Signing Their Rights Away (23 page)

But by 1775, when Sir Eden was ousted by patriots, Jenifer had joined the revolutionary cause and began working in Maryland’s new state senate. He was assigned to Congress as well, but most of his work during the Revolutionary War exploited his talents in land management. If Maryland patriots seized a loyalist property, Jenifer managed the fallout, selling off the confiscated land and possessions, issuing the
paperwork spelling out the new chain of ownership, and thus building revenue for the struggling new state. From 1782 onward, as de facto treasurer, he was one of the most powerful and best-paid office holders in the state. He wasn’t among the first picks to attend the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but, after one of the four candidates backed out, Jenifer was packing his bags and heading to Philadelphia.

By now he was an affable, aristocratic sixty-four-year-old bachelor. The third oldest signer, after Ben Franklin and Roger Sherman, Jenifer attended nearly all the sessions but kept his comments to a minimum. Even though Maryland was a small state in size and population, Jenifer preferred the Virginia Plan, whereas his most prominent fellow delegate, a hard-drinking Baltimore attorney named Luther Martin, championed the New Jersey Plan. (During the most significant votes on representation, Jenifer and Martin were the only Maryland delegates in attendance; the others were likely called away to attend to other business.)

With Jenifer’s and Martin’s votes canceling each other out, Maryland’s vote was often tied and, therefore, useless in advancing the dialogue on larger issues. Jenifer thought that the nation must have a durable, strong union and that that the federal government should have the power to tax. As an expert in governmental finance, he knew how vital sources of funding were to carrying out state business. But he was wise enough to know that the small states needed to get their way on the issue of representation or they would abandon the convention altogether.

The delegates spent most of July 2 trying to decide the make-up of the future Senate. They had already agreed that representatives in the House would be chosen according to each state’s population, but then the small states began demanding equal votes in the Senate. Jenifer disagreed, but one can only assume he didn’t feel too strongly about the issue because, when the time came to take a vote, he disappeared. He lingered outside the state house, certainly knowing that, without his nay vote, Martin would throw the entire state of
Maryland behind equal suffrage. Minutes after the vote was taken, Jenifer ambled back into the room.

And that wasn’t the only time Jenifer wouldn’t get his way. On another occasion, he insisted that U.S. representatives be elected to three-year, not two-year, terms. He thought seeking election every two years would be exhausting and drive away the best office seekers. (The convention ignored his advice, and U.S. representatives still serve two-year terms.)

Jenifer would later marvel at how beautifully the delegates came together to create the Constitution. “The first month we only came to grips,” he said. “And the second it seemed as though we would fly apart forever, but we didn’t—we jelled.”

Jenifer signed the Constitution, but his opponent Martin refused, reportedly saying, “I’ll be hanged if the people support the Constitution!” Jenifer needled his convention buddy: “You should stay in Philadelphia so they don’t get you with their rope!” In the end, Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the new Constitution.

The wise-cracking old land man retired to his sizable plantation estate, Stepney, where he died at the age of sixty-seven, only three years after his time in Philadelphia. Since he never did marry, Jenifer left his estate to his nephew, the plainly named Daniel, with instructions to free his slaves about six years after their master’s death. Today, no one knows where the signer with the interesting middle name is buried. It’s possible he was laid to rest on family property or perhaps was entombed in a famous churchyard in the Port Tobacco area that lost its headstones in a massive flood. His whereabouts, like his own odd name, are mysteries for the ages.

The Signer Who Helped Create Washington, D.C.

BORN
: July 22, 1730

DIED
: May 7, 1796

AGE AT SIGNING
: 57

PROFESSION
: Merchant

BURIED
: Location unknown; believed to be in St. John’s Catholic Cemetery, Forest Glen, Maryland

At the time of the Constitutional Convention, the nation’s government was headquartered in New York City. Daniel Carroll gets a lot of the credit for moving it to the area now known as Washington, D.C. The decision was quite a controversial one back in the day, largely because Carroll’s family owned much of the land that would later become the District of Columbia.

Carroll was born in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. His father—like many of the Carroll clan—was a rich planter with lots of land. He was one of seven children; his younger brother John became the first Catholic bishop and archbishop in the United States.

