces, charged with defending the colony’s frontier. Because of the shortage of men and equipment, he found the assignment challenging. Late in 1758 or early in 1759, disillusioned over governmental neglect of the militia and irritated at not rising in rank, he resigned and headed back to Mount Vernon.

Washington then wed Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow and mother of two children. The marriage produced no offspring, but Washington reared those of his wife as his own. During the period 1759-74, he managed his plantations and sat in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He supported the initial protests against British policies; took an active part in the nonimportation movement in Virginia; and, in time, particularly because of his military experience, became a Whig leader.

By the 1770s, relations of the colony with the mother country had become strained. Measured in his behavior but strongly sympathetic to the Whig position and resentful of British restrictions and commercial exploitation, Washington represented Virginia at the First and Second Continental Congresses. In 1775, after the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, Congress appointed him as commander in chief of the Continental Army. Overcoming severe obstacles, especially in supply, he eventually fashioned a well-trained and disciplined fighting force.

The strategy Washington evolved consisted of continual harassment of British forces while avoiding general actions. Although his troops yielded much ground and lost a number of battles, they persevered even during the dark winters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and Morristown, New Jersey. Finally, with the aid of the French fleet and army, he won a climactic victory at the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.

During the next 2 years, while still commanding the agitated Continental Army, which was underpaid and poorly supplied, Washington denounced proposals that the military take over the government, including one that planned to appoint him as king, but supported army petitions to the Continental Congress for proper compensation. Once the Treaty of Paris (1783) was signed, he resigned his commission and returned once again to Mount Vernon. His wartime financial sacrifices and long absence, as well as generous loans to friends, had severely impaired his extensive fortune, which consisted mainly of his plantations, slaves, and landholdings in the West. At this point, however, he was to have little time to repair his finances, for his retirement was brief.

Dissatisfied with national progress under the Articles of Confederation, Washington advocated a stronger central government. He hosted the Mount Vernon Conference (1785) at his estate after its initial meetings in Alexandria, though he apparently did not directly participate in the discussions. Despite his sympathy with the goals of the Annapolis Convention (1786), he did not attend. But, the following year, encouraged by many of his friends, he presided over the Constitutional Convention, whose success was immeasurably influenced by his presence and dignity. Following ratification of the new instrument of government in 1788, the electoral college unanimously chose him as the first President.

The next year, after a triumphal journey from Mount Vernon to New York City, Washington took the oath of office at Federal Hall. During his two precedent-setting terms, he governed with dignity as well as restraint. He also provided the stability and authority the emergent nation so sorely needed, gave substance to the Constitution, and reconciled competing factions and divergent policies within the government and his administration. Although not averse to exercising presidential power, he respected the role of Congress and did not infringe upon its prerogatives. He also tried to maintain harmony between his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, whose differences typified evolving party divisions from which Washington kept aloof.

Yet, usually leaning upon Hamilton for advice, Washington supported his plan for the assumption of state debts, concurred in the constitutionality of the bill establishing the Bank of the United States, and favored enactment of tariffs by Congress to provide federal revenue and protect domestic manufacturers.

Washington took various other steps to strengthen governmental authority, including suppression of the Whisky Rebellion (1794). To unify the country, he toured the Northeast in 1789 and the South in 1791. During his tenure, the government moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790, he superintended planning for relocation to the District of Columbia, and he laid the cornerstone of the Capitol (1793).

In foreign affairs, despite opposition from the Senate, Washington exerted dominance. He fostered United States interests on the North American continent by treaties with Britain and Spain. Yet, until the nation was stronger, he insisted on the maintenance of neutrality. For example, when the French Revolution created war between France and Britain, he ignored the remonstrances of pro-French Jefferson and pro-English Hamilton.

Although many people encouraged Washington to seek a third term, he was weary of politics and refused to do so. In his “Farewell Address” (1796), he urged his countrymen to forswear party spirit and sectional differences and to avoid entanglement in the wars and domestic policies of other nations.

Washington enjoyed only a few years of retirement at Mount Vernon. Even then, demonstrating his continued willingness to make sacrifices for his country in 1798 when the nation was on the verge of war with France he agreed to command the army, though his services were not ultimately required. He died at the age of 67 in 1799. In his will, he emancipated his slaves.

James Madison, Jr.

James Madison

State: Virginia

Age at Convention: 36

Date of Birth: March 16, 1751

Date of Death: June 28, 1836

Schooling: College of New Jersey (Princeton) 1771

Occupation: Politician

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of Virginia 1776, 1783-1786, Upper House of Virginia 1778, Virginia State Constitutional Convention 1776, Confederation Congress 1781- 1783, 1786-1788, Virginia House of Delegates 1784-1786, Annapolis Convention Signer 1786

Committee Assignments: Third Committee of Representation, Committee of Slave Trade, Committee of Leftovers, Committee of Style

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. He is best known for writing the Virginia Plan and defending the attempt to build a stronger central government. He kept copious notes of the proceedings of the Convention which were made available to the general public upon his death in 1836. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Madison is a character who has long been in public life; and what is very remarkable every Person seems to acknowledge his greatness. He blends together the profound politician, with the Scholar. … The affairs of the United States, he perhaps, has the most correct knowledge of, of any Man in the Union.”

New Government Participation: Attended the ratification convention of Virginia and supported the ratification of the Constitution. He also coauthored the Federalist Papers. Served as Virginia’s U.S. Representative (1789-1797) where he drafted and debated the First Twelve Amendments to the Constitution; ten of which became the Bill of Rights; author of the Virginia Resolutions which argued that the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were unconstitutional. Served as Secretary of State (1801-1809) Elected President of the United States of America (1809-1817).

Biography from the National Archives: The oldest of 10 children and a scion of the planter aristocracy, Madison was born in 1751 at Port Conway, King George County, VA, while his mother was visiting her parents. In a few weeks she journeyed back with her newborn son to Montpelier estate, in Orange County, which became his lifelong home. He received his early education from his mother, from tutors, and at a private school. An excellent scholar though frail and sickly in his youth, in 1771 he graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), where he demonstrated special interest in government and the law. But, considering the ministry for a career, he stayed on for a year of postgraduate study in theology.

Back at Montpelier, still undecided on a profession, Madison soon embraced the patriot cause, and state and local politics absorbed much of his time. In 1775 he served on the Orange County committee of safety; the next year at the Virginia convention, which, besides advocating various Revolutionary steps, framed the Virginia constitution; in 1776-77 in the House of Delegates; and in 1778-80 in the Council of State. His ill health precluded any military service.

In 1780 Madison was chosen to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress (1780-83 and 1786-88). Although originally the youngest delegate, he played a major role in the deliberations of that body. Meantime, in the years 1784-86, he had again sat in the Virginia House of Delegates. He was a guiding force behind the Mount Vernon Conference (1785), attended the Annapolis Convention (1786), and was otherwise highly instrumental in the convening of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He had also written extensively about deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation.

Madison was clearly the preeminent figure at the convention. Some of the delegates favored an authoritarian central government; others, retention of state sovereignty; and most occupied positions in the middle of the two extremes. Madison, who was rarely absent and whose Virginia Plan was in large part the basis of the Constitution, tirelessly advocated a strong government, though many of his proposals were rejected. Despite his poor speaking capabilities, he took the floor more than 150 times, third only after Gouverneur Morris and James Wilson. Madison was also a member of numerous committees, the most important of which were those on postponed matters and style. His journal of the convention is the best single record of the event. He also played a key part in guiding the Constitution through the Continental Congress.

Playing a lead in the ratification process in Virginia, too, Madison defended the document against such powerful opponents as Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee. In New York, where Madison was serving in the Continental Congress, he collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in a series of essays that in 1787-88 appeared in the newspapers and were soon published in book form as The Federalist (1788). This set of essays is a classic of political theory and a lucid exposition of the republican principles that dominated the framing of the Constitution.

In the U.S. House of Representatives (1789-97), Madison helped frame and ensure passage of the Bill of Rights. He also assisted in organizing the executive department and creating a system of federal taxation. As leaders of the opposition to Hamilton’s policies, he and Jefferson founded the Democratic-Republican Party.

In 1794 Madison married a vivacious widow who was 16 years his junior, Dolley Payne Todd, who had a son; they were to raise no children of their own. Madison spent the period 1797-1801 in semiretirement, but in 1798 he wrote the Virginia Resolutions, which attacked the Alien and Sedition Acts. While he served as Secretary of State (1801-9), his wife often served as President Jefferson’s hostess.

In 1809 Madison succeeded Jefferson. Like the first three Presidents, Madison was enmeshed in the ramifications of European wars. Diplomacy had failed to prevent the seizure of U.S. ships, goods, and men on the high seas, and a depression wracked the country. Madison continued to apply diplomatic techniques and economic sanctions, eventually effective to some degree against France. But continued British interference with shipping, as well as other grievances, led to the War of 1812.

The war, for which the young nation was ill prepared, ended in stalemate in December 1814 when the inconclusive Treaty of Ghent which nearly restored prewar conditions, was signed. But, thanks mainly to Andrew Jackson’s spectacular victory at the Battle of New Orleans (Chalmette) in January 1815, most Americans believed they had won. Twice tested, independence had survived, and an ebullient nationalism marked Madison’s last years in office, during which period the Democratic-Republicans held virtually uncontested sway.

In retirement after his second term, Madison managed Montpelier but continued to be active in public affairs. He devoted long hours to editing his journal of the Constitutional Convention, which the government was to publish 4 years after his death. He served as co-chairman of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829-30 and as rector of the University of Virginia during the period 1826-36. Writing newspaper articles defending the administration of Monroe, he also acted as his foreign policy adviser.

Madison spoke out, too, against the emerging sectional controversy that threatened the existence of the Union. Although a slaveholder all his life, he was active during his later years in the American Colonization Society, whose mission was the resettlement of slaves in Africa.

Madison died at the age of 85 in 1836, survived by his wife and stepson.

Edmund J. Randolph

State: Virginia

Age at Convention: 34

Date of Birth: August 10, 1753

Date of Death: September 2, 1813

Schooling: Attended College of William and Mary

Occupation: Governor of Virginia, Planter and Slave Holder, Lending and Investments, Real Estate and Land Speculation

Prior Political Experience: Virginia House of Delegates Clerk 1778-1779, Continental Congress 1779-1780, Confederation Congress 1781 – 1782 State Constitutional Convention of Virginia 1776, Governor of Virginia 1786-1789, Attorney General of Virginia 1776-1786, Annapolis Convention Signer 1786

Committee Assignments: Second Committee of Representation, Committee of Detail, Committee of State Commitments

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. He did not sign the Constitution. He is best known for introducing and defending the Virginia Plan and then declining to sign the Constitution of September 17, 1787. His explanation was that the “Republican propositions” of the Virginia Plan had “much to his regret been widely, and in his opinion, irreconcilably departed from.” He recommended that a Second General Convention be called. William Pierce stated that Mr. Randolph is “a young Gentleman in whom unite all the accomplishments of the Scholar, and the Statesman. He came forward with the postulata, or first principles, on which the Convention acted, he supported them with a force of eloquence and reasoning that did him great honor. He has a most harmonious voice, a fine person and striking manners.” [Editor’s Note: Mr. Pierce left the Convention on July 2 and never returned. Accordingly, he failed to capture Mr. Randolph’s change of mind as a result of the conversations regarding the original Virginia Plan.]

New Government Participation: Attended the ratification convention of Virginia and supported the ratification of the Constitution, due to the persuasion of James Madison. President Washington nominated and the Senate confirmed him as the Attorney General of the United States (1789-1794). U.S. Secretary of State (1794-1795).

Biography from the National Archives: On August 10, 1753, Edmund Randolph was born in Tazewell Hall, Williamsburg, Virginia. His parents were Ariana Jenings and John Randolph. Edmund attended the College of William and Mary and continued his education by studying the law under his father’s tutelage.

When the Revolution broke out, father and son followed different paths. John Randolph, a Loyalist, followed the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, to England, in 1775. Edmund then lived with his uncle Peyton Randolph, a prominent figure in Virginia politics. During the war Edmund served as an aide-de-camp to General Washington and also attended the convention that adopted Virginia’s first state constitution in 1776. He was the convention’s youngest member at age 23. Randolph married Elizabeth Nicholas in 1776.

Randolph continued to advance in the political world. He became mayor of Williamsburg and Virginia’s attorney-general. In 1779 he was elected to the Continental Congress, and in November 1786 Randolph became Governor of Virginia. In 1786 he was a delegate to the Annapolis Convention.

Four days after the opening of the federal convention in Philadelphia, on May 29, 1787, Edmund Randolph presented the Virginia Plan for creating a new government. This plan proposed a strong central government composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, and enabled the legislative to veto state laws and use force against states that failed to fulfill their duties. After many debates and revisions, including striking the section permitting force against a state, the Virginia Plan became in large part the basis of the Constitution.

Though Randolph introduced the highly centralized Virginia Plan, he fluctuated between the Federalist and Antifederalist points of view. He sat on the Committee of Detail that prepared a draft of the Constitution, but by the time the document was adopted, Randolph declined to sign. He felt it was not sufficiently republican, and he was especially wary of creating a one-man executive. He preferred a three-man council since he regarded “a unity in the Executive” to be the “foetus of monarchy.” In a Letter… on the Federal Constitution, dated October 10, 1787, Randolph explained at length his objections to the Constitution. The old Articles of Confederation were inadequate, he agreed, but the proposed new plan of union contained too many flaws. Randolph was a strong advocate of the process of amendment. He feared that if the Constitution were submitted for ratification without leaving the states the opportunity to amend it, the document might be rejected and thus close off any hope of another plan of union. However, he hoped that amendments would be permitted and second convention called to incorporate the changes.

By the time of the Virginia convention for ratification, Randolph supported the Constitution and worked to win his state’s approval of it. He stated his reason for his switch: “The accession of eight states reduced our deliberations to the single question of Union or no Union.”

Under President Washington, Edmund Randolph became Attorney General of the United States. After Thomas Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State, Randolph assumed that post for the years 1794-95. During the Jefferson-Hamilton conflict he tried to remain unaligned. After retiring from politics in 1795, Randolph resumed his law practice and was regarded as a leading figure in the legal community. During his retirement he wrote a history of Virginia. When Aaron Burr went on trial for treason in 1807, Edmund Randolph acted as his senior counsel. In 1813, at age 60 and suffering from paralysis, Randolph died while visiting Nathaniel Burwell at Carter Hall. His body is buried in the graveyard of the nearby chapel.

John Blair

State: Virginia

Age at Convention: 55

Date of Birth: 1732

Date of Death: September 12, 1800

Schooling: College of William and Mary, Graduated Law Middle Temple

Occupation: Judge, Lawyer, Public Security Interests

Prior Political Experience: Virginia House of Burgesses (Representative of William and Mary) 1766-1770, Clerk of Colony’s Council 1770-1775, State Upper House of Virginia 1776-1777, Virginia State Constitutional Convention 1776, Virginia General Court Judge 1778, Virginia High Court of Chancery 1780, Virginia Privy Council 1776-1778

Committee Assignments: None

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. He was a staunch ally of James Madison at the Convention. William Pierce stated that “he is one of the Judges of the Supreme Court in Virginia, and acknowledged to have a very extensive knowledge of the Laws.”

