The American Founding

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The Constitutional Convention: Act IV, The End is in Sight

Scene 1: The Brearly Committee Report

September 1: The Final Push

One vote recorded, namely, to adjourn! (7-1-1) Nine States present. New Jersey and Pennsylvania absent. New Hampshire divided.

Heard initial report from Brearly Committee.

Discussed alteration in Article VI , Section 9 (Ineligibility of Federal Legislators to other Federal offices).

Also, received the report of the August 29th Committee, the Rutledge Committee. Recommended alteration in Article XVI, concerning bankruptcies. Appearance of “Full Faith and Credit clause.”

September 3: Article XVI revisited

There were eight recorded votes. Maximum of 10 states present. New Hampshire absent for first vote. New Jersey absent on final vote. Delaware absent for all votes. Georgia divided on final two votes.

Took up Article XVI (Full Faith and Credit clause). Agreed to the clause (6 – 3). Uniform bankruptcy laws agreed to (9-1). Connecticut “no.”

Took up Article VI, Section 9 (ineligibility of Federal Legislators to other Federal offices). Agreed (5 – 3 – 1) to Article VI, Section 9. New Jersey not voting, Georgia divided.

September 4: Brearly Committee reports 9 propositions

Luther Martin left the convention and did not return. Delegates discussed four out of nine proposals submitted by Brearly Committee. There were three recorded votes. Two were to postpone and one was to adjourn in order to reflect on the Brearly Committee proposals.

Approved Brearly Committee Proposal #1 to amend Article VII, Section 1 giving Federal Legislature authority to lay and collect taxes, duties and imposts and provide for “the common defense and general welfare.”

Agreed, nem. con., to Proposal #2 to amend Article VII, Section 1, interstate commerce clause, to include Congressional regulation of commerce “with the Indian tribes.”

Postponed Proposal #3 to amend Article IX, Section 1. The Proposal read: “The Senate of the United States shall have the power to try all impeachments; but no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.”

Took up Proposal #4 to amend Article X, Section 1 (Election of Executive).

A.) The Executive and the Vice President, “shall hold …office during the term of 4 years.”

B.) “Each state shall appoint in such a manner as its Legislature shall direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and members of the House of Representatives, to which the State may be entitled in the Legislature.”

C.) “The person having the greatest number of (Electoral College) votes shall be the President.”

D.) “If no person have a majority, then from the 5 highest on the list the Senate shall choose by ballot the President.”

E.) “And in every case after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes shall be vice-president: but if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them the vice-president.”

F.) “The Legislature may determine the time of choosing and assembling the Electors, and the manner of certifying and transmitting their votes.”

Sherman argued that the point to this clause was “to render the Executive independent of the legislature.” Randolph and Pinckney wanted an “explanation and discussion of the reasons for changing the mode of electing the Executive.” G. Morris gave six reasons and emphasized that the “principal advantage aimed at was that of taking away the opportunity for cabal.” According to Wilson: “the subject has greatly divided the House, and will also divide people out of doors. It is in truth, the most difficult of all on which we have had to decide.”

Received Proposal #5: Qualifications for President including a “natural born Citizen” clause. Received Proposal #6: The Vice-President clause. Received Proposal #7: Advice and Consent of the Senate clause. Received Proposal #8: Opinion in Writing clause. Received Proposal #9: Removal from Office clause.

Approved (7 – 3) a motion to postpone consideration of Proposals #4-9. Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania “no.” North Carolina temporarily absent.

September 5: Brearly Committee reports 5 more propositions

Eight recorded votes. Eleven states voted. Considered Proposals #10-11 and #13-14 to amend Committee of Detail Article VII, Section 1.

#10: Added “and grant letters of marquee and reprisal” to the war powers clause, nem con.

#11: Limited military appropriations to two years, nem con.

#13: Granted exclusive jurisdiction over Federal land to Congress, nem con.

#14: Provided limited patents to promote science and arts, nem con.

Agreed (9 – 2) to postpone Proposal #12 concerning Article IV, Section 5: yet another reconsideration of the money bills “glue”of the Connecticut Compromise.

Gerry gave notice that he wanted to reconsider Articles XIX (amending), XX (oath), XXI (ratification), and XXII (blessing of Confederation Congress) of the Committee of Detail Report.

