The Nationalists
James Madison
Virginia
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."
Son of a Virginia planter; Princeton graduate and student of John Witherspoon; state legislator; delegate to the Continental Congress; main author of the Virginia Plan and driving force be- hind the Virginia delegation, though young at age thirty-six.
Virginia
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."
Son of a Virginia planter; Princeton graduate and student of John Witherspoon; state legislator; delegate to the Continental Congress; main author of the Virginia Plan and driving force be- hind the Virginia delegation, though young at age thirty-six.
George Washington
Virginia
“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
Virginia planter, surveyor, and soldier; commander of American forces during the Revolutionary War; unanimous choice for Convention president, though a reluctant attendee.
Virginia
“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
Virginia planter, surveyor, and soldier; commander of American forces during the Revolutionary War; unanimous choice for Convention president, though a reluctant attendee.
James Wilson
Pennsylvania
"Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness."
Scottish immigrant, arriving prior to the Revolution; important pamphleteer and author; lawyer-jurist; signer of the Declaration of Independence; opponent of the Pennsylvania constitution; financier.
Pennsylvania
"Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness."
Scottish immigrant, arriving prior to the Revolution; important pamphleteer and author; lawyer-jurist; signer of the Declaration of Independence; opponent of the Pennsylvania constitution; financier.
Gouverneur Morris
Pennsylvania
"We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate . . . as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism. . . . Democracy! savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to thy level of folly and guilt."
Transplanted New Yorker from an aristocratic family; young, talented lawyer with a wooden leg, lost under mysterious circumstances; bon-vivant; active in state government; master constitutional draftsman; Washington and Robert Morris as patrons.
Pennsylvania
"We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate . . . as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism. . . . Democracy! savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to thy level of folly and guilt."
Transplanted New Yorker from an aristocratic family; young, talented lawyer with a wooden leg, lost under mysterious circumstances; bon-vivant; active in state government; master constitutional draftsman; Washington and Robert Morris as patrons.
Alexander Hamilton
New York
"Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things."
Revolutionary War veteran on Washington’s staff and hero of Yorktown; rising lawyer married to the daughter of Philip Schuyler; pamphleteer; organizer of the Annapolis Convention
New York
"Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things."
Revolutionary War veteran on Washington’s staff and hero of Yorktown; rising lawyer married to the daughter of Philip Schuyler; pamphleteer; organizer of the Annapolis Convention
The Moderate Nationalists
John Rutledge
South Carolina
"The idea of restraining the right of suffrage to the freeholders... would create division among the people, and make enemies of all those who should be excluded."
Planter-aristocrat and lawyer-judge; member of the Stamp Act Congress and the First Continental Congress; drafter of South Carolina constitution; state legislator and governor; war hero whose estate the British confiscated; delegate to the Continental Congress; slave-owner.
South Carolina
"The idea of restraining the right of suffrage to the freeholders... would create division among the people, and make enemies of all those who should be excluded."
Planter-aristocrat and lawyer-judge; member of the Stamp Act Congress and the First Continental Congress; drafter of South Carolina constitution; state legislator and governor; war hero whose estate the British confiscated; delegate to the Continental Congress; slave-owner.
John Dickinson
Delaware
"Let our government be like that of the solar system. Let the general government be like the sun and the states the planets, repelled yet attracted, and the whole moving regularly and harmoniously in several orbits."
Important pamphleteer during the resistance years; member of the Stamp Act Congress; member of the First Continental Congress, inclining toward reconciliation with Britain; co-drafter of the Articles of Confederation; war veteran; former president of Delaware and of Pennsylvania; lawyer married to an heiress.
Delaware
"Let our government be like that of the solar system. Let the general government be like the sun and the states the planets, repelled yet attracted, and the whole moving regularly and harmoniously in several orbits."
Important pamphleteer during the resistance years; member of the Stamp Act Congress; member of the First Continental Congress, inclining toward reconciliation with Britain; co-drafter of the Articles of Confederation; war veteran; former president of Delaware and of Pennsylvania; lawyer married to an heiress.
Benjamin Franklin
Pennsylvania
“The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
Oldest delegate at age eighty-one; printer, scientist, inventor, and diplomat; architect of the Albany Plan (early attempt at colonial union, 1754); signer of the Declaration of Independence; supporter of the Pennsylvania constitution; co-drafter of the Articles of Confederation; America’s most famous citizen.
Pennsylvania
“The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
Oldest delegate at age eighty-one; printer, scientist, inventor, and diplomat; architect of the Albany Plan (early attempt at colonial union, 1754); signer of the Declaration of Independence; supporter of the Pennsylvania constitution; co-drafter of the Articles of Confederation; America’s most famous citizen.