New Government Participation: Attended the Virginia ratifying convention and supported the ratification of the Constitution. President Washington nominated Blair and the Senate confirmed him as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1789 – 1796).

Biography from the National Archives: Scion of a prominent Virginia family, Blair was born at Williamsburg in 1732. He was the son of John Blair, a colonial official and nephew of James Blair, founder and first president of the College of William and Mary. Signer Blair graduated from that institution and studied law at London’s Middle Temple. Thereafter, he practiced at Williamsburg. In the years 1766-70 he sat in the Virginia House of Burgesses as the representative of William and Mary. From 1770 to 1775 he held the position of clerk of the colony’s council.

An active patriot, Blair signed the Virginia Association of June 22, 1770, which pledged to abandon importation of British goods until the Townshend Duties were repealed. He also underwrote the Association of May 27, 1774, calling for a meeting of the colonies in a Continental Congress and supporting the Bostonians. He took part in the Virginia constitutional convention (1776), at which he sat on the committee that framed a declaration of rights as well as the plan for a new government. He next served on the Privy Council (1776-78). In the latter year, the legislature elected him as a judge of the General Court, and he soon took over the chief justiceship. In 1780 he won election to Virginia’s high chancery court, where his colleague was George Wythe.

Blair attended the Constitutional Convention religiously but never spoke or served on a committee. He usually sided with the position of the Virginia delegation. And, in the commonwealth ratifying convention, Blair helped win backing for the new framework of government.

In 1789 Washington named Blair as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, where he helped decide many important cases. Resigning that post in 1796, he spent his remaining years in Williamsburg. A widower, his wife (born Jean Balfour) having died in 1792, he lived quietly until he succumbed in 1800. He was 68 years old. His tomb is in the graveyard of Bruton Parish Church.

George Mason

State: Virginia

Age at Convention: 62

Date of Birth: December 11,1725

Date of Death: October 7, 1792

Schooling: Personal tutors

Occupation: Planter and Slave Holder, Lending and Investments, Real Estate Land Speculation, Public Security Investments, Land owner

Prior Political Experience: Author of Virginia Bill of Rights, State Lower House of Virginia 1776-1780, 1786-1787, Virginia State Constitutional Convention 1776

Committee Assignments: First Committee of Representation, Committee of Assumption of State Debts, Committee of Trade, Chairman Committee of Economy, Frugality, and Manufactures

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution, however he did not sign the Constitution. Initially Mason advocated a stronger central government but withdrew his support toward the end of the deliberations. He argued that the Constitution inadequately represented the interests of the people and the States and that the new government will “produce a monarchy, or a corrupt, tyrannical aristocracy.” William Pierce stated that “he is able and convincing in debate, steady and firm in his principles, and undoubtedly one of the best politicians in America.” He kept notes of the debates at the Convention.

New Government Participation: He attended the ratification convention of Virginia where he opposed the ratification of the Constitution. Did not serve in the new Federal Government.

Biography from the National Archives: In 1725 George Mason was born to George and Ann Thomson Mason. When the boy was 10 years old his father died, and young George’s upbringing was left in the care of his uncle, John Mercer. The future jurist’s education was profoundly shaped by the contents of his uncle’s 1500-volume library, one-third of which concerned the law.

Mason established himself as an important figure in his community. As owner of Gunston Hall he was one of the richest planters in Virginia. In 1750 he married Anne Eilbeck, and in 23 years of marriage they had five sons and four daughters. In 1752 he acquired an interest in the Ohio Company, an organization that speculated in western lands. When the crown revoked the company’s rights in 1773, Mason, the company’s treasurer, wrote his first major state paper, Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with Some Remarks upon Them.

During these years Mason also pursued his political interests. He was a justice of the Fairfax County court, and between 1754 and 1779 Mason was a trustee of the city of Alexandria. In 1759 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. When the Stamp Act of 1765 aroused outrage in the colonies, George Mason wrote an open letter explaining the colonists’ position to a committee of London merchants to enlist their support.

In 1774 Mason again was in the forefront of political events when he assisted in drawing up the Fairfax Resolves, a document that outlined the colonists’ constitutional grounds for their objections to the Boston Port Act. Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, framed by Mason in 1776, was widely copied in other colonies, served as a model for Jefferson in the first part of the Declaration of Independence, and was the basis for the federal Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

The years between 1776 and 1780 were filled with great legislative activity. The establishment of a government independent of Great Britain required the abilities of persons such as George Mason. He supported the disestablishment of the church and was active in the organization of military affairs, especially in the West. The influence of his early work, Extracts from the Virginia Charters, is seen in the 1783 peace treaty with Great Britain, which fixed the Anglo-American boundary at the Great Lakes instead of the Ohio River. After independence, Mason drew up the plan for Virginia’s cession of its western lands to the United States.

By the early 1780s, however, Mason grew disgusted with the conduct of public affairs and retired. He married his second wife, Sarah Brent, in 1780. In 1785 he attended the Mount Vernon meeting that was a prelude to the Annapolis convention of 1786, but, though appointed, he did not go to Annapolis.

At Philadelphia in 1787 Mason was one of the five most frequent speakers at the Constitutional Convention. He exerted great influence, but during the last two weeks of the convention he decided not to sign the document.

Mason’s refusal prompts some surprise, especially since his name is so closely linked with constitutionalism. He explained his reasons at length, citing the absence of a declaration of rights as his primary concern. He then discussed the provisions of the Constitution point by point, beginning with the House of Representatives. The House he criticized as not truly representative of the nation, the Senate as too powerful. He also claimed that the power of the federal judiciary would destroy the state judiciaries, render justice unattainable, and enable the rich to oppress and ruin the poor. These fears led Mason to conclude that the new government was destined to either become a monarchy or fall into the hands of a corrupt, oppressive aristocracy.

Two of Mason’s greatest concerns were incorporated into the Constitution. The Bill of Rights answered his primary objection, and the 11th amendment addressed his call for strictures on the judiciary.

Throughout his career Mason was guided by his belief in the rule of reason and in the centrality of the natural rights of man. He approached problems coolly, rationally, and impersonally. In recognition of his accomplishments and dedication to the principles of the Age of Reason, Mason has been called the American manifestation of the Enlightenment. Mason died on October 7, 1792, and was buried on the grounds of Gunston Hall.

David Brearly

State: New Jersey

Age at Convention: 42

Date of Birth: June 11, 1745

Date of Death: August 16, 1790

Schooling: Attended College of New Jersey (Princeton), Did not Graduate. Honorary MA, College of New Jersey, 1781.

Occupation: Public Security and Interests, Lawyer, Chief Justice New Jersey Supreme Court

Prior Political Experience: State Constitution of New Jersey 1776, Chief Justice of New Jersey 1779-1789

Committee Assignments: Third Committee of Representation, Chairman of the Committee of Leftovers (Often referred to as the Brearly Committee)

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25, and except for two days, June 28 and July 5, was present through the signing of the Constitution. As chair of the Committee of Leftovers he was instrumental in creation of the Electoral College. William Pierce stated that “as an Orator he has little to boast of, but as a Man he has every virtue to recommend him.”

New Government Participation: He was the chief presiding officer at the New Jersey ratifying convention, where he supported the ratification of the Constitution. President Washington nominated and the Senate confirmed Brearly as a Federal District Judge in 1789, he served in this position until his death in 1790.

Biography from the National Archives: Brearly (Brearley) was descended from a Yorkshire, England, family, one of whose members migrated to New Jersey around 1680. Signer Brearly was born in 1745 at Spring Grove near Trenton, was reared in the area, and attended but did not graduate from the nearby College of New Jersey (later Princeton). He chose law as a career and originally practiced at Allentown, NJ. About 1767 he married Elizabeth Mullen.

Brearly avidly backed the Revolutionary cause. The British arrested him for high treason, but a group of patriots freed him. In 1776 he took part in the convention that drew up the state constitution. During the War for Independence, he rose from a captain to a colonel in the militia.

In 1779 Brearly was elected as chief justice of the New Jersey supreme court, a position he held until 1789. He presided over the precedent-setting case of Holmes v. Walton. His decision, rendered in 1780, represented an early expression of the principle of judicial review. The next year, the College of New Jersey bestowed an honorary M.A. degree on him.

Brearly was 42 years of age when he participated in the Constitutional Convention. Although he did not rank among the leaders, he attended the sessions regularly. A follower of Paterson, who introduced the New Jersey Plan, Brearly opposed proportional representation of the states and favored one vote for each of them in Congress. He also chaired the Committee on Postponed Matters.

Brearly’s subsequent career was short, for he had only 3 years to live. He presided at the New Jersey convention that ratified the Constitution in 1788, and served as a presidential elector in 1789. That same year, President Washington appointed him as a federal district judge, and he served in that capacity until his death.

When free from his judicial duties, Brearly devoted much energy to lodge and church affairs. He was one of the leading members of the Masonic Order in New Jersey, as well as state vice president of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of former officers of the Revolutionary War. In addition, he served as a delegate to the Episcopal General Conference (1786) and helped write the church’s prayer book. In 1783, following the death of his first wife, he married Elizabeth Higbee.

Brearly died in Trenton at the age of 45 in 1790. He was buried there at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.

William Livingston

State: New Jersey (Born in New York)

Age at Convention: 63

Date of Birth: November 30, 1723

Date of Death: July 25, 1790

Schooling: Yale 1741, Yale Honorary LLD 1788

Occupation: Public Security Interests, Lawyer, Governor of New Jersey

Prior Political Experience: Chairman of the Committee of Assumption of State Debts, Chairman of the Committee of Slave Trade, Economy, Frugality and Manufactures Committee

Committee Assignments: Chairman of the Committee of Assumption of State Debts, Chairman of the Committee of Slave Trade, Economy, Frugality and Manufactures Committee

Convention Contributions: Arrived June 5, was absent from July 5 to July 24, and was present through the signing of the Constitution. James Madison stated that “he did not take an active part in the debates; but he was placed on important Committees, where it may be presumed that he had an agency and a due influence.” William Pierce stated that “Governor Livingston is confessedly a Man of the first rate talent, but he appears to me rather to indulge a sportiveness of wit, than a strength of wit.”

New Government Participation: He approved of the Constitution and of the ratification of it by New Jersey. He did not hold a position in the new Government.

Biography from the National Archives: Livingston was born in 1723 at Albany, NY. His maternal grandmother reared him until he was 14, and he then spent a year with a missionary among the Mohawk Indians. He attended Yale and graduated in 1741.

Rejecting his family’s hope that he would enter the fur trade at Albany or mercantile pursuits in New York City, young Livingston chose to pursue a career in law at the latter place. Before he completed his legal studies, in 1745 he married Susanna French, daughter of a well-to-do New Jersey landowner. She was to bear 13 children.

Three years later, Livingston was admitted to the bar and quickly gained a reputation as the supporter of popular causes against the more conservative factions in the city. Associated with the Calvinists in religion, he opposed the dominant Anglican leaders in the colony and wielded a sharply satirical pen in verses and broadsides. Livingston attacked the Anglican attempt to charter and control King’s College (later Columbia College and University) and the dominant De Lancey party for its Anglican sympathies, and by 1758 rose to the leadership of his faction. For a decade, it controlled the colonial assembly and fought against parliamentary interference in the colony’s affairs. During this time, 1759-61, Livingston sat in the assembly.

In 1769 Livingston’s supporters, split by the growing debate as to how to respond to British taxation of the colonies, lost control of the assembly. Not long thereafter, Livingston, who had also grown tired of legal practice, moved to the Elizabethtown (present Elizabeth), NJ, area, where he had purchased land in 1760. There, in 1772-73, he built the estate, Liberty Hall, continued to write verse, and planned to live the life of a gentleman farmer.

The Revolutionary upsurge, however, brought Livingston out of retirement. He soon became a member of the Essex County, NJ, committee of correspondence; in 1774 a representative in the First Continental Congress; and in 1775-76 a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In June 1776 he left Congress to command the New Jersey militia as a brigadier general and held this post until he was elected later in the year as the first governor of the state.

Livingston held the position throughout and beyond the war—in fact, for 14 consecutive years until his death in 1790. During his administration, the government was organized, the war won, and New Jersey launched on her path as a sovereign state. Although the pressure of affairs often prevented it, he enjoyed his estate whenever possible, conducted agricultural experiments, and became a member of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture. He was also active in the antislavery movement.

In 1787 Livingston was selected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, though his gubernatorial duties prevented him from attending every session. He did not arrive until June 5 and missed several weeks in July, but he performed vital committee work, particularly as chairman of the one that reached a compromise on the issue of slavery. He also supported the New Jersey Plan. In addition, he spurred New Jersey’s rapid ratification of the Constitution (1787). The next year, Yale awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Livingston died at Liberty Hall in his 67th year in 1790. He was originally buried at the local Presbyterian Churchyard, but a year later his remains were moved to a vault his son owned at Trinity Churchyard in Manhattan and in 1844 were again relocated, to Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery.

George Clymer

George Clymer

George Clymer (1739-1813) was born in Philadelphia, orphaned the next year, and then mentored to be a merchant and responsible citizen by his wealthy uncle. He died in Morrisville, Pennsylvania at age 74 and was buried in Trenton, New Jersey. In addition to being economically, and politically, active, Clymer supported the abolition of slavery and the development of the practical arts and sciences. In 1784, he remarried his first wife having died.

Clymer was an early supporter of the movement for independence; he opposed both the Tea Act and the Stamp Act in the early 1770s. He was one of nine delegates from the Second Continental Congress to sign the 1776 Declaration of Independence and then the 1787 Constitution. Another was Roger Sherman. Clymer was elected to the House of Representatives in 1789 where he supported Sherman in the successful effort to pass the Bill of Rights in 1791. He also helped President George Washington enforce whiskey excise taxes in Pennsylvania.

Despite Clymer’s extensive involvement in the story of the American founding, he is not on the list of influential, or even underrated founders. We attribute this to Clymer’s inclination to work behind the scenes on the various committees to which his colleagues elected him. He reminds us of the steady and vital work done by individuals who do not seek the limelight. Contemporary William Pierce of Georgia, who provided character sketches of multiple founders, portrayed him as “a respectable man, and much esteemed.”

James Wilson

James Wilson

James Wilson (1742-1798) was born near St. Andrews, Scotland. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1766, died in Edenton, North Carolina, while on Circuit Court duty for the United States Supreme Court, and was reinterred in Christ Church, Philadelphia. In 1793, a widower with six children, he remarried and one child who died in infancy.

He attended St. Andrews, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, and was a Latin tutor at the College of Philadelphia where he later gave lectures in English Literature and received an honorary Master of Arts degree. Wilson studied law under John Dickinson, was admitted to the bar in 1767, and set up a very lucrative practice in Reading, PA. He bought a farm near Carlisle and became interested in land speculation.

In 1774, Wilson was a member of the Carlisle Committee of Correspondence, and wrote a widely read pamphlet “Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament.” He argued that Parliament lacked authority to pass laws for the colonies.