Returned to consideration of the 6 proposals left over from the September 4th submission of 9 proposals by the Brearly Committee (#4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

Extensive discussion of Proposal #4 to amend Article X, Section 1 (election of Executive). Madison “considered it as a primary object to render an eventual resort to any part of the Legislature improbable. Randolph: “We have in some revolutions of this plan made a bold stroke for monarchy. We are now doing the same for an aristocracy.” Defeated several motions concerning the election of the Executive.

Defeated (7 – 3 – 1) motion to overcome non-majoritarian outcomes in the Electoral College in the whole Congress instead of just the Senate.

Defeated (9 – 2) motion to limit choice in the Senate to the top 3 candidates instead of the top 5 candidates.

Agreed to request Congress to pay Convention expenses

September 6: Brearly Committee and the Electoral College

There were 20 recorded votes. Eleven States present.

Continued discussion of proposal #4 to amend Article X, Section 1 (election of Executive).

Agreed (10 – 1) that the President and Vice-president be elected to a term of four years.

Agreed (10 – 1) after discussion and amending to authorize the Senate to choose the Executive from top 4 candidates.

Agreed (10 – 1) to a motion by Williamson to substitute the House, with voting by states, for the Senate, or the whole Legislature, in electing the Executive from the top 4 candidates in the event of a break down of the Electoral College. Mason liked this move because it reduced “the aristocratic influence of the Senate.”

Agreed Senate shall choose the Vice-president in the event of a tie for the Vice-president.

September 7: Discussion on the Presidency

Eleven recorded votes. Eleven States present except for North Carolina on the second vote.

Continued discussion of Brearly Proposal #4 to amend Article X, Section 1 (election of Executive). G. Morris: “the Vice President then will be the first heir apparent that ever loved his father.” Mason preferred a Privy Council to having a Vice President. Agreed (8-3) on Electoral College with majority of electoral votes needed for the election of the Executive. Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia “no.” Decided (10-1) that the House, rather than the Senate, shall decide in the event that the “Electoral College” breaks down, but each state shall have one vote. Pennsylvania disagreed. Approved (6 – 4 – 1) motion to let Legislature determine who shall act in cases of disability of President and Vice President. New Hampshire divided.

Took up Proposal #5: qualifications of the President. Agreed (nem con) that the President should be a natural born citizen, resident for 14 years and be 35 years of age.

Took up Proposal #6: Vice-president as President of Senate. Agreed (8 – 2) to Vice-president as President of the Senate. North Carolina not voting. New Jersey and Maryland “no.”

Took up proposal #7: powers of the Executive. Defeated (10 – 1) motion to include House in treaty making. Pennsylvania disagreed. Agreed to Presidential nomination and Senate concurrence of ambassadors, ministers, consuls, and other officers. Approved treaty making with “the advice and consent” of 2/3 of Senate present. Defeated (8 – 3) motion for Council of Advisors to President. Madison said that in rejecting a Council to the President we were about to try an experiment on which the most despotic governments had never ventured.”

September 8: Treaties, Impeachment, and Money Bills

Eighteen recorded votes. Eleven States voted. Connecticut divided on the second vote.

Resumed discussion on Brearly Proposal #7 (the powers of the Executive). Reconsidered treaty power and engaged in lengthy discussion of role of the Senate especially the 2/3 approval rule. Defeated (6 – 5) Sherman’s motion that “no Treaty be made without a majority of the whole number of the Senate.”

Agreed (8 – 3) to Brearly Committee Proposal #8 (President can request opinions of government officials in writing).

Took up Proposal #9: impeachment of the President. Mason supported by Gerry wanted to add “maladministration” to “treason and bribery.” Madison responded: “So vague a term will be equivalent to tenure during pleasure of the Senate.” Agreed (8 – 3) to replace “maladministration” with “other high crimes and misdemeanors against the State” and then “United States.” New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware “no.” Defeated (9 – 2) motion to strike Senate as body to judge on impeachment. Agreed (11 – 0) to addition of Vice-president and other Civil Officers as subject to impeachment.

Returned to Proposal #12: Consideration of Money Bills. Agreed (9 – 2) to Proposal #12 (origination of money bills in the House, subject to Senate amendment). This vote removes that feature of the Connecticut Compromise deemed vital by Mason, Gerry and Randolph.

Balloted for a Committee of Style (Johnson, Hamilton, G. Morris, Madison, and King) “to revise the style of and arrange the articles which had been agreed to.” Note, as in the case of the membership on the Committee of Detail a delegate from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Massachusetts were chosen. Who would be the extra this time? “], Hamilton could not vote on the floor of the House because New York was not “officially” present. Yet, he was elected by the Convention delegates to the Committee of Style!

