Signing Their Rights Away (39 page)

The copy preserved by the National Archives in the rotunda, with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is signed by four men: John Adams, then vice president of the United States; Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, speaker of the House of Representatives; John Beckley, clerk of the House of Representatives; and Samuel A. Otis, secretary of the Senate.

By the Numbers

A small selection of trivia, tidbits, and important numbers from the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

• The oldest signer was Ben Franklin, age 81. He was also the first signer to die.
  
• The youngest signer was New Jersey’s Jonathan Dayton, age 26.
  
• The document was written in approximately 100 days.
  
• The youngest signer to die was Richard Dobbs Spaight, age 44.
  
• The longest-lived signer was William Samuel Johnson, age 92.
  
• The last signer to die was James Madison, in 1836.
  
• The number of signers who were bachelors: 3. (Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Nicholas Gilman, Abraham Baldwin)
  
• The number of men invited to attend the Constitutional Convention: 74.
  
• The number who attended: 55.
  
• The number who signed: 39, though technically 38. (George Read acted as John Dickinson’s proxy.)
  
• Besides Dickinson, the number of men who left the convention for various reasons and never signed: 13.
  
• The number of men who stayed till the end but refused to sign: 3 (Elbridge Gerry, Edmund Randolph, and George Mason)
  
• Number of states attending: 12 (Rhode Island declined.)
  
• Number of states needed to ratify before the Constitution was put into play, a presidential election could be held, and the first Congress could be selected: 9.
  

They Came, They Saw, They Didn’t Sign

Although fifty-five men attended the Constitutional Convention, only thirty-nine put their names to the document. What happened to the other sixteen? Each had reasons for omitting his name. Some stayed until the very last day but refused to sign because they were angry about what the document did or did not achieve. Others left during the process because they objected to the proceedings or they had business, family matters, or pressing concerns elsewhere that needed their attention. (Attendance wasn’t mandatory.) Here’s what we know about the would-be signers.

Massachusetts

Elbridge Gerry:
This stammering delegate, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who became the rascally father of gerrymandering, stayed to the end but refused to sign because the final document lacked a Bill of Rights. He thought the Constitution would lead to civil war if ratified.

Caleb Strong:
This wealthy country lawyer liked the Constitution but left because of a family illness.

Connecticut

Oliver Ellsworth:
This intelligent lawyer approved of the Constitution but left the convention because of family obligations. He later served as the nation’s third chief justice.

New York

John Lansing Jr.:
This wealthy patrician lawyer from Albany was appointed to block Alexander Hamilton’s efforts to form a strong central government. Annoyed by the proceedings, he left the convention on July 10 and never returned. Years later, at age seventy-five, he left a Manhattan hotel to go mail a letter and was never seen again. He was presumed murdered.

Robert Yates:
Also sent to block Hamilton, this New York state judge left on July 10 as well, saying he had not been authorized to go beyond a revision of the Articles of Confederation. Once wealthy, he died poor.

New Jersey

William Churchill Houston:
This delegate was a highly paid public servant working for the state. He was ill during convention, left, and later died of tuberculosis.

Maryland

John Francis Mercer:
This wealthy lawyer and planter left early, objecting to the Constitution on the grounds that it lacked a Bill of Rights and was not democratic enough.

Luther Martin:
This hard-drinking, slovenly Baltimore attorney is remembered for his inebriated, six-hour speech in defense of the equal voting rights of states. He opposed the Constitution for the same reasons as Mercer. Both men fought against the document at their state’s ratifying convention.

Virginia

Edmund Randolph:
Virginia’s governor at the time of the convention, he’s best known for having presented the Virginia Plan. He stayed to the end but objected to the Constitution, refused to sign, and predicted that nothing but chaos would come of it. He later changed his mind and supported it.

George Mason:
The man who wrote the Virginia document that greatly influenced Jefferson’s text of the Declaration of Independence, Mason distrusted central government. He stayed to the very end but refused to sign the Constitution and fought its ratification.

George Wythe:
A signer of the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson’s mentor, he approved of the Constitution and supported its ratification. He left the convention because his wife was sick. He was later poisoned to death by his grand-nephew.

James McClurg:
It’s believed this doctor would have supported the Constitution, but he left because he was too intimidated by the level of the discussion and didn’t fit in.

North Carolina

Alexander Martin:
This once and future governor of North Carolina left in August because he didn’t like the Constitution. He later supported its ratification on the state level.

William Richardson Davie:
This lawyer and former military officer left early because of family illness and later supported the document’s ratification.

Georgia

William Pierce:
Famous for the character sketches he penned of all the delegates, this struggling merchant left to tend to some troubling business issues back home. He died about two years after the convention.

William Houstoun:
This delegate, a lawyer, planter, and namesake of New York City’s famous Houston Street (pronounced HOW
-stin
), left early, opposing the Constitution because he supported only a revision of the Articles of Confederation.