Oliver Ellsworth
Connecticut
"If, my countrymen, you wait for a constitution which absolutely bars a power of doing evil, you must wait long, and when obtained it will have no power of doing good."
Businessman, lawyer, and judge; former delegate to the Continental Congress; prolific consumer of snuff, given to talking to himself; thirty-one.
Connecticut
"If, my countrymen, you wait for a constitution which absolutely bars a power of doing evil, you must wait long, and when obtained it will have no power of doing good."
Businessman, lawyer, and judge; former delegate to the Continental Congress; prolific consumer of snuff, given to talking to himself; thirty-one.
The Confederalists
John Lansing Jr.
New York
"All free constitutions are formed with two views - to deter the governed from crime, and the governors from tyranny."
Wealthy landowner; mayor of Albany and New York assemblyman; delegate to the Continental Congress; slave-owner; follower of George Clinton, governor of New York
New York
"All free constitutions are formed with two views - to deter the governed from crime, and the governors from tyranny."
Wealthy landowner; mayor of Albany and New York assemblyman; delegate to the Continental Congress; slave-owner; follower of George Clinton, governor of New York
Luther Martin
Maryland
"This general government, I believe, is the first upon the earth which gives checks against democracies or aristocracies. The only necessary check in a general government ought to be a restraint to prevent it absorbing the powers of the state governments."
Attorney general of Maryland; alcoholic; follower of Samuel Chase, state’s leading politician.
Maryland
"This general government, I believe, is the first upon the earth which gives checks against democracies or aristocracies. The only necessary check in a general government ought to be a restraint to prevent it absorbing the powers of the state governments."
Attorney general of Maryland; alcoholic; follower of Samuel Chase, state’s leading politician.
William Paterson
New Jersey
“What is a constitution? It is the form of government, delineated by the mighty hand of the people, in which certain first principles of fundamental law are established. The Constitution is certain and fixed; it contains the permanent will of the people, and is the supreme law of the land.”
Lawyer and storekeeper; state legislator; owner of a confiscated loyalist estate.
New Jersey
“What is a constitution? It is the form of government, delineated by the mighty hand of the people, in which certain first principles of fundamental law are established. The Constitution is certain and fixed; it contains the permanent will of the people, and is the supreme law of the land.”
Lawyer and storekeeper; state legislator; owner of a confiscated loyalist estate.
The Moderate Confederalists
Roger Sherman
Connecticut
“The question is, not what rights naturally belong to man, but how they may be most equally and effectually guarded
in society.”
Elderly jack-of-all-trades with political experience tracing back to the First Continental Congress; signer of the Declaration of Independence and co-drafter of the Articles of Confederation.
Connecticut
“The question is, not what rights naturally belong to man, but how they may be most equally and effectually guarded
in society.”
Elderly jack-of-all-trades with political experience tracing back to the First Continental Congress; signer of the Declaration of Independence and co-drafter of the Articles of Confederation.
George Mason
Virginia
"Government is, or ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration."
Planter-aristocrat but with democratic leanings; owner of many slaves but a supporter of abolition; author of the Fairfax Resolves (revolutionary tract, 1774); draftsman of the Virginia constitution of 1776 and of the Virginia Bill of Rights; out of politics for ten years prior to the Convention; friends with Virginia’s political elite.
Virginia
"Government is, or ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration."
Planter-aristocrat but with democratic leanings; owner of many slaves but a supporter of abolition; author of the Fairfax Resolves (revolutionary tract, 1774); draftsman of the Virginia constitution of 1776 and of the Virginia Bill of Rights; out of politics for ten years prior to the Convention; friends with Virginia’s political elite.
Edmund Randolph
Virginia
"The general object was to provide a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils, to their origin, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy." (Randolph describing the purpose of the Constitutional Convention of 1787)
Current governor of Virginia at the age of thirty-three; former attorney general; former delegate to the Continental Congress and to the Annapolis Convention; from a prominent Virginia family; ex officio head of the Virginia delegation.
Virginia
"The general object was to provide a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils, to their origin, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy." (Randolph describing the purpose of the Constitutional Convention of 1787)
Current governor of Virginia at the age of thirty-three; former attorney general; former delegate to the Continental Congress and to the Annapolis Convention; from a prominent Virginia family; ex officio head of the Virginia delegation.
Elbridge Gerry
Massachusetts
“Something must be done or we shall disappoint not only America but the whole world.”
Merchant from a prominent family; experienced politician; signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.
Massachusetts
“Something must be done or we shall disappoint not only America but the whole world.”
Merchant from a prominent family; experienced politician; signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.