Defeated (6 – 5) motion supported by Madison and Hamilton to increase the size of House membership.

September 10: Randolph articulates his difficulties

Eight recorded votes. Eleven States present. New Hampshire divided on four votes.

Reconsidered (9 – 1 – 1) Article XIX of the Committee of Detail report: Process to Amend the Constitution (2/3 of state legislatures requesting an amendment, the Congress shall call a Convention). New Jersey “no;” New Hampshire divided. Madison wondered: “How was a Convention to be forced? By what rule decide? What is the force of its acts?” Agreed (9 – 1) to permit 2/3 House and 2/3 Senate to request an amendment and 3/4 of the states to approve. Agreed (11 – 0) that an amendment proposal becomes part of the Constitution upon ratification of 3/4 of the State Legislatures or State Conventions. Rutledge “never could agree to give a power by which the articles relating to the slaves might be altered by the States not interested in that property and prejudiced against it.” He secured exclusion of any alteration in the slavery provisions from the amendment process until the year 1808.

Agreed (7 – 3 – 1) to reconsider Article XXII of the Committee of Detail Report. Pennsylvania “no.”

Approved (11 – 0) Article XXI. This Constitution becomes effective on the approbation of 9 state ratifying conventions and “binding and conclusive” on those states “assenting thereto.”

Randolph took this opportunity to state 12 “objections to the system.” Randolph and Gerry explain their reservations about signing the Constitution “if approbation by Congress” isn’t required. Delegates rejected nem con a motion to require the approval of the Constitution by the Confederation Congress.

Committee of Detail Report, as revised, and Brearly Committee report, as revised, sent to the Committee of Style.

Scene 2: The Committee of Style Report – A Preamble and 7 Articles

September 11: How about this and how about that?

Convention met and adjourned because the Committee of Style was not ready with their report.

The five people elected to the Committee of Style showed yet another swing in the deliberate sense of the Convention. The delegates, in the last stages of the Convention, were willing to give a privileged position in providing the “final touches” of the Constitution to such consistently “high-toned” delegates as King, Hamilton, G. Morris, and Madison. I find this remarkable. The fifth delegate chosen, and also the chair of the Committee of Style, was (Johnson of Connecticut. The “high toners” today have been given, by the entire Convention, the opportunity to put an original Virginia Plan stamp back on the final product. Interestingly, there was one delegate from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and one left over. In July, it was Rutledge from South Carolina. Today, it was Hamilton from New York.

September 12: Is this different from Committee of Detail Report?

Four recorded votes. Eleven states present on the first vote. Massachusetts absent for the last three votes. Committee of Style reported a 7 Article document; it was read by paragraphs. This document is preceded by a preamble, which begins, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union” rather than “We the people of the states of New Hampshire, etc…”

Took up Article I, Section 7. Agreed (6 – 4 – 1) to amend section to include 2/3 instead of 3/4 for Congress to override an Executive veto.

Mason and Gerry call for a prefatory Bill of Rights. Mason wished the plan “had been prefaced with a Bill of Rights… It would give quiet to the people; and with the aid of the State declarations, a bill might be prepared in a few hours … The Laws of the US are to be paramount to State Bills of Rights.” Motion is defeated (10 – 0). Massachusetts temporarily absent.

In early September, as we have seen, the Virginia delegates divided over ratification procedures more than did the Convention as a whole. Should ratification be by state legislatures or state conventions elected by the people, and then how many should say “yes” for ratification? What is to be the role of these conventions? Can they propose amendments or must they just vote “up or down?” What about the role of the existing Congress? Must they approve the proposals and can they make alterations? Should there be a Second Grand Convention where all these things are pulled together?

On September 12, the Virginia delegation disagreed on whether to substitute a 2/3 Congressional override of a Presidential veto for the proposed 3/4 override requirement in Article I , Section 7 of the Committee of Style Report. Madison provides detail. “On the question to insert 2/3 in place of 3/4,” writes Madison, the measure passed 7-3-1. “New Hampshire divided. Virginia no … General Washington, Mr. Blair, Mr. Madison no. Col. Mason, Mr. Randolph ay.” Again, Washington wasn’t reluctant to participate, and, it should be noted, even in such a delicate matter as the independence, and centrality, of the Presidency. The 3/4 override was changed in the last days of the Convention to 2/3, but this does not alter the fact that Washington could be active AND he could be defeated.