Immigrant Signers

Only seven of the Constitution signers were immigrants. Those born outside the original thirteen colonies were:

• Pierce Butler of South Carolina: Born County Carlow, Ireland, 1744
  
• Thomas FitzSimons of Pennsylvania: Born County Wexford, Ireland, 1741
  
• James McHenry of Maryland: Born Country Antrim, Ireland, 1753
  
• William Paterson of New Jersey: Born County Antrim, Ireland, 1745
  
• Robert Morris of Pennsylvania: Born Liverpool, England, 1734
  
• James Wilson of Pennsylvania: Born Carskerdo, Scotland, 1742
  
• Alexander Hamilton of New York: Born Charlestown, Nevis, British West Indies, 1755
  

Selected Bibliography

Barefoot, Daniel W.
Touring the Backroads of North Carolina’s Lower Coast
. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 1995.

Beard, Charles A.
An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States
. New York: The Free Press, 1986.

Beeman, Richard.
Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution
. New York: Random House, 2009.

Bell, Robert R.
The Philadelphia Lawyer: A History, 1735–1945
. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1992.

Berkin, Carol.
A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution
. New York: Harvest/Harcourt, 2002.

Binney, Horace.
The Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia
. Philadelphia: C. Sherman & Son, 1859.

Bowen, Catherine Drinker.
Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787
. New York: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown, 1966.

Channing, Edward.
A History of the United States, Volume III: The American Revolution, 1761–1789
. New York: Macmillan, 1912.

Collier, Christopher, and James Lincoln Collier.
Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787
. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986.

Campbell, Rev. William W.
The Life and Character of Jacob Broom
. Wilmington: Historical Society of Delaware, 1909.

Ferris, Robert G. and James H. Charleton.
The Signers of the Constitution
. Arlington, VA: Interpretive Publications, 1986.

Ford, Paul Leicester, ed.
The Writings of John Dickinson: Political Writings, 1764–1774
, Volume 1. Philadelphia: Publication Fund of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1895.

Fradin, Dennis Brindell.
The Founders: The 39 Stories behind the U.S. Constitution
. New York: Walker & Co., 2005.

Haw, James.
John & Edward Rutledge of South Carolina
. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997.

Hess, Stephen.
America’s Political Dynasties
. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997.

Hosack, David.
A Biographical Memoir of Hugh Williamson, MD, LLD
. New York: C. S. Van Winkle, 1820.

King, Charles R., ed.
The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King
. Vol. 1, 1755–1794. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1894.

Knight, Lucian Lamar.
Memorials of Dixie-land: Orations, Essays, Sketches, and Poems on Topics Historical, Commemorative, Literary, and Patriotic
. Atlanta: Byra Printing, 1919.

Lidz, Maggie.
The du Ponts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine, 1900–1951
. New York: Acanthus Press, 2009

Linn, John B., and William H. Eagle.
Papers Relating to What Is Known as the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania, 1794
. Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, vol. IV. Harrisburg: E. K. Meyers, 1890.

Macdonald, Forrest.
We the People: The Economic Origins of the Constitution
. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1992.

Maxwell, William.
The Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Companion
, vols. 5–6, Virginia Historical Society. Richmond: MacFarlane & Fergusson, 1852.

Monk, Linda R.
The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution
. New York: Stonesong Press, 2003.

Morris, Robert, Elizabeth M. Nuxoll, et al., eds.
The Papers of Robert Morris, 1781–1784: January 1–October 30, 1784
. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999.

Morton, Joseph C.
Shapers of the Great Debate at the Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Biographical Dictionary
. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.

Quinn, Bro. C. Edward.
The Signers of the Constitution
. Bronx, NY: Bronx Historical Society, 1987.

Rakove, Jack N.
Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution
. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.

Ratzlaff, Robert K.
John Rutledge Jr.: South Carolina Federalist, 1766–1819
. Manchester, NH: Ayer Publishing, 1982

Read, William Thompson.
Life and Correspondence of George Read: A Signer of the Declaration of Independence
. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1870.

Simpson, Philip.
The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians, Now Deceased, Collected from Original and Authentic Sources
. Philadelphia: William Brotherhead, 1859.

Steiner, Bernard Christian.
The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry
. Cleveland, OH: Burrows Brothers, 1907.

Stellwagen, Thomas C., ed.
Historical and Biographical Papers, Vol. III
. Wilmington: Historical Society of Delaware, 1897.

Stewart, David O.
The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.

Vile, John R.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of America’s Founding, Vol. 2
. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005.

Whitney, David C.
Founders of Freedom in America: Lives of the Men Who Signed the Constitution of the United States and So Helped Establish the United States of America
. Chicago: J. G. Ferguson, 1965.

Williams, Selma R.
The Fifty-Five Fathers
. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1970.

Wright, Robert K., Jr., and Morris J. MacGregor Jr.
Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution
. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States, Army, 1987

Acknowledgments