In 1775 and 1776, Wilson was elected to both the First and Second Continental Congress. The Pennsylvania delegation was divided on the issue of reconciliation or separation. Initially, respecting the wishes of his loyalist inclined constituents, Wilson supported a three-week delay to reflect on Richard Henry Lee’s June 7 independence resolution. On July 2, Wilson joined Franklin and Morton and voted for independence.

Wilson’s political career and personal life were controversial between 1776 and 1787. In 1776, Wilson strongly opposed the new Pennsylvania state constitution and, as result, was temporarily recalled from Congress. He also resumed his activities in speculation, and acquired considerable debt. During a food shortage in 1779, Wilson, his friends, and his property on Third and Walnut in Philadelphia–“Fort Wilson”–were attacked. He was rescued by a law enforcement troop. In 1781, Wilson served as a director of the original Bank of North America. He was elected to the Confederation Congress in 1782, where he worked closely with Robert Morris on financial matters.

In 1787, he was appointed to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia where he supported majority rule, read Franklin’s speeches, and was on the five-member Committee on Detail that wrote the first draft of the Constitution. He was a strong advocate for the adoption of the Constitution at the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention. His famous “State House Speech” set the tone for the Federalist-Antifederalist out of doors debate.

Following ratification of the Constitution, he was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1789. In 1792, he spent time in a debtors prison while still serving on the Supreme Court. He died while riding circuit in North Carolina.

William Pierce, a delegate from Georgia at the 1787 Constitutional Convention who provided sketches of the delegates, wrote of him: “No man is more clear, copious, and comprehensive than Mr. Wilson, yet he is no great Orator.”

Gouverneur Morris

State: Pennsylvania (Born in New York)

Age at Convention: 35

Date of Birth: January 31, 1752

Date of Death: November 6, 1816

Schooling: Kings College (Columbia University) 1768

Occupation: Lawyer, Mercantile, Manufacturing and Shipping, Educator

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of New York State Legislature 1777-1778, State Constitutional Convention of New York 1776, Continental and Confederation Congresses 1778-1789, Signed Articles of Confederation, Assistant Superintendent of Finance for U.S. 1781-1785

Committee Assignments: Chairman of Second Committee of Representation, Third Committee of Representation, Committee of Leftovers, Committee of Style

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25, and except for a three week period in late June, he was present through the signing of the Constitution. He spoke more frequently than any other delegate and supported the effort to build a strong central government. He is best remembered for writing the Preamble to the Constitution and for the “obligation of contracts clause” in Article I, Section 10 in the Constitution. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Gouverneur Morris is one of the Genius’s in whom every species of talents combine to render him conspicuous and flourishing in public debate. … No Man has more wit, nor can anyone engage the attention more than Mr. Morris.”

New Government Participation: President Washington nominated and the Senate confirmed him as an emissary to England (1790 – 1791), replaced Thomas Jefferson as emissary to France in (1792 – 1794). Member U.S. Senate for New York, 1800-1803.

Biography from the National Archives: Of French and English descent, Morris was born at Morrisania estate, in Westchester (present Bronx) County, NY, in 1752. His family was wealthy and enjoyed a long record of public service. His elder half-brother, Lewis, signed the Declaration of Independence.

Gouverneur was educated by private tutors and at a Huguenot school in New Rochelle. In early life, he lost a leg in a carriage accident. He attended King’s College (later Columbia College and University) in New York City, graduating in 1768 at the age of 16. Three years later, after reading law in the city, he gained admission to the bar.

When the Revolution loomed on the horizon, Morris became interested in political affairs. Because of his conservatism, however, he at first feared the movement, which he believed would bring mob rule. Furthermore, some of his family and many of his friends were Loyalists. But, beginning in 1775, for some reason he sided with the Whigs. That same year, representing Westchester County, he took a seat in New York’s Revolutionary provincial congress (1775-77). In 1776, when he also served in the militia, along with John Jay and Robert R. Livingston he drafted the first constitution of the state. Subsequently he joined its council of safety (1777).

In 1777-78 Morris sat in the legislature and in 1778-79 in the Continental Congress, where he numbered among the youngest and most brilliant members. During this period, he signed the Articles of Confederation and drafted instructions for Benjamin Franklin, in Paris, as well as those that provided a partial basis for the treaty ending the War for Independence. Morris was also a close friend of Washington and one of his strongest congressional supporters.

Defeated in his bid for reelection to Congress in 1779 because of the opposition of Gov. George Clinton’s faction, Morris relocated to Philadelphia and resumed the practice of law. This temporarily removed him from the political scene, but in 1781 he resumed his public career when he became the principal assistant to Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance for the United States, to whom he was unrelated. Gouverneur held this position for 4 years.

Morris emerged as one of the leading figures at the Constitutional Convention. His speeches, more frequent than those by anyone else, numbered 173. Although sometimes presented in a light vein, they were usually substantive. A strong advocate of nationalism and aristocratic rule, he served on many committees, including those on postponed matters and style, and stood in the thick of the decision-making process. Above all, it was apparently he who actually drafted the Constitution. Morris subsequently left public life for a time to devote his attention to business. Having purchased the family home from his half-brother, Lewis, he moved back to New York. Afterward, in 1789, Gouverneur joined in a business venture with Robert Morris, and traveled to France, where he witnessed the beginnings of the French Revolution.

Morris was to remain in Europe for about a decade. In 1790-91 he undertook a diplomatic mission to London to try to negotiate some of the outstanding problems between the United States and Great Britain. The mission failed, but in 1792 Washington appointed him as Minister to France, to replace Thomas Jefferson. Morris was recalled 2 years later but did not come home. Instead, he traveled extensively in Europe for more than 4 years, during which time he handled his complicated business affairs and contemplated the complex political situation.

Morris returned to the United States in 1799. The next year, he was elected to finish an unexpired term in the U.S. Senate. An ardent Federalist, he was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1802 and left office the following year.

Morris retired to a glittering life at Morrisania, where he had built a new residence. In 1809 he married Anne Cary (Carey) Randolph of Virginia, and they had one son. During his last years, he continued to speak out against the Democratic-Republicans and violently opposed the War of 1812. In the years 1810-13 he served as chairman of the Erie Canal Commission.

Morris died at Morrisania in 1816 at the age of 64 and was buried at St. Anne’s Episcopal Churchyard, in the Bronx, New York City.

Alexander Martin

State: North Carolina (Born in New Jersey)

Age at Convention: 47

Date of Birth: 1740

Date of Death: November 2, 1807

Schooling: College of New Jersey (Princeton) 1756, M.A. 1759

Occupation: Politician, Lawyer, Planter, Educator

Prior Political Experience: State second branch of North Carolina 1779-1782 & 1785, Speaker of the House 1780-1782, Acting Governor of North Carolina 1781-1782, Governor of North Carolina 1782-1785

Committee Assignments: None

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25, departed August 25, and never returned to the Convention. William Pierce stated that “he is a Man of sense, and undoubtedly is a good politician, but he is not formed to shine in public debate, being no Speaker.”

New Government Participation: Served as one of the first Senators for North Carolina (1793-1799).

Biography from the National Archives: Though he represented North Carolina at the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Martin was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in 1740. His parents, Hugh and Jane Martin, moved first to Virginia, then to Guilford County, North Carolina, when Alexander was very young. Martin attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), received his degree in 1756, and moved to Salisbury. There he started his career as a merchant but turned to public service as he became justice of the peace, deputy king’s attorney, and, in 1774 and 1775, judge of Salisbury district.

At the September 1770 session of the superior court at Hillsboro, 150 Regulators armed with sticks, switches, and cudgels crowded into the courtroom. They had come to present a petition to the judge demanding unprejudiced juries and a public accounting of taxes by sheriffs. Violence erupted, and several, including Alexander Martin, were beaten. In 1771, Martin signed an agreement with the Regulators to refund all fees taken illegally and to arbitrate all differences.

From 1773 to 1774 Martin served in the North Carolina House of Commons and in the second and third provincial congresses in 1775. In September 1775 he was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the 2nd North Carolina Continental Regiment. Martin saw military action in South Carolina and won promotion to a colonelcy. He joined Washington’s army in 1777, but after the Battle of Germantown he was arrested for cowardice. A court-martial tried and acquitted Martin, but he resigned his commission on November 22, 1777.

Martin’s misfortune in the army did not impede his political career. The year after his court-martial he entered the North Carolina Senate, where he served for 8 years (1778-82, 1785, and 1787-88). For every session except those of 1778-79, Martin served as speaker. From 1780 to 1781 he also sat on the Board of War and its successor, the Council Extraordinary. In 1781 Martin became acting governor of the state, and in 1782 through 1785 he was elected in his own right.

After his 1785 term in the North Carolina Senate, Martin represented his state in the Continental Congress, but he resigned in 1787. Of the five North Carolina delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Martin was the least strongly Federalist. He did not take an active part in the proceedings, and he left Philadelphia in late August 1787, before the Constitution was signed. Martin was considered a good politician but not suited to public debate. A colleague, Hugh Williamson, remarked that Martin needed time to recuperate after his great exertions as governor “to enable him again to exert his abilities to the advantage of the nation.”

Under the new national government, Martin again served as Governor of North Carolina, from 1789 until 1792. After 1790, he moved away from the Federalists to the Republicans. In 1792, Martin, elected by the Republican legislature, entered the U.S. Senate. His vote in favor of the Alien and Sedition Acts cost him reelection. Back in North Carolina, Martin returned to the state senate in 1804 and 1805 to represent Rockingham County. In 1805 he once again served as speaker. From 1790 until 1807, he was a trustee of the University of North Carolina. Martin never married, and he died on November 2, 1807 at the age of 67 at his plantation, “Danbury,” in Rockingham County and was buried on the estate.

William R. Davie

State: North Carolina (Born in England, immigrated 1763)

Age at Convention: 30

Date of Birth: June 20, 1756

Date of Death: November 29, 1820

Schooling: College of New Jersey (Princeton) 1776

Occupation: Lawyer, Lending and Investments, Planter and Slave Holder, Solider, Educator

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of North Carolina 1784-1789

Committee Assignments: First Committee of Representation

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25, departed August 11, and never returned to the Convention. Davie supported Ellsworth’s proposition that “We were partly federal, partly national in our Union.” William Pierce stated that “he was silent in the Convention, but his opinion was always respected.”

New Government Participation: Attended both of the ratification conventions of North Carolina, and supported the ratification of the Constitution. President John Adams appointed him as a peace commissioner to France in 1799.

Biography from the National Archives: One of the eight delegates born outside of the thirteen colonies, Davie was born in Egremont, Cumberlandshire, England, on June 20, 1756. In 1763, Archibald Davie brought his son William to Waxhaw, South Carolina, where the boy’s maternal uncle, William Richardson, a Presbyterian clergyman, adopted him. Davie attended Queen’s Museum College in Charlotte, North Carolina, and graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) in 1776.

Davie’s law studies in Salisbury, North Carolina, were interrupted by military service, but he won his license to practice before county courts in 1779 and in the superior courts in 1780. When the War for Independence broke out, he helped raise a troop of cavalry near Salisbury and eventually achieved the rank of colonel. While attached to Pulaski’s division, Davie was wounded leading a charge at Stono, near Charleston, on June 20, 1779. Early in 1780 he raised another troop and operated mainly in western North Carolina. In January 1781 Davie was appointed commissary-general for the Carolina campaign. In this capacity he oversaw the collection of arms and supplies to Gen. Nathanael Greene’s army and the state militia.

After the war, Davie embarked on his career as a lawyer, traveling the circuit in North Carolina. In 1782 he married Sarah Jones, the daughter of his former commander, Gen. Allen Jones, and settled in Halifax. His legal knowledge and ability won him great respect, and his presentation of arguments was admired. Between 1786 and 1798 Davie represented Halifax in the North Carolina legislature. There he was the principal agent behind that body’s actions to revise and codify state laws, send representatives to the Annapolis and Philadelphia conventions, cede Tennessee to the Union, and fix disputed state boundaries.

During the Constitutional Convention, Davie favored plans for a strong central government. He was a member of the committee that considered the question of representation in Congress and swung the North Carolina delegation’s vote in favor of the Great Compromise. He favored election of senators and presidential electors by the legislature and insisted on counting slaves in determining representation. Though he left the convention on August 13, before its adjournment, Davie fought hard for the Constitution’s ratification and took a prominent part in the North Carolina convention.

The political and military realms were not the only ones in which Davie left his mark. The University of North Carolina, of which he was the chief founder, stands as an enduring reminder of Davie’s interest in education. Davie selected the location, instructors, and a curriculum that included the literary and social sciences as well as mathematics and classics. In 1810 the trustees conferred upon him the title of “Father of the University” and in the next year granted him the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Davie became Governor of North Carolina in 1798. His career also turned back briefly to the military when President John Adams appointed him a brigadier general in the U.S. Army that same year. Davie later served as a peace commissioner to France in 1799.

Davie stood as a candidate for Congress in 1803 but met defeat. In 1805, after the death of his wife, Davie retired from politics to his plantation, “Tivoli,” in Chester County, South Carolina. In 1813 he declined an appointment as major-general from President Madison. Davie was 64 years old when he died on November 29, 1820, at “Tivoli,” and he was buried in the Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Churchyard in northern Lancaster County.

Hugh Williamson

State: North Carolina (Born in Pennsylvania)

Age at Convention: 51

Date of Birth: December 5, 1735

Date of Death: May 22, 1819

Schooling: College of Philadelphia 1757, M.A. 1760, University of Utercht M.D. 1772

Occupation: Lending and Investments, Real Estate and Land Speculation, Public Security Interests, Doctor, Merchant, Math Professor at College of Philadelphia, Author

Prior Political Experience: State Upper House of North Carolina 1782-1785, Confederation Congress 1782-1785 & 1787-1789, Elected to Annapolis Convention 1786, Surgeon General of North Carolina 1779-1782

Committee Assignments: Third Committee of Representation, Committee of Assumption of State Debt, Committee of Slave Trade, Committee of Trade, Committee of Leftovers

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25, was present through the signing of the Constitution. His most important role at the Convention was his guidance of North Carolina to support the Connecticut Compromise. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Williamson is a Gentleman of education and talents.”

New Government Participation: Supported the ratification of the Constitution and attended the Second Ratification Convention of North Carolina 1789. Served two terms as a U. S. Representative for North Carolina (1789 – 1793).

Biography from the National Archives: The versatile Williamson was born of Scottish-Irish descent at West Nottingham, Pennsylvania, in 1735. He was the eldest son in a large family, whose head was a clothier. Hoping he would become a Presbyterian minister, his parents oriented his education toward that calling. After attending preparatory schools at New London Cross Roads, Delaware, and Newark, Delaware, he entered the first class of the College of Philadelphia (later part of the University of Pennsylvania) and took his degree in 1757.

The next 2 years, at Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, Williamson spent settling his father’s estate. Then training in Connecticut for the ministry, he soon became a licensed Presbyterian preacher but was never ordained. Around this time, he also took a position as professor of mathematics at his alma mater.