This second vote concerned the call for the adoption of a bill of rights by Gerry and Mason. The latter “wished the plan had been prefaced with a Bill of Rights, and would second a motion if made for that purpose — it would give great quiet to the people; and with the aid of the State declarations, a bill might be prepared in a few hours.” And a federal bill of rights was necessary, he added, because “the laws of the U.S. are to be paramount to State Bills of Rights.” The motion was defeated (0-10-1). Massachusetts absent. Gorham spoke just before the motion and Gerry supported the motion. King did not speak today. So King is probably the absent one from Massachusetts thus making Massachusetts absent.

Scene 3: The Discussion of the Committee of Style Report

September 13: Last minute additions

Eleven votes recorded. Ten states voted on the first three motions. Massachusetts absent for motions 1-3. Eleven states voted on the remaining seven motions.

Resumed consideration of Report of Committee of Style.

Took up Article I and focused on Sections 2 and 7. Agreed unanimously to substitute “service” for “servitude.” The delegates agreed with Randolph, that “servitude” expressed “the condition of slaves.” Agreed (7-3) to allow state duties to defray costs of storage and inspection.

Mason bemoaned the absence of “a power to make sumptuary regulations.” Mason, Franklin, Dickinson, Johnson, and Livingston selected to a committee to suggest measures for encouraging economy, frugality, and American manufactures. This committee never made a report.

Johnson from the Committee of Style reported a substitute for Articles XXII and XXIII of the Committee of Detail Report.

September 14: The Necessary and Proper clause

Eighteen recorded votes. Eleven states voted, except New Hampshire did not vote on the final motion. South Carolina and Connecticut divided on this day.

Took up Article I, Sections 3, 4, 5, and 6. Agreed to sections with minimal debate.

Took up Article I, Section 8 (Powers of Congress). Agreed (8 – 3) to strike election of Treasurer by Legislature. Agreed (11 – 0) to add uniformity requirement to taxing power. Madison, Randolph, Wilson, G. Morris, and Mason debate meaning of “necessary and proper clause.” Defeated (6 – 4 – 1) motion by Madison and Pinckney to give Congress power to establish a university “in which no preferences or distinctions should be allowed on account of religion.” G. Morris argued, that “it is not necessary. The exclusive power of the Seat of Government, will reach the object.” Connecticut divided. Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia voted that it was necessary.

Pinckney, Gerry, and Sherman debate whether Congress has the power to interfere with freedom of the press. According to Sherman: “it is unnecessary. The power of Congress does not extend to the press.” Defeated (6-5) motion to insert “the liberty of the press shall be inviolably preserved.”

Took up Article I, Section 9 (Restraints on Congressional powers). Defeated Mason’s motion “that an account of the public expenditures should be annually published.” Adopted Madison’s suggestion nem con to change “annual” publications to “from time to time.” Agreed to the Section with minimal debate.

Took up Article I, Section 10 (Restraints on the powers of the States). Gerry’s motion to extend to the Federal Government “the restraint put on the states from impairing the obligations of contracts” failed to obtain a second.

September 15: How about a Second Convention?

Sixteen recorded votes on this day. Eleven states were present and voted except on the first, when South Carolina was absent, and the eleventh and remaining votes when North Carolina was absent. Connecticut was divided twice. Pennsylvania was divided on the second and fifth vote. Delaware was divided on the eleventh vote. Maryland was also divided on the eleventh vote.

The delegates discussed the Interstate Commerce Clause in Article I, Section 8, the restraints on the states in Article I, Section 10, and turned their attention to the Presidency in Article II, and the amendment process in Article V. The Convention resumed discussion on the Report from the Committee of Style.

Decided (6 – 4) an address from the Convention to the people was “unnecessary and improper.” South Carolina absent.

Defeated (6 – 5) an attempt to add another member for Rhode Island in the House. King: “he never could sign the Constitution” if this were passed. Passed (10 – 1) an attempt to add another member for North Carolina in the House.

Took up Article I, Section 10 (restraints on the powers of the States). Madison argued that this depends on the extent of the Interstate Commerce Clause. McHenry, Carroll, Langdon, Mason, G. Morris, Madison’s and Sherman debate the meaning of the interstate commerce clause. Does the regulatory power of Congress restrain state commerce authority? Agreed (6 – 4 – 1) that “no state shall lay any duty on tonnage with out the consent of Congress.” Connecticut divided.

