People of the Revolution
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin, the oldest and one of the most famous signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, was born in 1706 in Boston, the tenth son of a soap and candle maker. Between the ages of ten and twelve, he served as an apprentice with his father. Later, he learned the printing trade from his half-brother, James. James Franklin began publishing the fourth newspaper in the colonies, The New England Courant, in 1721, and Benjamin managed to have fourteen of his essays published in it. With time, however, a certain level of antagonism grew between the two brothers, and Benjamin Franklin departed for Philadelphia, and later for London. Upon his return to the colonies, he became quite prominent in the printing business, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette from 1730 to 1748. Of even greater success, however, was his annual Poor Richard's Almanac which became the most popular work in the Colonies after the Bible. Over time, Franklin also gained fame for his philanthropy (charity) and the general interest he showed in causes such as libraries and hospitals. Franklin was also a talented scientist.
Benjamin Franklin was quite active politically as well. In addition to serving on the colonial legislature from 1751-1764, he held the posts of deputy postmaster of Philadelphia (1737-53) and deputy postmaster general of the Colonies (1753-74). From 1757 to 1762 and from 1764 to 1775, Franklin lived in England, acting as an agent for Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. It was during his second stay that he evolved from an English loyalist into a Colonial patriot. The Stamp Act led Franklin to defend the colonies in the House of Commons. When Franklin returned to Philadelphia in May of 1775, he became a member of the Continental Congress.
During the Congress he was part of the committee that helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Later, he served as president of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, and traveled to Europe as a diplomat. Between 1776 and 1779 he worked in France, negotiating for an alliance and for treaties of commerce. With the aid of John Jay and John Adams, he negotiated the Treaty of Paris which brought the War for Independence to a close. From 1785 to 1787 Franklin was back in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. He attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and while he was not in complete agreement with various parts of the Constitution, he signed it all the same, and even served as a mediator of disputes that arose between different delegates.
Toward the end of is life, he wrote his autobiography and became active in the anti-slavery movement. He was chosen to be the first president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (he had actually been involved in the movement since the early 1730's). He passed away at the age of eighty-four in 1790, and was buried in the Christ Church Burial Ground.
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson was born at Shadwell Plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia. His father was a well-to-do Virginian tobacco farmer who died when Thomas was 14, leaving him heir to the family's 14,000 acre plantation. Jefferson attended William and MaryCollege then went on to study law. He was admitted to the Virginia bar (became a lawyer) in 1767.
From 1769 to 1774, Jefferson served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was a leading spokesman for those who opposed continued British rule. In 1775-1776 Jefferson was a delegate to the Continental Congress. There he headed the committee charged with writing the Declaration of Independence.
In 1779, Jefferson became governor of Virginia. From 1783-1784, he served as a member of the Continental Congress. He then became Foreign Minister to France. Jefferson developed a strong attachment to all things French. From 1790-93, Jefferson served as Secretary of State in Washington's cabinet, during which time, he advocated stronger ties with France.
In addition, he favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution. In his view, the power of the federal government should be limited. When it became clear that George Washington supported Hamilton on the question of federal jurisdiction as well as regarding relations with France, Jefferson resigned. Jefferson returned to governmental office from 1797-1801 to serve as Vice President to John Adams.
From the moment that Jefferson was inaugurated as America’s third president, he began what he described as the Revolution of 1800. This was his attempt to repeal major actions that he felt the Federalists had taken to needlessly strengthen the hand of the Federal government. This included allowing the Alien and Sedition Act to lapse and the repeal of the federal whiskey tax. For all Jefferson's changes, his presidency was more one of stability than of change.
Jefferson was a leading advocate of strict interpretation of the Constitution. Despite this fact, he took two major actions in his first term that, under a strict interpretation of the Constitution, he lacked the power to do. The first was to send forces against the Barbary Pirates of England. His orders to the force commander instructed him to take military action to end forced payment of ransom. The policy was successful, but Jefferson did not consult Congress before instructing this use of force. Second, in secret negotiations, Jefferson agreed to purchase the LouisianaTerritory from France. This purchase, for $15 million, doubled the size of the United States. There was, however, no provision in the constitution that provided for the purchase of land.
During his second term, Jefferson insisted on maintaining American neutrality in the expanding European War. He felt compelled to pass an extremely unpopular embargo act banning all trade with the European belligerents. The high point of this second term was the return of Lewis and Clark from the American West. Their visit was the first organized exploration of much of what was to become part of the United States.