In 1764, Williamson abandoned these pursuits and studied medicine at Edinburgh, London, and Utrecht, eventually obtaining a degree from the University of Utrecht. Returning to Philadelphia, he began to practice but found it to be emotionally exhausting. His pursuit of scientific interests continued, and in 1768 he became a member of the American Philosophical Society. The next year, he served on a commission that observed the transits of Venus and Mercury. In 1771, he wrote An Essay on Comets, in which he advanced several original ideas. As a result, the University of Leyden awarded him an LL.D. degree.

In 1773, to raise money for an academy in Newark, DE., Williamson made a trip to the West Indies and then to Europe. Sailing from Boston, he saw the Tea Party and carried news of it to London. When the British Privy Council called on him to testify as to what he had seen, he warned the councilors that the colonies would rebel if the British did not change their policies. While in England, he struck up a close friendship with fellow-scientist Benjamin Franklin, and they cooperated in electrical experiments. Moreover, Williamson furnished to Franklin the letters of Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson to his lieutenant governor that created a sensation and tended to further alienate the mother country and colonies.

In 1775, a pamphlet Williamson had written while in England, called “The Plea of the Colonies,” was published. It solicited the support of the English Whigs for the American cause. When the United States proclaimed their independence the next year, Williamson was in the Netherlands. He soon sailed back to the United States, settling first in Charleston, South Carolina, and then in Edenton, North Carolina. There, he prospered in a mercantile business that traded with the French West Indies and once again took up the practice of medicine.

Williamson applied for a medical post with the patriot forces, but found all such positions filled. The governor of North Carolina, however, soon called on his specialized skills, and he became surgeon-general of state troops. After the Battle of Camden, South Carolina, he frequently crossed British lines to tend to the wounded. He also prevented sickness among the troops by paying close attention to food, clothing, shelter, and hygiene.

After the war, Williamson began his political career. In 1782, he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature and to the Continental Congress. Three years later, he left Congress and returned to his legislative seat. In 1786, he was chosen to represent his state at the Annapolis Convention but arrived too late to take part. The next year, he again served in Congress (1787-89) and was chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Attending faithfully and demonstrating keen debating skill, he served on five committees, notably on the Committee on Postponed Matters, and played a significant part in the proceedings, particularly the major compromise on representation.

After the convention, Williamson worked for ratification of the Constitution in North Carolina. In 1788, he was chosen to settle outstanding accounts between the state and the federal government. The next year, he was elected to the first U.S. House of Representatives, where he served two terms. In 1789 he married Maria Apthorpe, who bore at least two sons.

In 1793, Williamson moved to New York City to facilitate his literary and philanthropic pursuits. Over the years, he published many political, educational, economic, historical, and scientific works, but the last earned him the most praise. The University of Leyden awarded him an honorary degree. In addition, he was an original trustee of the University of North Carolina and later held trusteeships at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the University of the State of New York. He was also a founder of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York and a prominent member of the New-York Historical Society.

In 1819, at the age of 83, Williamson died in New York City and was buried at Trinity Church.

George Read

George Read

George Read (1733-1798) was born in Maryland from a line of Irish and Welsh immigrants who became landowners. However, he was raised in Delaware. He died in New Castle and is buried in Immanuel Episcopal Churchyard in Newcastle. In 1763 he married the widowed sister of fellow signer George Ross and they had five children.

Read was educated in Pennsylvania where he studied law and admitted to the Philadelphia Bar at age 20. In 1754 he returned to Delaware. In 1763, he married the widowed sister of George Ross, fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence from Pennsylvania and uncle of Betsy Ross. What is impressive is Read’s forty year involvement in local, state, and national politics during which time he embraced both the politics of reconciliation with Britain in 1776 and the politics of change from 1786.

Read was attorney general in the colonial government from 1763-1774, but opposed the Stamp Act despite his reputation as a moderate. He was elected to the first and second Continental Congress from 1774-1776 along with Thomas McKean. The third delegate, Caesar Rodney, attended at the conclusion of the discussions. Read initially voted against Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution for Independence on July2; he was the only eventual signer to do so. He preferred to continue pursuing possible reconciliation with Britain rather than agreeing to a complete break. McKean sent an urgent message to Rodney in Delaware to come to Philadelphia to break the tie in the Delaware vote on independence because of Read’s reluctance to make the final step to endorse independence. Rodney’s vote broke the tie. When Lee’s Resolution was adopted, however, Read accepted the vote of his two Delaware colleagues and signed the Declaration.

In 1776, Read was selected to the Constitutional Convention in Delaware, where he served on the committee to draft the new Delaware Constitution. In 1777, the British captured Delaware and Read became emergency governor replacing Thomas McKean. Read was twice elected State Senator under the new Delaware Constitution. Between 1782-1788, he devoted himself to political activities in Delaware.

He attended the Annapolis Convention in 1786 that called for a Grand Convention to meet in Philadelphia, May 1786 to reconsider the structure and powers of the general government under the Articles of Confederation. He then represented Delaware at the Constitutional Convention, where he signed the Constitution, attended the 1787 Delaware Ratifying Convention, served in the United States Senate (1789-1793), and then Chief Justice of Delaware.

Read actually signed the Constitution twice, signing once for himself and once for fellow Delaware delegate John Dickinson who was at home sick with a migraine. William Pierce, a delegate at the Constitutional Convention, penned sketches of fellow delegates: Read’s “legal abilities are said to be very great, but powers of Oratory are fatiguing and tiresome to the last degree.”

John Dickinson

State: Delaware (Born in Maryland)

Age at Convention: 54

Date of Birth: November 8, 1732

Date of Death: February 14, 1808

Affiliation: Federalist

Schooling: Middle Temple (London) 1757, Honorary LLD College of New Jersey (Princeton)

Occupation: Lending and Investments, Lawyer, Retired

Prior Political Experience: Delaware State Upper House 1781, Served Second Continental Congress 1775-1776, Pennsylvania Legislator 1762 & 1764-1771, Voted against Declaration of Independence & did not sign but supported the Revolutionary War, Continental Congress 1779-1780, Drafted and signed Articles of Confederation, President of Delaware’s Supreme Executive Counsel 1781, President of Pennsylvania 1782-1785, Represented Delaware at Annapolis Convention 1786

Committee Assignments: Committee of Assumption of State Debt, Committee of Slave Trade, Committee of Leftovers, Committee of Economy, Frugality and Manufactures

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 29, absent for three weeks in late June and early July, returned until September 14. George Read signed his name on September 17. He accused Madison of “going too far” in pushing for proportional representation. He is best known for his phrase “let experience be our guide. Reason may mislead us.” William Pierce stated that “Mr. Dickinson has been famed through all America, for his Farmer Letters; he is a Scholar, and said to be a Man of very extensive information. … I had often heard that he was a great Orator, but I found him an indifferent Speaker.”

New Government Participation: Wrote public letters supporting the ratification of the Constitution. Held no public office under the new government.

Biography from the National Archives: Dickinson, “Penman of the Revolution,” was born in 1732 at Crosiadore estate, near the village of Trappe in Talbot County, Maryland. He was the second son of Samuel Dickinson, the prosperous farmer, and his second wife, Mary (Cadwalader) Dickinson. In 1740, the family moved to Kent County near Dover, Delaware, where private tutors educated the youth. In 1750, he began to study law with John Moland in Philadelphia. In 1753, Dickinson went to England to continue his studies at London’s Middle Temple. Four years later, he returned to Philadelphia and became a prominent lawyer there. In 1770, he married Mary Norris, daughter of a wealthy merchant. The couple had at least one daughter.

By that time, Dickinson’s superior education and talents had propelled him into politics. In 1760, he had served in the assembly of the Three Lower Counties (Delaware), where he held the speakership. Combining his Pennsylvania and Delaware careers in 1762, he won a seat as a Philadelphia member in the Pennsylvania assembly and sat there again in 1764. He became the leader of the conservative side in the colony’s political battles. His defense of the proprietary governor against the faction led by Benjamin Franklin hurt his popularity but earned him respect for his integrity. Nevertheless, as an immediate consequence, he lost his legislative seat in 1764.

Meantime, the struggle between the colonies and the mother country had waxed strong and Dickinson had emerged in the forefront of Revolutionary thinkers. In the debates over the Stamp Act (1765), he played a key part. That year, he wrote The Late Regulations Respecting the British Colonies… Considered, an influential pamphlet that urged Americans to seek repeal of the act by pressuring British merchants. Accordingly, the Pennsylvania legislature appointed him as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, whose resolutions he drafted.

In 1767-68, Dickinson wrote a series of newspaper articles in the Pennsylvania Chronicle that came to be known collectively as “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.” They attacked British taxation policy and urged resistance to unjust laws, but also emphasized the possibility of a peaceful resolution. So popular were the “Letters” in the colonies that Dickinson received an honorary LL.D. from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) and public thanks from a meeting in Boston. In 1768, responding to the Townshend Duties, he championed rigorous colonial resistance in the form of nonimportation and nonexportation agreements.

In 1771, Dickinson returned to the Pennsylvania legislature and drafted a petition to the king that was unanimously approved. Because of his continued opposition to the use of force, however, he lost much of his popularity by 1774. He particularly resented the tactics of New England leaders in that year and refused to support aid requested by Boston in the wake of the Intolerable Acts, though he sympathized with the city’s plight. Reluctantly, Dickinson was drawn into the Revolutionary fray. In 1774 he chaired the Philadelphia committee of correspondence and briefly sat in the First Continental Congress as a representative from Pennsylvania.

Throughout 1775, Dickinson supported the Whig cause, but continued to work for peace. He drew up petitions asking the king for redress of grievances. At the same time, he chaired a Philadelphia committee of safety and defense and held a colonelcy in the first battalion recruited in Philadelphia to defend the city.

After Lexington and Concord, Dickinson continued to hope for a peaceful solution. In the Second Continental Congress (1775-76), still a representative of Pennsylvania, he drew up the “Declaration of the Causes of Taking Up Arms.” In the Pennsylvania assembly, he drafted an authorization to send delegates to Congress in 1776. It directed them to seek redress of grievances, but ordered them to oppose separation of the colonies from Britain.

By that time, Dickinson’s moderate position had left him in the minority. In Congress, he voted against the Declaration of Independence (1776) and refused to sign it. Nevertheless, he then became one of only two contemporary congressional members (with Thomas McKean) who entered the military. When he was not reelected he resigned his brigadier general’s commission and withdrew to his estate in Delaware. Later in 1776, though reelected to Congress by his new constituency, he declined to serve and also resigned from the Pennsylvania Assembly. He may have taken part in the Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania (September 11, 1777), as a private in a special Delaware force but otherwise saw no further military action.

Dickinson came out of retirement to take a seat in the Continental Congress (1779-80), where he signed the Articles of Confederation; earlier he had headed the committee that had drafted them. In 1781, he became president of Delaware’s Supreme Executive Council. Shortly thereafter, he moved back to Philadelphia. There, he became president of Pennsylvania (1782-85). In 1786, representing Delaware, he attended and chaired the Annapolis Convention.

The next year, Delaware sent Dickinson to the Constitutional Convention. He missed a number of sessions and left early because of illness, but he made worthwhile contributions, including service on the Committee on Postponed Matters. Although he resented the forcefulness of Madison and the other nationalists, he helped engineer the Great Compromise and wrote public letters supporting constitutional ratification. Because of his premature departure from the convention, he did not actually sign the Constitution but authorized his friend and fellow-delegate George Read to do so for him.

Dickinson lived for two decades more but held no public offices. Instead, he devoted himself to writing on politics and in 1801 published two volumes of his collected works. He died at Wilmington in 1808 at the age of 75 and was entombed in the Friends Burial Ground.

Abraham Baldwin

State: Georgia (Born in Connecticut)

Age at Convention: 32

Date of Birth: November 22, 1754

Date of Death: March 4, 1807

Schooling: Yale 1772

Occupation: Public Security Interests, Lawyer, Office Holder, Chaplin, Educator

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of Georgia State Legislature 1784-1785, Confederation Congress 1785-1786

Committee Assignments: First Committee of Representation, Committee of Assumption of State Debts, Committee of Slave Trade, Committee of Leftovers

Convention Contributions: Arrived June 11 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. He rarely spoke at the Convention but on July 2, voted for a proposition which created the Committee that drafted the Connecticut Compromise. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Baldwin is a Gentleman of superior abilities and joins in a public debate with great art and eloquence.”

New Government Participation: Served as Representative (1789-90), Senator (1790-1807), where he presided as president pro tem, for Georgia. He was an ardent supporter of the Democratic-Republicans.

Biography from the National Archives: Baldwin was born at Guilford, Conn., in 1754, the second son of a blacksmith who fathered 12 children by 2 wives. Besides Abraham, several of the family attained distinction. His sister Ruth married the poet and diplomat Joel Barlow, and his half-brother Henry attained the position of justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Their ambitious father went heavily into debt to educate his children.

After attending a local village school, Abraham matriculated at Yale, in nearby New Haven. He graduated in 1772. Three years later, he became a minister and tutor at the college. He held that position until 1779, when he served as a chaplain in the Continental Army. Two years later, he declined an offer from his alma mater of a professorship of divinity. Instead of resuming his ministerial or educational duties after the war, he turned to the study of law and in 1783 gained admittance to the bar at Fairfield, CT.

Within a year, Baldwin moved to Georgia, won legislative approval to practice his profession, and obtained a grant of land in Wilkes County. In 1785 he sat in the assembly and the Continental Congress. Two years later, his father died and Baldwin undertook to pay off his debts and educate, out of his own pocket, his half-brothers and half-sisters.

That same year, Baldwin attended the Constitutional Convention, from which he was absent for a few weeks. Although usually inconspicuous, he sat on the Committee on Postponed Matters and helped resolve the large-small state representation crisis. At first, he favored representation in the Senate based upon property holdings, but possibly because of his close relationship with the Connecticut delegation he later came to fear alienation of the small states and changed his mind to representation by state.

After the convention, Baldwin returned to the Continental Congress (1787-89). He was then elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served for 18 years (House of Representatives, 1789-99; Senate, 1799-1807). During these years, he became a bitter opponent of Hamiltonian policies and, unlike most other native New Englanders, an ally of Madison and Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. In the Senate, he presided for a while as president pro tem.

By 1790 Baldwin had taken up residence in Augusta. Beginning in the preceding decade, he had begun efforts to advance the educational system in Georgia. Appointed with six others in 1784 to oversee the founding of a state college, he saw his dream come true in 1798 when Franklin College was founded. Modeled after Yale, it became the nucleus of the University of Georgia.

Baldwin, who never married, died after a short illness during his 53d year in 1807. Still serving in the Senate at the time, he was buried in Washington’s Rock Creek Cemetery.

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

State: New York (Born in British West Indies, immigrated 1772)

Age at Convention: 30

Date of Birth: January 11, 1757

Date of Death: July 12, 1804

Schooling: Attended Kings College (Columbia)

Occupation: Lawyer, Public Security Interests, Real Estate, Land Speculation, Soldier

Prior Political Experience: Confederation Congress 1782-1783, Represented New York at Annapolis Convention 1786, Lower State Legislature of New York 1787

Committee Assignments: Committee of Rules, Committee of Style

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25, departed June 30, and except for one day, August 13, he was absent until September 6. Upon his return he remained present through the signing of the Constitution. His most important contribution was the introduction and defense of the Hamilton plan on June 18, 1787, that argued neither the Virginia Plan nor the New Jersey Plan were adequate to the task at hand. William Pierce stated that “there is no skimming over the surface of a subject with him, he must sink to the bottom to see what foundation it rests on.”