Took up Article II, Section 1 (General structure of Executive Office). Agreed (7 – 4) that the President shall not receive “any other emolument from the United States or any of them” during his term of office.

Took up Article II, Section 2 (Powers of the President). Defeated (8 – 2 – 1) a motion to extend the power “to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment” to include “cases of treason.” Connecticut divided.

Agreed (after debate, nem con) to G. Morris’s “Inferior Officer’s” clause (Allows Congress to by pass the “advice and consent of the Senate” and vest/delegate the appointment of “inferior officers” to the President alone, the Courts of Law alone or the Heads of Departments alone). This motion was initially defeated (5 – 5 – 1).

Took up Article III, Section 2 (Trial by jury). Defeated (nem con) an attempt to extend the “trial by jury” clause covering criminal cases to include civil cases.

Took up Article IV, Section 2 (Fugitive Slave clause). Struck out “no person legally held to service or labor in one state escaping into another” and replaced it with “no person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another” (emphasis added). Addition of “under the laws thereof” removes the idea “that slavery was legal in a moral view.”

Agreed to Article IV, Section 3 (Admittance of new states).

Agreed to Article IV, Section 4 (Republican guarantee).

Took up Article V (Amending the Constitution). Agreed (nem. con.) that Congress shall call a convention on the application for amendments by 2/3 of the State Legislatures. Sherman “thought it reasonable that the proviso in favor of the States importing slaves should be extended so as to provide that no State should be affected in its internal police, or deprived of its equality in the Senate.”Agreed (8 – 3) to the motion of G. Morris that a state cannot be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate without its own consent.

Gerry listed seven objections to the Constitution and offered three possible changes. The delegates unanimously rejected a call by Randolph, Mason, and Gerry “that amendments to the plan might be offered by the States Conventions, which should be submitted to and finally decided on by another general convention.”

Approved (10 – 0) the document as amended (North Carolina did not meet quorum call). Washington must have voted with Madison’s and Blair.

On September 15, Mason listed 16 objections. Mason wrote to Washington giving the General a copy of his objections to the Constitution. “Dear General,” began Mason, “you know how much I love you and how we worked together, but my conscience demands that I state my objections, and here they are. No bill of rights, the President may pardon all kinds of people …” Washington then wrote to Madison and said, “You know, I made sure that his letter made it to all the newspapers across the country as a way of demonstrating what an unreliable man George Mason is.”

Scene 4: The Signing of the Constitution

September 17: Constitution signed

There were two recorded votes on this day. Eleven states were present and voted. The delegation — as distinct from the individual delegates — agreed on singing the Constitution and also agreed “to deliver the journals and papers to the President.”

Franklin opened the day with a speech that was used by the pro-constitutionalists in the ratification debate. “I agree to this Constitution with all its faults … I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution … Sir, I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his infallibility — and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to the instrument.”

Gorham, supported by King and Carroll, hoped “it was not too late” as a way “of lessening objections to the Constitution to substitute 1:30,000 for 1:40,000” by giving Congress “a greater latitude” in securing a reasonable scheme of proportional representation. Washington spoke for the first time at the Convention: “It was much to be desired that the objections to the plan recommended might be as few as possible … Late as the present moment was for admitting amendments, he thought this of so much consequence that it would give satisfaction to see it adopted.”

The delegates unanimously agreed to Gorham’s proposal, but it was not enough to persuade Randolph and Mason and Gerry to sign.

Franklin raised the following practical questions: 1) Isn’t “a more perfect union,” better than “a less perfect union?” 2) Isn’t “a perfect union,” achievable only in speech? Randolph issued the following grim warning as an explanation for his decision: “Nine States will fail to ratify the plan and confusion must ensue.” Gerry feared an impending civil war and considered Franklin’s remarks to be personally motivated.

Franklin also had the last word at the Convention with his “Rising Sun” speech.

Franklin’s optimistic appeal to the improvement of the American condition and Randolph’s pessimistic appeal to the realism of “political arithmetic” marks the end of the Four-Act-Drama of the Convention.

Washington noted in his diary, that “the members adjourned to the City Tavern, dined together and took a cordial leave of each other.”

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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.

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.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the tenth son of soap maker, and died in Philadelphia, a man of considerable wealth and international admiration. He was buried in Christ Church Burial Ground. He fathered four children from two common law wives.

