Signing Their Rights Away (21 page)

The Invisible Signer

BORN
: 1752

DIED
: April 25, 1810

AGE AT SIGNING
: About 35

PROFESSION
: Surveyor, farmer, businessman

BURIED
: Christ Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Jacob Broom is so obscure …

How obscure is he?

He’s so obscure, we’re not even sure what he looks like. Good luck trying to find him in Howard Chandler Christy’s famous 1940 mural
Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States;
in that painting, Broom’s face is blocked by the head of fellow signer John Dickinson. Other books on the signers show Broom’s face in dark silhouette or merely replaced by an artful question mark. A verified image of him has never been found, and so he’s the only signer whose looks are a mystery.

Luckily, what Broom accomplished is not in question, though
history hasn’t always done justice to this small-state signer with a big heart. He may not have spoken often, but in one memorable moment he prevented the entire convention from shutting down. Without his bold actions, the Constitution might not exist.

Broom was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the only Constitution signer to be born in the First State. Believed to be descended from the royal Plantagenet family in England—Plantagenet means “broom-plant”—Broom was the son of a blacksmith-turned-farmer and a Quaker mother. Though not tremendously wealthy, the family did have land holdings, silver, and gold; they were solidly gentry. Broom was schooled at home and at the Wilmington Old Academy. He studied surveying and became a merchant and land dealer. He married Rachel Pierce in 1773, and the couple had eight children.

Broom was less active in politics than many of his cosigners, but he was a successful businessman and dabbled in the local politics of Wilmington, his hometown. He was a justice of the peace (which, at the time, didn’t require a law degree) and a borough assessor. He was also an assistant burgess, an elected representative of the people six times over, and went on to be chief burgess, a post he held four times.

Broom put his surveying talents to use for General George Washington, drawing maps used during the 1777 battle of Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania. The two men developed an appreciation for each other. After the American Revolution ended in victory, Washington arrived in Wilmington to a hero’s reception—there was a thirteen-gun salute, an extravagant meal, and an impassioned speech from Broom: “Your glorious endeavors to rescue our country from a determined plan of oppression have been not only attended with the most brilliant success, but crowned with the noble rewards of liberty, independence, and the final accomplishment of an honorable peace.” He also encouraged Washington, “that with a parental consideration, your excellency will occasionally contribute your advice and influence to promote the harmony and union of our infant governments which are so essential to the permanent establishment of our freedom, happiness, and prosperity.”

Broom’s brief stint in state and national office began in 1784, when he was elected to the Delaware legislature. He served three terms. He was chosen to go to the Annapolis Convention but did not attend. However, he was present for the opening session of the Constitutional Convention, on May 25, 1787, and voted to elect Washington as convention president.

Broom was not especially talkative during the debates. He reportedly suggested Wilmington as the future capital of the United States, an idea that went nowhere. He seconded fellow Delaware delegate George Read’s motion for nine-year senate terms and believed national legislators should be paid by Congress. He supported the idea that a president should be chosen by electors appointed by the state legislature, rather than by the people themselves, and he felt the president should serve for life, as long as he behaved himself. He was not afraid of giving power to a strong national government and agreed with South Carolinian Charles Pinckney that Congress should have the power to veto legislation passed by a state, if it saw fit.

On those few occasions when Broom did speak up, his words were delivered with plenty of conviction. As a representative of the smallest state, he agreed that if representation in the House was going to be based on population, then everyone should have an equal voice in the Senate. This, he said to his fellow delegates, “could not be denied after this concession of the small States as to the first branch.”

By July 16, the battle over representation in Congress was coming to a head. Talk of an adjournment
sine die
—meaning indefinitely—appeared likely. Everyone feared that an indefinite adjournment would mean the delegates would leave the talks and never return.

But then, out of the thick and steamy Philadelphia summer heat, rose the usually quiet Jacob Broom.
Sine die
was not an option. It would be disastrous. He pleaded with his fellow delegates that “something must be done by the Convention, though it should be by a bare majority.”

Jaws dropped.
Who was this little broom-plant to speak so passionately?

But somehow the plea worked. Congress agreed to adjourn not
indefinitely, but only until the next day, at which point they would continue to hammer out the details. The convention—and the Constitution—was saved. If news of his valiant effort had been circulated more widely among local artists, perhaps we’d have a portrait of Broom today. Alas, no such luck.

Broom returned to local politics and was active in Wilmington for the remainder of his years. He helped found the town’s first library in 1787. Washington appointed him first postmaster of Wilmington in 1790, and he worked as head of the water, sewer, and street departments. He was a seventeen-year trustee in the Wilmington Academy, which became the College of Wilmington. He was a lay leader active in the Old Swedes Church and served as director of the board of the Bank of Delaware and the Wilmington Bridge Company, which constructed, among other things, a toll bridge. If only Broom could see tiny Delaware now! How he would marvel at the four American dollars required to travel from Wilmington to the Maryland state line—a distance of a mere thirty miles.

And Broom still found time for his business pursuits. In 1795, he opened the first cotton mill in that part of the country and, two years later, built an even larger one along the Brandywine River, which later burned down. It took several years before he rebuilt it, and he eventually sold the land, which was equipped with a dam and a millrace, to Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. The property became a part of the massive du Pont empire. Today, the area is a national historic site in Wilmington, and visitors may tour Hagley Museum and Library, which celebrates American industrial history and enterprise from the eighteenth century to the present. Jacob Broom’s house is located nearby, not far from the original cotton mill. It is a private residence.

Broom died at age fifty-eight in Philadelphia and is buried in Christ Church Burial Ground. Yet even posthumously he continued his contributions to society; he left money to the Female Benevolent Society, which served women in need, and the Wilmington Association for Promoting the Education of People of Color, a school established to educate black children.

VIII. Maryland

The Signer Immortalized by the Star-Spangled Banner