New Government Participation: Attended the New York ratifying convention and supported the ratification of the Constitution. President Washington nominated and the Senate confirmed Hamilton as the Secretary of the Treasury (1789 – 1796). He was the principle author of the Federalist Papers.

Biography from the National Archives: Hamilton was born in 1757 on the island of Nevis, in the Leeward group, British West Indies. He was the illegitimate son of a common-law marriage between a poor itinerant Scottish merchant of aristocratic descent and an English-French Huguenot mother who was a planter’s daughter. In 1766, after the father had moved his family elsewhere in the Leewards to St. Croix in the Danish (now United States) Virgin Islands, he returned to St. Kitts while his wife and two sons remained on St. Croix.

The mother, who opened a small store to make ends meet, and a Presbyterian clergyman provided Hamilton with a basic education, and he learned to speak fluent French. About the time of his mother’s death in 1768, he became an apprentice clerk at Christiansted in a mercantile establishment, whose proprietor became one of his benefactors. Recognizing his ambition and superior intelligence, they raised a fund for his education.

In 1772, bearing letters of introduction, Hamilton traveled to New York City. Patrons he met there arranged for him to attend Barber’s Academy at Elizabethtown (present Elizabeth), NJ. During this time, he met and stayed for a while at the home of William Livingston, who would one day be a fellow signer of the Constitution. Late the next year, 1773, Hamilton entered King’s College (later Columbia College and University) in New York City, but the Revolution interrupted his studies.

Although not yet 20 years of age, in 1774-75 Hamilton wrote several widely read pro-Whig pamphlets. Right after the war broke out, he accepted an artillery captaincy and fought in the principal campaigns of 1776-77. In the latter year, winning the rank of lieutenant colonel, he joined the staff of General Washington as secretary and aide-de-camp and soon became his close confidant as well.

In 1780 Hamilton wed New Yorker Elizabeth Schuyler, whose family was rich and politically powerful; they were to have eight children. In 1781, after some disagreements with Washington, he took a command position under Lafayette in the Yorktown, VA, campaign (1781). He resigned his commission that November.

Hamilton then read law at Albany and quickly entered practice, but public service soon attracted him. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1782-83. In the latter year, he established a law office in New York City. Because of his interest in strengthening the central government, he represented his state at the Annapolis Convention in 1786, where he urged the calling of the Constitutional Convention.

In 1787 Hamilton served in the legislature, which appointed him as a delegate to the convention. He played a surprisingly small part in the debates, apparently because he was frequently absent on legal business, his extreme nationalism put him at odds with most of the delegates, and he was frustrated by the conservative views of his two fellow delegates from New York. He did, however, sit on the Committee of Style, and he was the only one of the three delegates from his state who signed the finished document. Hamilton’s part in New York’s ratification the next year was substantial, though he felt the Constitution was deficient in many respects. Against determined opposition, he waged a strenuous and successful campaign, including collaboration with John Jay and James Madison in writing The Federalist. In 1787 Hamilton was again elected to the Continental Congress.

When the new government got under way in 1789, Hamilton won the position of Secretary of the Treasury. He began at once to place the nation’s disorganized finances on a sound footing. In a series of reports (1790-91), he presented a program not only to stabilize national finances but also to shape the future of the country as a powerful, industrial nation. He proposed establishment of a national bank, funding of the national debt, assumption of state war debts, and the encouragement of manufacturing.

Hamilton’s policies soon brought him into conflict with Jefferson and Madison. Their disputes with him over his pro-business economic program, sympathies for Great Britain, disdain for the common man, and opposition to the principles and excesses of the French revolution contributed to the formation of the first U.S. party system. It pitted Hamilton and the Federalists against Jefferson and Madison and the Democratic-Republicans.

During most of the Washington administration, Hamilton’s views usually prevailed with the President, especially after 1793 when Jefferson left the government. In 1795 family and financial needs forced Hamilton to resign from the Treasury Department and resume his law practice in New York City. Except for a stint as inspector-general of the Army (1798-1800) during the undeclared war with France, he never again held public office.

While gaining stature in the law, Hamilton continued to exert a powerful impact on New York and national politics. Always an opponent of fellow-Federalist John Adams, he sought to prevent his election to the presidency in 1796. When that failed, he continued to use his influence secretly within Adams’ cabinet. The bitterness between the two men became public knowledge in 1800 when Hamilton denounced Adams in a letter that was published through the efforts of the Democratic-Republicans.

In 1802 Hamilton and his family moved into The Grange, a country home he had built in a rural part of Manhattan not far north of New York City. But the expenses involved and investments in northern land speculations seriously strained his finances.

Meanwhile, when Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied in Presidential electoral votes in 1800, Hamilton threw valuable support to Jefferson. In 1804, when Burr sought the governorship of New York, Hamilton again managed to defeat him. That same year, Burr, taking offense at remarks he believed to have originated with Hamilton, challenged him to a duel, which took place at present Weehawken, NJ, on July 11. Mortally wounded, Hamilton died the next day. He was in his late forties at death. He was buried in Trinity Churchyard in New York City.

John Rutledge

State: South Carolina

Age at Convention: 48

Date of Birth: September 1739

Date of Death: July 23, 1800

Schooling: Middle Temple 1760

Occupation: Planter, Slave Holder, Lawyer, Judge

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of South Carolina 1782, State Constitutional Convention of South Carolina 1776, South Carolina Chancery Court 1784-1791, Governor of South Carolina 1776-1782, First Continental Congress 1774, Confederation Congress 1782-1783

Committee Assignments: First Committee of Representation, Second Committee of Representation, Third Committee of Representation, Chairman of Committee of Detail, Chairman of Committee of State Commitments

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. Rutledge was willing to support a stronger central government as long as slavery remained under the control of each State. William Pierce stated that “he is undoubtedly a man of abilities, and a Gentleman of distinction and fortune.”

New Government Participation: Attended the South Carolina ratifying convention and supported the ratification of the Constitution. President Washington nominated and the Senate confirmed him as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1789-1791). President Washington again nominated him as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Senate did not confirm him.

Biography from the National Archives: John Rutledge, elder brother of Edward Rutledge, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born into a large family at or near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1739. He received his early education from his father, an Irish immigrant and physician, and from an Anglican minister and a tutor. After studying law at London’s Middle Temple in 1760, he was admitted to English practice. But, almost at once, he sailed back to Charleston to begin a fruitful legal career and to amass a fortune in plantations and slaves. Three years later, he married Elizabeth Grimke, who eventually bore him 10 children, and moved into a townhouse, where he resided most of the remainder of his life.

In 1761, Rutledge became politically active. That year, on behalf of Christ Church Parish, he was elected to the provincial assembly and held his seat until the War for Independence. For 10 months in 1764, he temporarily held the post of provincial attorney general. When the troubles with Great Britain intensified about the time of the Stamp Act in 1765, Rutledge, who hoped to ensure continued self-government for the colonies, sought to avoid severance from the British and maintained a restrained stance. He did, however, chair a committee of the Stamp Act Congress that drew up a petition to the House of Lords.

In 1774, Rutledge was sent to the First Continental Congress, where he pursued a moderate course. After spending the next year in the Second Continental Congress, he returned to South Carolina and helped reorganize its government. In 1776 he served on the committee of safety and took part in the writing of the state constitution. That year, he also became president of the lower house of the legislature, a post he held until 1778. During this period, the new government met many stern tests.

In 1778, the conservative Rutledge, disapproving of democratic revisions in the state constitution, resigned his position. The next year, however, he was elected as governor. It was a difficult time. The British were invading South Carolina, and the military situation was desperate. Early in 1780, by which time the legislature had adjourned, Charleston was besieged. In May it fell, the American army was captured, and the British confiscated Rutledge’s property. He ultimately escaped to North Carolina and set about attempting to rally forces to recover South Carolina. In 1781, aided by Gen. Nathanael Greene and a new Continental Army force, he reestablished the government. In January 1782 he resigned the governorship and took a seat in the lower house of the legislature. He never recouped the financial losses he suffered during the war.

In 1782-83, Rutledge was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He next sat on the state chancery court (1784) and again in the lower house of the legislature (1784-90). One of the most influential delegates at the Constitutional Convention, where he maintained a moderate nationalist stance and chaired the Committee of Detail, he attended all the sessions, spoke often and effectively, and served on five committees. Like his fellow South Carolina delegates, he vigorously advocated southern interests.

The new government under the Constitution soon lured Rutledge. He was a Presidential elector in 1789 and Washington then appointed him as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but for some reason he apparently served only a short time. In 1791 he became chief justice of the South Carolina supreme court. Four years later, Washington again appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court, this time as Chief Justice to replace John Jay. But Rutledge’s outspoken opposition to Jay’s Treaty (1794), and the intermittent mental illness he had suffered from since the death of his wife in 1792, caused the Federalist-dominated Senate to reject his appointment and end his public career. Meantime, however, he had presided over one term of the Court.

Rutledge died in 1800 at the age of 60 and was interred at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Charleston.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

State: South Carolina

Age at Convention: 41

Date of Birth: February 25, 1746

Date of Death: August 16, 1825

Schooling: Oxford 1764 and Middle Temple

Occupation: Lawyer, Planter and Slave Holder, Lending and Investments, Public Security Interests, Solider, Educator

Prior Political Experience: Provincial Assembly 1769, Lower House of South Carolina State Legislature 1776 & 1778 & 1782, Upper House 1789

Committee Assignments: Committee of Assumption of State Debts, Committee of Slave Trade

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. William Pierce stated that “he has received the advantage of a liberal education, and possess a very extensive degree of legal knowledge.”

New Government Participation: Attended the South Carolina ratifying convention and supported the ratification of the Constitution. Served as the Minister to France (1796 – 1798). Major General U.S. Army 1798-1800. Federalist Party Presidential candidate 1804 & 1808.

Biography from the National Archives: The eldest son of a politically prominent planter and a remarkable mother who introduced and promoted indigo culture in South Carolina, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born in 1746 at Charleston. Only 7 years later, he accompanied his father, who had been appointed colonial agent for South Carolina, to England. As a result, the youth enjoyed a European education.

Pinckney received tutoring in London, attended several preparatory schools, and went on to Christ Church College, Oxford, where he heard the lectures of the legal authority Sir William Blackstone and graduated in 1764. Pinckney next pursued legal training at London’s Middle Temple and was accepted for admission into the English bar in 1769. He then spent part of a year touring Europe and studying chemistry, military science, and botany under leading authorities.

Late in 1769, Pinckney sailed home and the next year entered practice in South Carolina. His political career began in 1769, when he was elected to the provincial assembly. In 1773 he acted as attorney general for several towns in the colony. By 1775 he had identified with the patriot cause and that year sat in the provincial congress. Then, the next year, he was elected to the local committee of safety and made chairman of a committee that drew up a plan for the interim government of South Carolina.

When hostilities broke out, Pinckney, who had been a royal militia officer since 1769, pursued a full-time military calling. When South Carolina organized its forces in 1775, he joined the First South Carolina Regiment as a captain. He soon rose to the rank of colonel and fought in the South in defense of Charleston and in the North at the Battles of Brandywine, PA, and Germantown, PA. He commanded a regiment in the campaign against the British in the Floridas in 1778 and at the siege of Savannah. When Charleston fell in 1780, he was taken prisoner and held until 1782. The following year, he was discharged as a brevet brigadier general.

After the war, Pinckney resumed his legal practice and the management of estates in the Charleston area but found time to continue his public service, which during the war had included tours in the lower house of the state legislature (1778 and 1782) and the senate (1779).

Pinckney was one of the leaders at the Constitutional Convention. Present at all the sessions, he strongly advocated a powerful national government. His proposal that senators should serve without pay was not adopted, but he exerted influence in such matters as the power of the Senate to ratify treaties and the compromise that was reached concerning abolition of the international slave trade. After the convention, he defended the Constitution in South Carolina.

Under the new government, Pinckney became a devoted Federalist. Between 1789 and 1795 he declined presidential offers to command the U.S. Army and to serve on the Supreme Court and as Secretary of War and Secretary of State. In 1796, however, he accepted the post of Minister to France, but the revolutionary regime there refused to receive him and he was forced to proceed to the Netherlands. The next year, though, he returned to France when he was appointed to a special mission to restore relations with that country. During the ensuing XYZ affair, refusing to pay a bribe suggested by a French agent to facilitate negotiations, he was said to have replied “No! No! Not a sixpence!”

When Pinckney arrived back in the United States in 1798, he found the country preparing for war with France. That year, he was appointed as a major general in command of American forces in the South and served in that capacity until 1800, when the threat of war ended. That year, he represented the Federalists as Vice-Presidential candidate, and in 1804 and 1808 as the Presidential nominee. But he met defeat on all three occasions.

For the rest of his life, Pinckney engaged in legal practice, served at times in the legislature, and engaged in philanthropic activities. He was a charter member of the board of trustees of South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina), first president of the Charleston Bible Society, and chief executive of the Charleston Library Society. He also gained prominence in the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of former officers of the War for Independence.

During the later period of his life, Pinckney enjoyed his Belmont estate and Charleston high society. He was twice married; first to Sarah Middleton in 1773 and after her death to Mary Stead in 1786. Survived by three daughters, he died in Charleston in 1825 at the age of 79. He was interred there in the cemetery at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.

Charles Pinckney

State: South Carolina

Age at Convention: 29

Date of Birth: October 26, 1757

Date of Death: October 29, 1824

Schooling: Unknown

Occupation: Lawyer, Planter and Slave Holder, Lending and Investments, Public Security Interests

Prior Political Experience: Continental Congress 1777-1778, Confederation Congress 1784-1787, State Legislature of South Carolina 1779-1780, 1786-1789, 1792-1796, Upper House 1779-1784

Committee Assignments: Committee of Rules

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. He is best known for his proslavery position, as well as a strong proponent of a Bill of Rights. He was a warm supporter of Madison’s attempt to build a stronger central government. William Pierce stated that “he is intimately acquainted with every species of polite learning, and has a spirit of application and industry beyond most Men.”

New Government Participation: Attended the South Carolina ratifying convention (serving as Chair of the Convention) and supported the ratification of the Constitution. Served as South Carolina’s U.S. Senator (1798 – 1801) President Jefferson nominated and the Senate confirmed him as ambassador to Spain (1801 – 1805) Elected as South Carolina’s U. S. Representative (1818 – 1821) and opposed the Missouri Compromise.

Biography from the National Archives: Charles Pinckney, the second cousin of fellow-signer Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, was born at Charleston, SC, in 1757. His father, Col. Charles Pinckney, was a rich lawyer and planter, who on his death in 1782 was to bequeath Snee Farm, a country estate outside the city, to his son Charles. The latter apparently received all his education in the city of his birth, and he started to practice law there in 1779.