Franklin received little formal education but became an avid supporter of the arts and sciences. Later, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Edinburgh and Oxford. At age 12, he worked for his half-brother James, printer of the New England Courant, where he published his first article, anonymously, in 1721. At age 16, he moved to Philadelphia, and then sought fame and fortune one year later in Europe. He returned to Philadelphia and re-entered the printing business. Franklin printed The Pennsylvania Gazette (1730-1748) and in 1741 began publishing the annual Poor Richard’s Almanac magazine, reportedly second only to the Bible in popularity and influence.

Franklin was Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly (1736-1751), a member of the colonial Pennsylvania Assembly (1751-1764) and a postmaster of the American colonies (1753-1774). Between 1752 and 1775, Franklin also served as an “agent” for Pennsylvania and three other colonies to England, France, and several other European powers. Already popular in Europe, Franklin’s defense of the colonial opposition to the Stamp Act before the House of Commons helped him become a hero in America.

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1775. He was elected to both the First and Second Continental Congress. He was a member of a three person diplomatic mission to Canada, along with Charles Carroll and Samuel Chase, to seek a union between Canada and the colonies. He also served on the five-member Committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He is reputed to have said upon signing the Declaration: “Gentlemen, we must now all hang together, or we shall most assuredly all hang separately.” In 1787, he represented Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention. His “rising sun” speech on September 17, 1787 is a classical expression of Franklin’s optimism about the American experiment.

In addition to coining the phrases “a penny saved is a penny earned,” and “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety,” Franklin created a list of 13 virtues to live by: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He was also one of the earliest and strongest advocates for the abolition of slavery.

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.

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.

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 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.

Elbridge Gerry

Elbridge Gerry

Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts to a prosperous merchant family. He died in Washington, DC. while serving as Vice President of the United States. He was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Gerry is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in DC. He fathered ten children. His wife lived until 1849, the last surviving widow of a signer.

He received a private education as a child and then studied at Harvard to be a merchant, graduating in 1764. Gerry then joined the lucrative family business and became a wealthy merchant in his own right.

Gerry’s political career was long, controversial, and effective, but mostly overlooked by historians.

In 1765, Parliament enacted the Stamp Act to raise revenue by taxing the colonies. Gerry was an opponent of these acts and allied himself with Samuel Adams and John Hancock. In 1772, Gerry was elected to the Massachusetts Bay legislature. In 1775, he was a member of a Committee of Safety, along with Adams and Hancock, in support of Boston.

In 1776, Gerry was selected to be a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. Gerry was a strong advocate for separating from England. He was absent for the formal signing on August 2, 1776 but signed later that year. He joins Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, and Mathew Thornton as late signers. In 1776, John Adams stated, “If every man here was a Gerry, the liberties of America would be safe.” He also was a member of the Confederation Congress (1783-1785) where he signed the Articles of Confederation.

He was selected to represent Massachusetts at the 1787 Constitutional Convention where he was chair of the Connecticut Compromise Committee but, in the end, declined to sign the Constitution. He thought the Constitution should include a bill of rights and thus opposed the ratification of the Constitution. Nevertheless, Gerry served two terms in the House of Representatives (1789-1793) where he supported the passage of a bill of rights. When John Adams became President in 1796, he selected Gerry, along with John Marshall and Charles Pinckney, to be commissioners to France to settle maritime disputes. This episode became known as the XYZ Affair and Adams recalled him. He was elected Governor of Massachusetts (1810-1811) where he signed a Congressional redistricting bill that assisted the Democratic Republicans. The map looked like a salamander. Thus the term “Gerrymander” for which Gerry is mostly remembered.

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.

Nathaniel Gorham

State: Massachusetts

Age at Convention: 49

Date of Birth: May 27, 1738

Date of Death: June 11, 1796

Schooling: Local schools

Occupation: Merchant and Speculator, Public Security and Interests, Real Estate

Prior Political Experience: Colonial Legislature 1771-1775, State Upper House of Massachusetts 1780, Provincial Congress 1774-1775, Commonwealth Board of War 1778-1781, Massachusetts Constitutional Convention 1779-1780, Lower House of Massachusetts 1781-1787 and Speaker 1781-1785, Judge of Middlesex County court of common please 1785-1796, Confederation Congress 1782-1783 & 1785-1787, President of Confederation Congress June 1786-January 1787

Committee Assignments: Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Committee of Detail, Second Committee of Representation, Committee of Trade, Committee of State Commitments

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 28, and except for one day, July 14, was present for the duration and signed the Constitution. He is remembered for his role as the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole. He was a warm supporter of a strong central government. William Pierce stated that “Mr. Gorham is … high in reputation, and much in the esteem of his countrymen, he is eloquent and easy in public debate, but has nothing fashionable or eloquent in his style.”