Hailing from one of the wealthiest families in all of the thirteen
colonies did not insulate Carroll from the prejudices suffered by members of the Catholic faith, rich and poor alike. At this time in America’s history, Catholics were often forbidden to practice law, build churches, or hold public office. In some colonies, Catholics who intended to assume public office were forced to take a Test Oath, renouncing their faith. Because teaching children in Catholic schools was also discouraged, Carroll was educated privately before being shipped off to France to complete his studies, an option his family could easily afford. He enrolled in a Jesuit school for six years before returning to the colonies at the age of eighteen.

Several years later Carroll’s father died, leaving behind a great inheritance. Carroll then married his cousin Eleanor, thus keeping the fortune in the family while increasing his own holdings substantially, for Eleanor came with a not-too-shabby dowry of £3,000. A successful tobacco exporter, Carroll boosted his portfolio by purchasing and selling land and slaves. He also dabbled in land speculation, as did many of his fellow signers. But, luckily for him, his interest in lands west of the Appalachians did not result in complete financial ruin.

The year 1776 brought not only the start of the Revolutionary War but also the institution of the Maryland Constitution, which allowed Catholics to vote and hold office. Carroll entered the state legislature in 1777. He was not a particularly vocal or outspoken supporter of the war; some say he may even have been reluctant. Maryland hosted few battles, so residents were less likely to identify themselves as fierce loyalists or die-hard patriots. We do know, however, that Carroll purchased supplies for the army and continued to work in public office. In 1781, toward the end of the war, he was elected to Congress and ratified the Articles of Confederation on behalf of Maryland, the last of the thirteen new states to accept the governing document. In a sense, Carroll’s signature put the articles into effect. That same year he entered the first Maryland state senate, where he served for many years.

He remained in Congress until 1784, when he joined with an old friend by the name of George Washington to work on the Potomac
Company. The firm sought to enhance navigation of the Potomac River by means of a canal that would help link the Mid-Atlantic states to land in the west. Since Carroll had plenty of land holdings around the river, he was eager to see the project through.

In 1787, Carroll’s famous—and famously loaded—cousin Charles of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was asked to be a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. When he declined the invitation, the opportunity fell to Daniel. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea and complained of health problems. He wrote, “I dare not think of residing in Phila. in the summer months.… Moderate (but constant dayly) exercise, temperance and attention, have in a great measure conquer’d my nervous complaints, without the aid of Medicine.”

Nevertheless, Carroll made the trip, although he arrived two months after the opening session. Though he was dreading summer in Philadelphia, he didn’t let the heat and humidity stifle his performance. He apparently spoke about twenty times.

Carroll was a classic small-state nationalist. He also approved of Alexander Hamilton’s idea of a strong central financial system and felt that the federal government should assume various state debts that had lingered since the war.

And, unlike many a signer with a fat wallet, Carroll was a big believer in democracy and had plenty of faith in the Everyman. Case in point: he didn’t want Congress to choose the president but favored citizens electing the nation’s highest office directly. He couldn’t rally enough delegates to back this idea, but he eventually supported a system of presidential electors who would be chosen by the people, which would be a key component of the Electoral College system.

Carroll was one of only two Catholic signers (the other was Thomas FitzSimons of Pennsylvania). After the signing, Carroll did not take part as a delegate to his state’s ratification convention, but he did help convince Maryland to ratify. He wrote articles in newspapers extolling the virtues of the new framework, calling it “the
best form of government which has ever been offered to the world.” He also felt that all thirteen states should be required to ratify the Constitution, but his fellow delegates overruled him. Nine were required to put the Constitution into effect, which occurred once New Hampshire ratified in 1789.

Carroll ran as a Federalist and won an appointment to the House of Representatives in the new government. Talk of amending the Constitution had already begun. He, along with Connecticut’s Oliver Ellsworth and signers James Madison and William Paterson, began drafting amendments, the first ten of which became the Bill of Rights. Carroll, the Catholic signer, played a major role in drafting the first, and perhaps best-known, amendment, which guarantees, among other things, religious freedom. “Many sects have concurred in opinion that they are not well secured under the present Constitution,” he said. He also contributed to the Tenth Amendment, the one that says all rights not granted to the feds are reserved for the states and the people. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution in 1791.