About that time, well after the War for Independence had begun, young Pinckney enlisted in the militia, though his father demonstrated ambivalence about the Revolution. He became a lieutenant, and served at the siege of Savannah (September-October 1779). When Charleston fell to the British the next year, the youth was captured and remained a prisoner until June 1781.

Pinckney had also begun a political career, serving in the Continental Congress (1777-78 and 1784-87) and in the state legislature (1779-80, 1786-89, and 1792-96). A nationalist, he worked hard in Congress to ensure that the United States would receive navigation rights to the Mississippi and to strengthen congressional power.

Pinckney’s role in the Constitutional Convention is controversial. Although one of the youngest delegates, he later claimed to have been the most influential one and contended he had submitted a draft that was the basis of the final Constitution. Most historians have rejected this assertion. They do, however, recognize that he ranked among the leaders. He attended full time, spoke often and effectively, and contributed immensely to the final draft and to the resolution of problems that arose during the debates. He also worked for ratification in South Carolina (1788). That same year, he married Mary Eleanor Laurens, daughter of a wealthy and politically powerful South Carolina merchant; she was to bear at least three children.

Subsequently, Pinckney’s career blossomed. From 1789 to 1792 he held the governorship of South Carolina, and in 1790 chaired the state constitutional convention. During this period, he became associated with the Federalist Party, in which he and his cousin Charles Cotesworth Pinckney were leaders. But, with the passage of time, the former’s views began to change. In 1795 he attacked the Federalist backed Jay’s Treaty and increasingly began to cast his lot with Carolina back-country Democratic-Republicans against his own eastern aristocracy. In 1796 he became governor once again, and in 1798 his Democratic-Republican supporters helped him win a seat in the U.S. Senate. There, he bitterly opposed his former party, and in the presidential election of 1800 served as Thomas Jefferson’s campaign manager in South Carolina.

The victorious Jefferson appointed Pinckney as Minister to Spain (1801-5), in which capacity he struggled valiantly but unsuccessfully to win cession of the Floridas to the United States and facilitated Spanish acquiescence in the transfer of Louisiana from France to the United States in 1803.

Upon completion of his diplomatic mission, his ideas moving ever closer to democracy, Pinckney headed back to Charleston and to leadership of the state Democratic-Republican Party. He sat in the legislature in 1805-6 and then was again elected as governor (1806-8). In this position, he favored legislative reapportionment, giving better representation to back-country districts, and advocated universal white manhood suffrage. He served again in the legislature from 1810 to 1814 and then temporarily withdrew from politics. In 1818 he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he fought against the Missouri Compromise.

In 1821, Pinckney’s health beginning to fail, he retired for the last time from politics. He died in 1824, just 3 days after his 67th birthday. He was laid to rest in Charleston at St. Philip’s Episcopal Churchyard.

Pierce Butler

State: South Carolina (Born in Ireland, immigrated in 1771)

Age at Convention: 43

Date of Birth: July 11, 1744

Date of Death: February 15, 1822

Schooling: Unknown

Occupation: Planter and Slave Holder, Lending and Investments, Public Security Interests, Soldier

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of South Carolina State Legislature 1778-1782, 1784-1789, Confederation Congress 1787-1788

Committee Assignments: Committee of Trade, Committee of Leftovers

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Butler is a character much respected for the many excellent virtues which he possess but as a politician or an Orator, he has no pretensions to either.” Introduced and defended the fugitive slave clause.

New Government Participation: Supported the ratification of the Constitution but did not attend the ratification convention in South Carolina. Served in the U. S. Senate (1789 – 1796 and 1803 – 1804)

Biography from the National Archives: One of the most aristocratic delegates at the convention, Butler was born in 1744 in County Carlow, Ireland. His father was Sir Richard Butler, member of Parliament and a baronet.

Like so many younger sons of the British aristocracy who could not inherit their fathers’ estates because of primogeniture, Butler pursued a military career. He became a major in His Majesty’s 29th Regiment and during the colonial unrest was posted to Boston in 1768 to quell disturbances there. In 1771 he married Mary Middleton, daughter of a wealthy South Carolinian, and before long resigned his commission to take up a planter’s life in the Charleston area. The couple was to have at least one daughter.

When the Revolution broke out, Butler took up the Whig cause. He was elected to the assembly in 1778, and the next year he served as adjutant general in the South Carolina militia. While in the legislature through most of the 1780s, he took over leadership of the democratic upcountry faction in the state and refused to support his own planter group. The War for Independence cost him much of his property, and his finances were so precarious for a time that he was forced to travel to Amsterdam to seek a personal loan. In 1786 the assembly appointed him to a commission charged with settling a state boundary dispute.

The next year, Butler won election to both the Continental Congress (1787-88) and the Constitutional Convention. In the latter assembly, he was an outspoken nationalist who attended practically every session and was a key spokesman for the Madison-Wilson caucus. Butler also supported the interests of southern slaveholders. He served on the Committee on Postponed Matters.

On his return to South Carolina Butler defended the Constitution but did not participate in the ratifying convention. Service in the U.S. Senate (1789-96) followed. Although nominally a Federalist, he often crossed party lines. He supported Hamilton’s fiscal program but opposed Jay’s Treaty and Federalist judiciary and tariff measures.

Out of the Senate and back in South Carolina from 1797 to 1802, Butler was considered for but did not attain the governorship. He sat briefly in the Senate again in 1803-4 to fill out an unexpired term, and he once again demonstrated party independence. But, for the most part, his later career was spent as a wealthy planter. In his last years, he moved to Philadelphia, apparently to be near a daughter who had married a local physician. Butler died there in 1822 at the age of 77 and was buried in the yard of Christ Church.

Rufus King

State: Massachusetts

Age at Convention: 32

Date of Birth: March 24, 1755

Date of Death: April 29, 1827

Schooling: Harvard 1777

Occupation: Public Security Interests, Lending and Investments, Mercantile, Manufacturing, and Shipping, Investor, Lawyer

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of Massachusetts State Legislature 1783-1785, Confederation Congress 1784-1787

Committee Assignments: Second Committee of Representation, Chairman of the Third Committee of Representation, Committee of Assumption of State Debt, Committee of Slave Trade, Committee of Leftovers, Committee of Style

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25, and except for four days in mid-August, was present for the duration and signed the Constitution. He served on the most committees and was a warm supporter of a strong central government. William Pierce stated that “Mr. King is a man much distinguished for his eloquence and his parliamentary talents. … He may with propriety be ranked among the Luminaries of the present Age.”

New Government Participation: Attended the Massachusetts ratification convention, supported ratification of the Constitution. Was elected as a Senator for the State of New York (1789 – 1796), served as Minister to Great Britain (1796 – 1803 & 1825 – 1826), and reelected to the Senate (1813 – 1825). Federalist Party Candidate for Vice President 1804 & 1808, President 1816.

Biography from the National Archives: King was born at Scarboro (Scarborough), MA (present Maine), in 1755. He was the eldest son of a prosperous farmer-merchant. At age 12, after receiving an elementary education at local schools, he matriculated at Dummer Academy in South Byfield, MA, and in 1777 graduated from Harvard. He served briefly as a general’s aide during the War for Independence. Choosing a legal career, he read for the law at Newburyport, MA, and entered practice there in 1780.

King’s knowledge, bearing, and oratorical gifts soon launched him on a political career. From 1783 to 1785 he was a member of the Massachusetts legislature, after which that body sent him to the Continental Congress (1784-86). There, he gained a reputation as a brilliant speaker and an early opponent of slavery. Toward the end of his tour, in 1786, he married Mary Alsop, daughter of a rich New York City merchant. He performed his final duties for Massachusetts by representing her at the Constitutional Convention and by serving in the commonwealth’s ratifying convention.

At age 32, King was not only one of the most youthful of the delegates at Philadelphia, but was also one of the most important. He numbered among the most capable orators. Furthermore, he attended every session. Although he came to the convention unconvinced that major changes should be made in the Articles of Confederation, his views underwent a startling transformation during the debates. With Madison, he became a leading figure in the nationalist caucus. He served with distinction on the Committee on Postponed Matters and the Committee of Style. He also took notes on the proceedings, which have been valuable to historians.

About 1788 King abandoned his law practice, moved from the Bay State to Gotham, and entered the New York political forum. He was elected to the legislature (1789-90), and in the former year was picked as one of the state’s first U.S. senators. As political divisions grew in the new government, King expressed ardent sympathies for the Federalists. In Congress, he supported Hamilton’s fiscal program and stood among the leading proponents of the unpopular Jay’s Treaty (1794).

Meantime, in 1791, King had become one of the directors of the First Bank of the United States. Reelected to the U.S. Senate in 1795, he served only a year before he was appointed as Minister to Great Britain (1796-1803).

King’s years in this post were difficult ones in Anglo-American relations. The wars of the French Revolution endangered U.S. commerce in the maritime clashes between the French and the British. The latter in particular violated American rights on the high seas, especially by the impressment of sailors. Although King was unable to bring about a change in this policy, he smoothed relations between the two nations.

In 1803 King sailed back to the United States and to a career in politics. In 1804 and 1808 fellow-signer Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and he were the Federalist candidates for President and Vice President, respectively, but were decisively defeated. Otherwise, King largely contented himself with agricultural pursuits at King Manor, a Long Island estate he had purchased in 1805. During the War of 1812, he was again elected to the U.S. Senate (1813-25) and ranked as a leading critic of the war. Only after the British attacked Washington in 1814 did he come to believe that the United States was fighting a defensive action and decided to lend his support to the war effort.

In 1816 the Federalists chose King as their candidate for the presidency, but James Monroe beat him handily. Still in the Senate, that same year King led the opposition to the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Four years later, believing that the issue of slavery could not be compromised but must be settled once and for all by the immediate establishment of a system of compensated emancipation and colonization, he denounced the Missouri Compromise.

In 1825, suffering from ill health, King retired from the Senate. President John Quincy Adams, however, persuaded him to accept another assignment as Minister to Great Britain. He arrived in England that same year, but soon fell ill and was forced to return home the following year. Within a year, at the age of 72, in 1827, he died. Surviving him were several offspring, some of whom also gained distinction. He was laid to rest near King Manor in the cemetery of Grace Episcopal Church, Jamaica, Long Island, NY.

William Samuel Johnson

State: Connecticut

Age at Convention: 59

Date of Birth: October 7, 1727

Date of Death: November 14, 1819

Schooling: Yale 1744, M.A. Harvard 1747

Occupation: Lawyer, Inventor, Public Security Interests, Lending and Investments

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of the Colonial Assembly 1761 & 1765, Upper House of the Colonial Assembly 1766 & 1771-1775, Refused to participate in First Continental Congress 1774, Confederation Congress 1785-1787

Committee Assignments: Committee on Slave Trade, Committee on State Commitments, Chairman of the Committee of Style, Committee of Economy, Frugality and Manufactures

Convention Contributions: Arrived June 2, except for a brief absence in late July was present until he signed the Constitution. Influential in securing the passage of the Connecticut Compromise. William Pierce stated that “Dr. Johnson is a character much celebrated for his legal knowledge; he is said to be one of the first classics in America, and certainly possess a very strong and enlighten understanding.”

New Government Participation: Served as Senator from Connecticut (1789 – 1791) and assisted in the passage of the Judiciary Act. Resigned from Senate to devote his career as President of King’s College (Columbia).

Biography from the National Archives: William Samuel Johnson was the son of Samuel Johnson, the first president of King’s College (later Columbia College and University). William was born at Stratford, CT, in 1727. His father, who was a well-known Anglican clergyman-philosopher, prepared him for college and he graduated from Yale in 1744. About 3 years later he won a master of arts degree from the same institution and an honorary master’s from Harvard.

Resisting his father’s wish that he become a minister, Johnson embraced law instead—largely by educating himself and without benefit of formal training. After admittance to the bar, he launched a practice in Stratford, representing clients from nearby New York State as well as Connecticut, and before long he established business connections with various mercantile houses in New York City. In 1749, adding to his already substantial wealth, he married Anne Beach, daughter of a local businessman. The couple was to have five daughters and six sons, but many of them died at an early age.

Johnson did not shirk the civic responsibilities of one of his station. In the 1750s he began his public career as a Connecticut militia officer. In 1761 and 1765 he served in the lower house of the colonial assembly. In 1766 and 1771 he was elected to the upper house. At the time of the Revolution, Johnson was disturbed by conflicting loyalties. Although he attended the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, moderately opposed the Townshend Duties of 1767, and believed that most British policies were unwise, he retained strong transatlantic ties and found it difficult to choose sides. Many of his friends resided in Britain; in 1765 and 1766 Oxford University conferred honorary master’s and doctor’s degrees upon him; he had a strong association with the Anglican Church; he acted as Connecticut’s agent in Britain during the years 1767-71; and he was friendly with men such as Jared Ingersoll, Sr., who were affiliated with the British administration.

Johnson finally decided to work for peace between Britain and the colonies and to oppose the extremist Whig faction. On that basis, he refused to participate in the First Continental Congress, to which he was elected in 1774, following service as a judge of the Connecticut colonial supreme court (1772-74). When hostilities broke out, he confined his activities to peacemaking efforts. In April 1775 Connecticut sent him and another emissary to speak to British Gen. Thomas Gage about ending the bloodshed. But the time was not ripe for negotiations and they failed. Johnson fell out of favor with radical patriot elements who gained the ascendancy in Connecticut government and they no longer called upon his service. Although he was arrested in 1779 on charges of communicating with the enemy, he cleared himself and was released.

Once the passions of war had ebbed, Johnson resumed his political career. In the Continental Congress (1785-87), he was one of the most influential and popular delegates. Playing a major role in the Constitutional Convention, he missed no sessions after arriving on June 2; espoused the Connecticut Compromise; and chaired the Committee of Style, which shaped the final document. He also worked for ratification in Connecticut.

Johnson took part in the new government, in the U.S. Senate where he contributed to passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789. In 1791, the year after the government moved from New York to Philadelphia, he resigned mainly because he preferred to devote all his energies to the presidency of Columbia College (1787-1800), in New York City. During these years, he established the school on a firm basis and recruited a fine faculty.

Johnson retired from the college in 1800, a few years after his wife died, and in the same year wed Mary Brewster Beach, a relative of his first bride. They resided at his birthplace, Stratford. He died there in 1819 at the age of 92 and was buried at Old Episcopal Cemetery.

Roger Sherman

Roger Sherman

Roger Sherman (1721-1793) was born at Newton, near Boston. He died in New Haven, and was buried in Grove Street Cemetery. He married Elizabeth Hartwell in 1749 and they had seven children. She died in 1760. He then married Rebecca Prescott with whom he had eight children.

When he was two, the family moved from Newton to the frontier town of Dorchester, now Stoughton. His education was very limited, although he did have access to his father’s library. Later as a teenager he attended a new grammar school, and learned the cobbler’s trade from his father. He also met Samuel Dunbar, Harvard trained parish Minister of Stoughton who helped Sherman with mathematics, the sciences, literature, and philosophy.