New Government Participation: Attended the Massachusetts ratification convention, supported ratification of the Constitution. He did not serve in the new government.

Biography from the National Archives: Gorham, an eldest child, was born in 1738 at Charlestown, Massachusetts, into an old Bay Colony family of modest means. His father operated a packet boat. The youth’s education was minimal. When he was about 15 years of age, he was apprenticed to a New London, Connecticut, merchant. He quit in 1759, returned to his hometown and established a business which quickly succeeded. In 1763 he wed Rebecca Call, who was to bear nine children.

Gorham began his political career as a public notary but soon won election to the colonial legislature (1771-75). During the Revolution, he unswervingly backed the Whigs. He was a delegate to the provincial congress (1774-75), member of the Massachusetts Board of War (1778-81), delegate to the constitutional convention (1779-80), and representative in both the upper (1780) and lower (1781-87) houses of the legislature, including speaker of the latter in 1781, 1782, and 1785. In the last year, though he apparently lacked formal legal training, he began a judicial career as judge of the Middlesex County court of common pleas (1785-96). During this same period, he sat on the Governor’s Council (1788-89).

During the war, British troops had ravaged much of Gorham’s property, though by privateering and speculation he managed to recoup most of his fortune. Despite these pressing business concerns and his state political and judicial activities, he also served the nation. He was a member of the Continental Congress (1782-83 and 1785-87), and held the office of president from June 1786 until January 1787.

The next year, at age 49, Gorham attended the Constitutional Convention. A moderate nationalist, he attended all the sessions and played an influential role. He spoke often, acted as chairman of the Committee of the Whole, and sat on the Committee of Detail. As a delegate to the Massachusetts ratifying convention, he stood behind the Constitution.

Some unhappy years followed. Gorham did not serve in the new government he had helped to create. In 1788 he and Oliver Phelps of Windsor, Connecticut, and possibly others, contracted to purchase from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 6 million acres of unimproved land in western New York. The price was $1 million in devalued Massachusetts scrip. Gorham and Phelps quickly succeeded in clearing Indian title to 2,600,000 acres in the eastern section of the grant and sold much of it to settlers. Problems soon arose, however. Massachusetts scrip rose dramatically in value, enormously swelling the purchase price of the vast tract. By 1790 the two men were unable to meet their payments. The result was a financial crisis that led to Gorham’s insolvency—and a fall from the heights of Boston society and political esteem.

Gorham died in 1796 at the age of 58 and is buried at the Phipps Street Cemetery in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

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.

James McHenry

State: Maryland (Born in Ireland, immigrated 1774)

Age at Convention: 33

Date of Birth: November 16, 1753

Date of Death: May 3, 1816

Schooling: Classical education at Dublin, Newark Academy in Delaware 1772 (2 years under Doctor Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia)

Occupation: Office Holder, Lending and Investments, Mercantile, Manufacturing, and Shipping, Physician/Surgeon

Prior Political Experience: Served on the Staff of George Washington at Valley Forge 1776-1780, Maryland Senate 1781-1786, Confederation Congress 1783-1786

Committee Assignments: Committee of Assumption of State Debt

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 28, departed June 1, returned to the Convention August 6, remained through the signing of the Constitution. He kept a diary of the proceedings, and supported the effort to build a stronger Federal Government. William Pierce stated that “as a politician there is nothing remarkable in him, nor has he any of the graces of the Orator.”

New Government Participation: Attended the Maryland ratification convention, supported ratification of the Constitution. Served as Secretary of War for Washington and Adams. Fort McHenry, located near Baltimore, MD, is named in his honor. The “Star-Spangled Banner” was written off the shores of Fort McHenry on September 13-14, 1814.

Biography from the National Archives: McHenry was born at Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1753. He enjoyed a classical education at Dublin, and emigrated to Philadelphia in 1771. The following year, the rest of his family came to the colonies, and his brother and father established an import business at Baltimore. During that year, James continued schooling at Newark Academy in Delaware and then studied medicine for 2 years under the well-known Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia.

During the War for Independence, McHenry served as a military surgeon. Late in 1776, while he was on the staff of the 5th Pennsylvania Battalion, the British captured him at Fort Washington, NY. He was paroled early the next year and exchanged in March 1778. Returning immediately to duty, he was assigned to Valley Forge, PA, and in May became secretary to George Washington. About this time, McHenry apparently quit the practice of medicine to devote himself to politics and administration; he apparently never needed to return to it after the war because of his excellent financial circumstances.

McHenry stayed on Washington’s staff until 1780, when he joined that of the Marquis de Lafayette, and he remained in that assignment until he entered the Maryland Senate (1781-86). During part of this period, he served concurrently in the Continental Congress (1783-86). In 1784 he married Margaret Allison Caldwell.

McHenry missed many of the proceedings at the Philadelphia convention, in part because of the illness of his brother, and played an insubstantial part in the debates when he was present. He did, however, maintain a private journal that has been useful to posterity. He campaigned strenuously for the Constitution in Maryland and attended the state ratifying convention.

From 1789 to 1791, McHenry sat in the state assembly and in the years 1791-96 again in the senate. A staunch Federalist, he then accepted Washington’s offer of the post of Secretary of War and held it into the administration of John Adams. McHenry looked to Hamilton rather than to Adams for leadership. As time passed, the latter became increasingly dissatisfied with McHenry’s performance and distrustful of his political motives and in 1800 forced him to resign. Subsequently, the Democratic-Republicans accused him of maladministration, but a congressional committee vindicated him.

McHenry returned to his estate near Baltimore and to semiretirement. He remained a loyal Federalist and opposed the War of 1812. He also held the office of president of a Bible society. He died in 1816 at the age of 62, survived by two of his three children. His grave is in Baltimore’s Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery.

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.

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.

Establishing the Electoral College and the Presidency

The Virginia Plan, introduced by Edmund Randolph on May 29, called for the creation of a National Executive elected by the Congress. On the initial consideration of the proposal, the delegates on June 1, June 2, and June 4 agreed on a single executive who would serve a seven year term and be ineligible for re-election. Some delegates wanted to settle the issue of 1) re-eligibility first, others wanted to 2) fix the length of term before proceeding further, still other delegates wanted to discuss how 3) the executive would be elected before considering anything else, and still other delegates thought 4) that the powers of the President should be the primary question to be settled.

On the first reading, and every time thereafter, the convention agreed to provide the chief executive with a veto subject to Congressional override. (See Judicial Review Theme.) The biggest issue was how to elect the President. On June 9, the delegates defeated a motion to have the President elected by state executives. On June 18, Hamilton surprised the delegates with a proposal for a President for life.

The delegates revisited the four main issues—without settling any one once and for all—involved in the construction of the executive on July 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, and 26. On July 17, the delegates agreed to a single executive elected by the legislature, and to be re-elected rather than serve during good behaviour. On July 18 and 19, the delegates revisited the issue of whether the President should be re-eligible and embraced the idea that perhaps the president should be chosen by electors chosen by state legislatures. On July 20, a proposal permitting the impeachment of the president was approved. On July 24, the delegates returned to the earlier position: the President should be elected by the national legislature. Finally, on July 26, the delegates approved a seven-year term for the President. But he would be ineligible for re-election!

The Committee of Detail Report of August 6, summarized where the delegates stood. On August 24, the delegates turned to the Presidential article and defeated four different modes of electing the President. In the end, the Convention selected members of the Brearly Committee whose objective was to settle outstanding issues. The chief of these was the Presidential clause. On September 4, the Brearly Committee recommended that the Convention support the Electoral College method of choosing a president. On September 6 and 7, the delegates agreed to a four-year renewable term for the President and that he be a natural born citizen. On September 8, the delegates settled the treaty making power and agreed on the impeachment of the President for “high crimes and misdemeanours.” Finally, on September 15, the delegates added “the inferior officers clause.”

To summarize, the Brearly Committee, composed of Gilman, King, Sherman, Brearly, G. Morris, Dickinson, Carroll, Madison, Williamson, Butler, and Baldwin—a veritable cross-section of the delegates—proposed the adoption of an Electoral College in which both the people and the States are represented in the election of the President. This resolution of the difficult matter of Presidential election clearly meant that the partly national -partly federal model had become the deliberate sense of the convention. This structural compromise—Congress is partly federal and partly national—became the deliberate sense of the community by the end of the Convention. It is the model to which the delegates returned for the resolution of the most durable of issues, namely, the election of the President.