In 1743, Sherman joined an elder brother in New Milford, Connecticut where they opened the first store in town. He was appointed surveyor of New Haven County and became a leader in the community. New Milford did not have a newspaper, so Sherman wrote and published a very popular Almanac each year from 1750 to 1761. Although he never had a legal education, Sherman was admitted to the Bar of Litchfield in 1754 and, from 1755-1761, represented New Milford in the colonial legislature, and was also a justice of the peace and a county judge. And four years later, he became an associate justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut. In 1761, a very successful landowner and businessman, he moved to New Haven and became a benefactor of Yale.

He was appointed commissary to the Connecticut Troops at the start of the Revolutionary war and elected to the First and Second Continental Congress and to the Confederation Congress in 1781, and 1783-1784.

Sherman was an active and respected delegate who attempted to balance the urgency for intercontinental agreements while retaining the vibrant local institutions to which Americans were attached. He was on the five-member committee in 1776 with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Robert Livingston to draft the Declaration of Independence. And he simultaneously fulfilled his state duties. Sherman was still a judge on the Connecticut and in 1783, he helped to codify the statutory laws of Connecticut. He served as mayor of New Haven (1784-1786). He also served on the committee forming the Articles of Confederation.

Sherman was selected by Connecticut to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where he defended the rights of the smaller states and the partly national-partly federal Connecticut. Compromise. (Madison’s Notes of the Debates at the Convention credit him with delivering one hundred and thirty-eight speeches). As if that weren’t enough, Sherman wrote essays on behalf of the ratification of the Constitution as well voting in favor of ratification at the Connecticut Ratifying Convention. He was elected to the First Congress as both Representative(1789-1791) and Senator (1791-1793). He was very influential in securing the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

Many of the most notable figures of the revolution, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, admitted a deep admiration for Roger Sherman and his work.

Oliver Ellsworth

State: Connecticut

Age at Convention: 42

Date of Birth: April 29, 1745

Date of Death: November 26, 1807

Schooling: College of New Jersey (Princeton) 1766

Occupation: Lawyer, Public Security Interests, Lending and Investments, Mercantilist

Prior Political Experience: State Upper House in Connecticut from 1780-1785, Served on Connecticut Superior Court 1785-1807, Council of Safety 1779, Committee of Pay 1775, Continental Congress 1777-1780, Confederation Congress 1781-1783

Committee Assignments: Elected First Representation Committee but was “indisposed,” Committee of Detail

Convention Contributions: Arrived on May 28. Departed last week in August and never returned. On June 29, Ellsworth claimed “that we were partly national; partly federal,” and introduced the Resolution which became known as the Connecticut Compromise. William Pierce stated that “he is a Gentleman of a clear, deep, and copious understanding; eloquent and connected in public debate; and always attentive to his duty.”

New Government Participation: Wrote letters influencing the adoption of the Constitution, played a major part in drafting the Judiciary Act in the First Congress as Connecticut’s First Senator (1789 – 1796), served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1796 – 1798). Washington nominated after the Senate refused to confirm the appointment of John Rutledge as Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.

Biography from the National Archives: Oliver Ellsworth was born on April 29, 1745, in Windsor, CT, to Capt. David and Jemima Ellsworth. He entered Yale in 1762 but transferred to the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) at the end of his second year. He continued to study theology and received his A.B. degree after 2 years. Soon afterward, however, Ellsworth turned to the law. After 4 years of study, he was admitted to the bar in 1771. The next year Ellsworth married Abigail Wolcott.

From a slow start Ellsworth built up a prosperous law practice. His reputation as an able and industrious jurist grew, and in 1777 Ellsworth became Connecticut’s state attorney for Hartford County. That same year he was chosen as one of Connecticut’s representatives in the Continental Congress. He served on various committees during six annual terms until 1783. Ellsworth was also active in his state’s efforts during the Revolution. As a member of the Committee of the Pay Table, Oliver Ellsworth was one of the five men who supervised Connecticut’s war expenditures. In 1779 he assumed greater duties as a member of the council of safety, which, with the governor, controlled all military measures for the state.

When the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787 Ellsworth once again represented Connecticut and took an active part in the proceedings. During debate on the Great Compromise, Ellsworth proposed that the basis of representation in the legislative branch remain by state, as under the Articles of Confederation. He also left his mark through an amendment to change the word “national” to “United States” in a resolution. Thereafter, “United States” was the title used in the convention to designate the government.

Ellsworth also served on the Committee of Five that prepared the first draft of the Constitution. Ellsworth favored the three-fifths compromise on the enumeration of slaves but opposed the abolition of the foreign slave trade. Though he left the convention near the end of August and did not sign the final document, he urged its adoption upon his return to Connecticut and wrote the Letters of a Landholder to promote its ratification.

Ellsworth served as one of Connecticut’s first two senators in the new federal government between 1789 and 1796. In the Senate he chaired the committee that framed the bill organizing the federal judiciary and helped to work out the practical details necessary to run a new government. Ellsworth’s other achievements in Congress included framing the measure that admitted North Carolina to the Union, devising the non-intercourse act that forced Rhode Island to join, drawing up the bill to regulate the consular service, and serving on the committee that considered Alexander Hamilton’s plan for funding the national debt and for incorporating the Bank of the United States.

In the spring of 1796 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and also served as commissioner to France in 1799 and 1800. Upon his return to America in early 1801, Ellsworth retired from public life and lived in Windsor, CT. He died there on November 26, 1807, and was buried in the cemetery of the First Church of Windsor.

Daniel Carroll

Daniel Carroll

State: Maryland

Age at Convention: 57

Date of Birth: July 22, 1730

Date of Death: May 7, 1796

Schooling: College of Saint Omer (Netherlands) 1747

Occupation: Public Security Interests, Lending and Investments, Land owner, Merchant, Planter

Prior Political Experience: State Upper House of Maryland 1781-1789, President of Legislature 1783-1789, Executive Council of Maryland 1777-1781, Confederation Congress 1781-1784

Committee Assignments: Third Committee of Representation, Committee of Trade, Committee of Leftovers

Convention Contributions: Arrived July 9, was present through the signing of the Constitution. His attendance provided the crucial vote that allowed Maryland’s delegation to overcome the objections of fellow delegates, Luther Martin and John Mercer. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Carroll is a Man of large fortune, and influence in his State. He possesses plain good sense, and is full confidence of his Countrymen. This Gentlemen is about (left blank by Pierce) age.” [Editor’s Note: Mr. Pierce left the Convention on July 2 and never returned. Mr. Carroll did not arrive until July 9. Accordingly, it is difficult to tell when and how Mr. Pierce’s character sketch was written. Note the absence of Mr. Carroll’s age.]

New Government Participation: Served as one of Maryland’s first U. S. Representatives (1789 – 1792). One of three U.S. Commisioners to plan Washington, D.C. (1791 – 1795).

Biography from the National Archives: Daniel Carroll was member of a prominent Maryland family of Irish descent. A collateral branch was led by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Daniel’s older brother was John Carroll, the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

Daniel was born in 1730 at Upper Marlboro, MD. Befitting the son of a wealthy Roman Catholic family, he studied for 6 years (1742-48) under the Jesuits at St. Omer’s in Flanders. Then, after a tour of Europe, he sailed home and soon married Eleanor Carroll, apparently a first cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Not much is known about the next two decades of his life except that he backed the War for Independence reluctantly and remained out of the public eye. No doubt he lived the life of a gentleman planter.

In 1781 Carroll entered the political arena. Elected to the Continental Congress that year, he carried to Philadelphia the news that Maryland was at last ready to accede to the Articles of Confederation, to which he soon penned his name. During the decade, he also began a tour in the Maryland senate that was to span his lifetime and helped George Washington promote the Patowmack Company, a scheme to canalize the Potomac River so as to provide a transportation link between the East and the trans-Appalachian West.

Carroll did not arrive at the Constitutional Convention until July 9, but thereafter he attended quite regularly. He spoke about 20 times during the debates and served on the Committee on Postponed Matters. Returning to Maryland after the convention, he campaigned for ratification of the Constitution but was not a delegate to the state convention.

In 1789 Carroll won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he voted for locating the Nation’s Capital on the banks of the Potomac and for Hamilton’s program for the federal assumption of state debts. In 1791 George Washington named his friend Carroll as one of three commissioners to survey and define the District of Columbia, where Carroll owned much land. Ill health caused him to resign this post 4 years later, and the next year at the age of 65 he died at his home near Rock Creek in Forest Glen, MD. He was buried there in St. John’s Catholic Cemetery.

John F. Mercer

State: Maryland (Born in Virginia)

Age at Convention: 28

Date of Birth: May 17, 1759

Date of Death: August 30, 1821

Schooling: College of William and Mary (1775), Read law under Thomas Jefferson

Occupation: Lawyer, Planter, Public Security Interests, Slave Holder, Soldier

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of Virginia State Legislature 1782 & 1785-1786, Virginia Delegate to Confederation Congress 1782-1784

Committee Assignments: None

Convention Contributions: Attended August 6 until August 16 and never returned to the Convention. He opposed a strong central government. William Pierce made no observation about Mercer, since Pierce left on July 2 to attend the Confederation Congress.

New Government Participation: Attended the Maryland ratification convention, he did not support the ratification of the Constitution. Served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Maryland from 1791 to 1794.

Biography from the National Archives: John Francis Mercer, born on May 17, 1759, was the fifth of nine children born to John and Ann Mercer of Stafford County, Virginia. He attended the College of William and Mary, and in early 1776 he joined the 3rd Virginia Regiment. Mercer became Gen. Charles Lee’s aide-de-camp in 1778, but after General Lee’s court-martial in October 1779, Mercer resigned his commission. He spent the next year studying law at the College of William and Mary and then rejoined the army, where he served briefly under Lafayette.

In 1782, Mercer was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. That December, he became one of Virginia’s representatives to the Continental Congress. He later returned to the House of Delegates in 1785 and 1786.

Mercer married Sophia Sprigg in 1785 and soon after moved to Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He attended the Constitutional Convention as part of Maryland’s delegation when he was only 28 years old, the second youngest delegate in Philadelphia. Mercer was strongly opposed to centralization, and both spoke and voted against the Constitution. He and fellow Marylander Luther Martin left the proceedings before they ended.

After the convention, Mercer continued in public service. He allied himself with the Republicans and served in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1778-89, 1791-92, 1800-1801, and 1803-6. Between 1791 and 1794 he also sat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Maryland and was chosen governor of the state for two terms, 1801-3. During Thomas Jefferson’s term as President, Mercer broke with the Republicans and joined the Federalist camp.

Illness plagued him during his last years. In 1821, Mercer traveled to Philadelphia to seek medical attention, and he died there on August 30. His remains lay temporarily in a vault in St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia and were reinterred on his estate, “Cedar Park” in Maryland.

Luther Martin

State: Maryland (Born in New Jersey)

Age at Convention: 39

Date of Birth: February 20, 1748

Date of Death: July 10, 1826

Schooling: College of New Jersey (Princeton) with Honors (1766)

Occupation: Planter, Slave Holder, Lawyer, Attorney General

Prior Political Experience: Confederation Congress 1784-1785, Lower House of Maryland State Legislature 1787, Attorney General of Maryland 1778-1805, 1818-1822

Committee Assignments: First Committee of Representation, Committee of Slave Trade

Convention Contributions: Arrived June 9, departed for five days between August 6 and August 13, left the Convention on September 3. He is known for his warm opposition to the development of a strong central government, and his denunciation of any protection of the presence of slavery. William Pierce stated that “he was educated for the Bar … and he never speaks without tiring the patience of all who hear him.”

New Government Participation: Attended the Maryland ratification convention, opposed the ratification of the Constitution. He held no post in the New Government, however he defended the State of Maryland in the famous Supreme Court case, McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819.

Biography from the National Archives: Like many of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Luther Martin attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), from which he graduated with honors in 1766. Though born in Brunswick, NJ., in 1748, Martin moved to Maryland after receiving his degree and taught there for 3 years. He then began to study the law and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1771.

Martin was an early advocate of American independence from Great Britain. In the fall of 1774 he served on the patriot committee of Somerset County, and in December he attended a convention of the Province of Maryland in Annapolis, which had been called to consider the recommendations of the Continental Congress. Maryland appointed Luther Martin its attorney general in early 1778. In this capacity, Martin vigorously prosecuted Loyalists, whose numbers were strong in many areas. Tensions had even led to insurrection and open warfare in some counties. While still attorney general, Martin joined the Baltimore Light Dragoons. In July 1781 his unit joined Lafayette’s forces near Fredericksburg, VA., but Martin was recalled by the governor to prosecute a treason trial.

Martin married Maria Cresap on Christmas Day 1783. Of their five children, three daughters lived to adulthood. His postwar law practice grew to become one of the largest and most successful in the country. In 1785 Martin was elected to the Continental Congress, but this appointment was purely honorary. His numerous public and private duties prevented him from traveling to Philadelphia.

At the Constitutional Convention Martin opposed the idea of a strong central government. When he arrived on June 9, 1787, he expressed suspicion of the secrecy rule imposed on the proceedings. He consistently sided with the small states and voted against the Virginia Plan. On June 27 Martin spoke for more than 3 hours in opposition to the Virginia Plan’s proposal for proportionate representation in both houses of the legislature. Martin served on the committee formed to seek a compromise on representation, where he supported the case for equal numbers of delegates in at least one house. Before the convention closed, he and another Maryland delegate, John Francis Mercer, walked out.

In an address to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1787 and in numerous newspaper articles, Martin attacked the proposed new form of government and continued to fight ratification of the Constitution through 1788. He lamented the ascension of the national government over the states and condemned what he saw as unequal representation in Congress. Martin opposed including slaves in determining representation and believed that the absence of a jury in the Supreme Court gravely endangered freedom. At the convention, Martin complained, the aggrandizement of particular states and individuals often had been pursued more avidly than the welfare of the country. The assumption of the term “federal” by those who favored a national government also irritated Martin. Around 1791, however, Martin turned to the Federalist party because of his animosity toward Thomas Jefferson.

The first years of the 1800s saw Martin as defense counsel in two controversial national cases. In the first Martin won an acquittal for his close friend, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, in his impeachment trial in 1805. Two years later Martin was one of Aaron Burr’s defense lawyers when Burr stood trial for treason in 1807.

After a record 28 consecutive years as state attorney general, Luther Martin resigned in December 1805. In 1813 Martin became chief judge of the court of oyer and terminer for the City and County of Baltimore. He was reappointed attorney general of Maryland in 1818, and in 1819 he argued Maryland’s position in the landmark Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland. The plaintiff, represented by Daniel Webster, William Pinckney, and William Wirt, won the decision, which determined that states could not tax federal institutions.

Martin’s fortunes declined dramatically in his last years. Heavy drinking, illness, and poverty all took their toll. Paralysis, which had struck in 1819, forced him to retire as Maryland’s attorney general in 1822. In 1826, at the age of 78, Luther Martin died in Aaron Burr’s home in New York City and was buried in an unmarked grave in St. John’s churchyard.

John Langdon

John Langdon

State: New Hampshire

Age at Convention: 46

Date of Birth: June 26, 1741

Date of Death: September 18, 1819

Schooling: Local schools, Honorary LLD from Dartmouth 1805

Occupation: Ship builder/owner, Public Security Interest, Leading and Investments, Merchant

Prior Political Experience: Continental Congress 1775-1776, New Hampshire Legislature 1777-1781 & 1786-1787, New Hampshire Senate 1784, Confederation Congress 1787, Governor of New Hampshire in 1785

Committee Assignments: Committee of Slave Trade, Committee of Trade, Committee of Assumption of State Debt

Convention Contributions: Arrived July 23, present through the signing of the Constitution. Arrived too late to participate in the debate over representation of states. Helped draft the compromise on the slave trade. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Langdon possess a liberal mind, and a good plain understanding.” [Editor’s Note: Mr. Pierce left the Convention on July 2 and never returned. Mr. Langdon did not arrive until July 23. Accordingly, it is difficult to tell when and how Mr. Pierce’s character sketch was written.]

New Government Participation: Supported the ratification of the Constitution. Served as Senator (1789 – 1801) for New Hampshire. Secretary of the Navy during the War of 1812.

Biography from the National Archives: Langdon was born in 1741 at or near Portsmouth, NH. His father, whose family had emigrated to America before 1660, was a prosperous farmer who sired a large family. The youth’s education was intermittent. He attended a local grammar school, worked as an apprentice clerk, and spent some time at sea. Eventually he went into the mercantile business for himself and prospered.

Langdon, a vigorous supporter of the Revolution, sat on the New Hampshire committee of correspondence and a nonimportation committee. He also attended various patriot assemblies. In 1774 he participated in the seizure and confiscation of British munitions from the Portsmouth fort.

The next year, Langdon served as speaker of the New Hampshire assembly and also sat in the Continental Congress (1775-76). During the latter year, he accepted a colonelcy in the militia of his state and became its agent for British prizes on behalf of the Continental Congress, a post he held throughout the war. In addition, he built privateers for operations against the British—a lucrative occupation.

Langdon also actively took part in the land war. In 1777 he organized and paid for Gen. John Stark’s expedition from New Hampshire against British Gen. John Burgoyne and was present in command of a militia unit at Saratoga, NY, when the latter surrendered. Langdon later led a detachment of troops during the Rhode Island campaign, but found his major outlet in politics. He was speaker of the New Hampshire legislature from 1777 to 1781. In 1777, meantime, he had married Elizabeth Sherburne, who was to give birth to one daughter.

In 1783 Langdon was elected to the Continental Congress; the next year, to the state senate; and the following year, as president, or chief executive, of New Hampshire. In 1784 he built a home at Portsmouth. In 1786-87 he was back again as speaker of the legislature and during the latter year for the third time in the Continental Congress.

Langdon was forced to pay his own expenses and those of Nicholas Gilman to the Constitutional Convention because New Hampshire was unable or unwilling to pay them. The pair did not arrive at Philadelphia until late July, by which time much business had already been consummated. Thereafter, Langdon made a significant mark. He spoke more than 20 times during the debates and was a member of the committee that struck a compromise on the issue of slavery. For the most part, his sympathies lay on the side of strengthening the national government. In 1788, once again as state president (1788-89), he took part in the ratifying convention.

From 1789 to 1801 Langdon sat in the U.S. Senate, including service as the first President pro tem for several sessions. During these years, his political affiliations changed. As a supporter of a strong central government, he had been a member of the Federalist Party, but by the time of Jay’s Treaty (1794) he was opposing its policies. By 1801 he was firmly backing the Democratic-Republicans.

That year, Langdon declined Jefferson’s offer of the Secretaryship of the Navy. Between then and 1812, he kept active in New Hampshire politics. He sat again in the legislature (1801-5), twice holding the position of speaker. After several unsuccessful attempts, in 1805 he was elected as governor and continued in that post until 1811 except for a year’s hiatus in 1809. Meanwhile, in 1805, Dartmouth College had awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree.

In 1812 Langdon refused the Democratic-Republican Vice-Presidential nomination on the grounds of age and health. He enjoyed retirement for another 7 years before he died at the age of 78. His grave is at Old North Cemetery in Portsmouth.

Nicholas Gilman

State: New Hampshire

Age at Convention: 32

Date of Birth: August 3, 1755

Date of Death: May 2, 1814

Schooling: Local schools

Occupation: Businessman of family store, real estate and land speculations, lending and investments, public security interests, politician, soldier

Prior Political Experience: Confederation Congress (1786-1788)

Committee Assignments: Committee of Leftovers

Convention Contributions: Arrived July 23, present through the signing of the Constitution. Arrived too late to participate in the debate over representation of states. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Gilman is modest, gentile and sensible. There is nothing brilliant or striking in his character, but there is something respectable and worthy in the Man.” [Editor’s Note: Mr. Pierce left the Convention on July 2 and never returned. Mr. Gilman did not arrive until July 23. Accordingly, it is difficult to tell when and how Mr. Pierce’s character sketch was written.]

New Government Participation: Supported the ratification of the Constitution. Served as Representative (1789-1797) for New Hampshire. New Hampshire U. S. Senator (1804-1814).

Biography from the National Archives: Member of a distinguished New Hampshire family and second son in a family of eight, Nicholas Gilman was born at Exeter in 1755. He received his education in local schools and worked at his father’s general store. When the War for Independence began, he enlisted in the New Hampshire element of the Continental Army, soon won a captaincy, and served throughout the war.

Gilman returned home, again helped his father in the store, and immersed himself in politics. In the period 1786-88 he sat in the Continental Congress, though his attendance record was poor. In 1787 he represented New Hampshire at the Constitutional Convention. He did not arrive at Philadelphia until July 23, by which time much major business had already occurred. Never much of a debater, he made no speeches and played only a minor part in the deliberations. He did, however, serve on the Committee of Leftovers. He was also active in obtaining New Hampshire’s acceptance of the Constitution and in shepherding it through the Continental Congress.

Gilman later became a prominent Federalist politician. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 until 1797, and in 1793 and 1797, he was a presidential elector. He also sat in the New Hampshire legislature in 1795, 1802, and 1804, and in the years 1805-8 and 1811-14, he held the office of state treasurer.

Meantime, Gilman’s political philosophy had begun to drift toward the Democratic-Republicans. In 1802, when he was defeated for the U.S. Senate, President Jefferson appointed him as a bankruptcy commissioner, and 2 years later as a Democratic-Republican he won election to the U.S. Senate. He was still serving there when he passed away at Philadelphia, while on his way home from Washington, DC, in 1814 at the age of 58. He is interred at the Winter Street Cemetery at Exeter.

The Slave Trade

No issue is more in need of careful consideration than the slavery question, because no issue is more likely to impeach the entire Founding enterprise than the slavery issue. Unfortunately, historians have a way of reading history backwards rather than forwards and when we read the slavery issue backwards it looks like in the most critical area—Article I, Section 9 on the Slave Trade—the delegates are unequivocally and perpetually endorsing the institution of slavery. It is as if Judge Roger Taney, in the Dred Scott Case—the Constitution embraces the perpetual enslavement of African Americans—has the story correct and Abraham Lincoln, in his debates with Douglas—the Framers intended to put slavery in the course of ultimate extinction—has it all wrong. There is no evidence that either Taney or Lincoln read Madison’s Notes. When we turn to the evidence in Madison’s Notes, which position makes more sense?

We need to ask a prior question: how did Article I, Section 9 get to be the way it is? Was there unanimity among the delegates, was there even a discussion, and if, so, was there anybody who put up the slightest resistance to the continuation of slavery?

On August 6, the Committee of Detail Report was presented to the delegates. Article VII, Section 1 itemized the powers of Congress and sections two through seven placed limitations on the powers of Congress. Section 4 stated that:

No tax or duty shall be laid by the Legislature… on the migration or importation of such persons as the several States shall think proper to admit; nor shall such migration or importation be prohibited.
This is clearly a slaveholder’s document: Congress is forbidden forever from prohibiting the slave trade and any incentive through taxation is also prohibited. This section is the result of a demand from the North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia delegations to think practically rather than in terms of humanity and religion.

On September 17, the delegates signed the Constitution, Article I, Section 9 of which states the following:

The Migration or Importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such importation.
Note that the final version permits Congress to eliminate the slave trade in 1808—which it did effective January 1, 1808—and permits Congress in the meantime to discourage the trade by taxation. Also the final version limits the Congressional prohibition to the existing States thus inviting the future restriction of slavery in the territories. In this regard, it is important to note that the Confederation Congress restricted slavery in the Northwest Territories in exchange for the return of fugitive slaves. The delegates adopt this Ordinance solution as part of Article IV.

What took place between August 6 and September 17? Rutledge of South Carolina argued on August 21, “Interest alone is the governing principle with Nations. The true question at present is whether the Southern States shall or not be parties of the Union.” Sherman and Ellsworth, moreover, recommended not making the slave trade a divisive issue: “Slavery in time will not be a speck in our Country.” Luther Martin disagreed: slavery “was inconsistent with the principles of the revolution.” On August 22, Mason supported Martin’s position: “Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a Country.” Dickinson, from Delaware, considered slavery “as inadmissible on every principle of honor & safety.” And Randolph stated, “he could never agree to the clause as it stands.”

On August 25, the delegates received a Committee compromise recommendation to permit Congress to prohibit the slave trade in 1800. Pinckney moved to alter this to 1808. Madison’s response was prophetic: “twenty years will produce all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to import slaves.” The first time the slavery issue was raised in the convention is by Madison on June 6. There in his itemization of the causes of faction, or the unjust use of power, he says “that we have seen the mere distinction of colour made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.” G. Morris from Pennsylvania, on August 25, was rather blunt: why not say that this part of the Constitution was a compliance with… North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia.”

The delegates agreed to the 1808 prohibition by a vote of Ayes 7, Noes 4. The 4 noes were New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia and they voted “no” because they thought that 1808 was too compromising. Lincoln, and not Taney, has the weight of the Founders on his side of the argument.

The Connecticut Compromise

The Virginia Plan, introduced on May 29, was “wholly national.” Of particular importance is the absence of any structural representation for the states. According to Resolutions 3, 4, and 5, the general government shall have a bicameral legislative structure with neither branch elected by the states and with neither representing the states.

On June 11, the delegates overwhelmingly agreed that the lower house should be based on population and elected by the people. By a 6-5 vote, the delegates rejected a proposal by Roger Sherman that supported popular representation in the lower house and equal representation for the states in the upper branch. Thus on June 15, William Paterson submitted the New Jersey Plan, one that scrapped all the popular representation provisions of the Virginia Plan.

On 19 June, the New Jersey Plan was defeated 7-3-1. For the remainder of June, however, the delegates returned repeatedly to the compromise proposal of June 11. And on June 29, Ellsworth reintroduced the motion of June 11: equal representation for the states in the upper house with proportional representation in the lower house.

For the first time, the case for the representation of the states was elevated from one of convenience to one of principle. Ellsworth declared, “We were partly national; partly federal. He trusted that on this middle ground a compromise would take place.” On June 30, the youngest delegate, Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey—until then a pretty staunch nationalist—spoke for the first time: “We were partly federal, partly national in our Union,” he declared. “And he did not see why the Govt. might (not) in some respects operate on the States, in others on the people.”

On July 2, the Ellsworth proposal was defeated on a tie vote: 5-5-1. Nevertheless, a Committee of 11—one delegate from each state—was created to seek a compromise on the representation question. The composition of the committee reveals that Madison’s attempt to exclude the states from the structure of the general government had been halted in its tracks. Gerry was chosen over King from Massachusetts, Yates over Hamilton from New York, Franklin over Wilson from Pennsylvania, Davie over Williamson from North Carolina, Rutledge over Pinckney from South Carolina, and Mason over Madison from Virginia.

From July 5 to July 7, the Gerry Committee defended equal representation for the states in the Senate and popular representation in the House. We need to put theoretical niceties to one side, Gerry said, and think about “accommodation.” “We were… in a peculiar situation. We were neither the same Nation nor different Nations. If no compromise should take place what will be the consequence.”? Mason concurred: “There must be some accommodation.” Paterson, also on the committee, urged adoption of the report for “there was no other ground of accommodation.”

The key to the Compromise was winning over such former wholly national supporters like Gerry and Mason. An often-overlooked component of the Compromise was the agreement that money bills would originate in the House and could not be amended in the Senate. This feature was vital in winning over Mason and Gerry, as well as Randolph who introduced the wholly national Virginia Plan. These three delegates were willing to buy into the partly national (popular representation in the House), partly federal (equal representation for the states in the Senate) arrangement if the principle of no taxation without popular representation was adhered to.

On July 16, the delegates agreed (5-4-1) to the Gerry Committee Report, also known as the Connecticut Compromise. The losing delegates, Madison, Wilson, G. Morris, Pinckney, and King, decided not to challenge the outcome.

The Necessary and Proper Clause

Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates the powers of Congress. The eighteenth and final entry says: “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.” When and how did this phrase make its appearance in the convention deliberations?

The necessary and proper clause is a constitutional compromise, one somewhere between the Federalist disposition not to enumerate any Congressional powers at all—a vital part of a wholly national arrangement—and the Antifederalist concern to limit the reach of Congress to those items expressly itemized

The Virginia Plan was wholly national in terms of powers. Of particular importance, here, is the absence of 1) an enumeration of Congressional powers whatsoever—Congress was empowered to legislate in all areas where the states were “incompetent”—and 2) a Bill of Rights on behalf of either the states or the people.

On July 17, the delegates agreed (6-4) to adhere to the “incompetent” powers provision of the Virginia Plan. This vote, however, should not be interpreted as a Madisonian victory; rather it is a prelude to his fourth serious defeat on the federal-national issue. Prior to July 17, the “incompetent” clause sailed through without more than a murmur of opposition. Now it was on its last gasp.

On August 6, the Committee of Detail presented the first draft of the Constitution and, the next day, the delegates began their deliberations of the 23 Articles. What is really significant about the report is that the powers of Congress are enumerated for the first time. On August 20, the delegates turned to the final enumerated power which had never before been part of the constitutional conversation: “And to make all laws that shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested, by this Constitution, in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.”

According to Madison’s Notes, on August 20, the clause was read and then: “Mr. Madison and Mr. Pinckney moved to insert between “laws” and “necessary” “and establish all offices,” it appearing to them liable to cavil that the latter was not included in the former.”

It is unclear, however, what future “cavil” Madison and Pinckney hoped to avoid, but what is clear is that they thought that the clause, as at it stood, had the “potentiality” to undermine the ability of the nation to take care of itself. Apparently three members of the Committee of Detail thought it unnecessary to adopt the Madison-Pinckney amendment.

From September 12 to September 17, the delegates debated The Committee of Style Report; the necessary and proper clause received the most attention. One gets the impression, especially during the September 14 discussion, that the Framers were engaged in an initial “liquidation” of the meaning of the necessary and proper clause. An exchange on September 14 leaves us pondering what is included from what is excluded.

Mr. Madison and Mr. Pinckney then moved to insert in the list of powers vested in Congress a power—”to establish an University, in which no preferences or distinctions should be allowed on account of religion.”
Mr. Wilson supported the motion.

Mr. Govr Morris. It was not necessary. The exclusive power at the Seat of Government will reach the object.

On the question, it was defeated Ayes 4, Noes 6, divided 1.