George Washington
Washington, George (1732-1799) Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, First President of the United States: Washington was a planter with only marginal status in the Virginia planter aristocracy. Nevertheless, he volunteered for military service in the Seven Years' War, distinguishing himself in such activities as the Braddock campaign of 1755. He even earned the notice of King George II. Later, Washington became commander of the colony's frontier defenses, a position which prepared him for his role in the Revolutionary War. After 1758, he was the manager of a large plantation, and served as a member of the provincial legislature. As a member of the Continental Congress, he advocated strong resistance against Britain. The Continental Congress appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and his troops bore the brunt of Britain's anti-revolutionary efforts at Boston, New York, and later in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Washington's troops lost battles at Long Island, Brandywine, and Germantown, but they fought well and inflicted heavy casualties on their opponents. By the summer of 1778, after a winter spent in Valley Forge, his army had improved in size and ability, reflected in their strength against the British at Monmouth, New Jersey. The war became a stalemate in the North, so Washington and his troops camped near the British forces in New York, moving to Virginia when the French offered their assistance. Washington's troops besieged the main British Army near the Yorktown peninsula, and the French forces, led by Admiral François de Grasse, cut of the British troops' escape route. Lord Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, and Washington held the army together until he resigned in 1783, following the peace treaty.
Washington supported a strong American union, and presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, accepting the presidency two years later. He served two terms as president, working to make federalism a successful reality and to keep the new United States out of European wars. Washington was persistent, learning patience after a youth of hot-headedness. He deferred to Congress in all matters, and respected the authority of the state and local governments. He set many lasting precedents for civil-military relations and for the presidency in the United States. After his presidency, Washington retired to his estate, Mount Vernon.
Thomas Paine
Paine, Thomas (1737-1809) Radical Writer: Born in England to an Episcopalian mother and a Quaker father, Paine drifted from occupation to occupation until he was 37 years old. At that point, after two marriages and several professions, he moved to America, bearing a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin, whom he had met in England. Paine began to edit the Pennsylvania Magazine and met with leading republican thinkers. He published Common Sense in 1776, after which he became famous throughout the colonies and in England. Paine served in the Continental Army during the war, including a period as an aide to General Nathanael Greene, and wrote a series of essays called The American Crisis. He became involved in the Silas Deane affair, publicly denouncing Deane's private arms-dealing in France. By denouncing Deane, however, Paine revealed secret negotiations with the French, and was dismissed from his post as Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs for this indiscretion. After this, he sent $500 to George Washington to help supply the war effort, and defended the Bank of the United States, as an associate of the wealthy Philadelphia financier and merchant Robert Morris. Paine designed an iron bridge to cross the SchuylkillRiver, and went to England to seek financial backing in 1787.
Four years later, he published part one of Rights of Man, followed by part two the next year. In Rights of Man, Paine replied to Edmund Burke's criticism of the French Revolution. Paine's treatise was condemned in England, and he was outlawed, so he moved to France. Without ever learning how to read or speak French, Paine participated in French politics, helping to draft a constitution, which was never adopted, and serving as one of two foreigners on the French National Convention. In 1793, Paine was imprisoned in the Luxembourg Prison, where he lived in fear of execution. James Monroe, American Ambassador to France, secured Paine's release after the French Terror ended. Nevertheless, Paine publicly denounced the Washington administration in 1796 for having failed to help him.
After his release, Paine completed The Age of Reason, an attack on religion, on the basis of which he was accused of being an atheist. He published Agrarian Justice in 1797, and returned to America five years later, where he was ignored by the intellectual community. By 1809, he was buried on his farm in New Rochelle, New York, where he died. Radical reformer William Cobbett wished to return Paine's bones to England for a memorial burial ten years after his death, but lost the remains after they were exhumed.
Patrick Henry
Henry, Patrick (1736-1799) Statesman: Henry received little formal education but, after unsuccessful attempts at farming and operating a general store, he began studying law informally. After less than four months of unsupervised study, he was admitted to the bar in Williamsburg, Virginia. Henry was an active attorney throughout his political involvement with the revolution, unlike many of his political colleagues, whose legal practices were only secondary to their main efforts. Henry's first important case was the Parson's Cause Controversy, which set him defending the rights of Virginia taxpayers against the claims of Anglican clergy. He entered the Virginia House of Burgesses in May 1765, just as Britain was passing the Stamp Act, which he denounced eloquently.
He served in the First Continental Congress in 1774, and gave his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in May 1775 in Virginia, although it is difficult to prove the authenticity of the precise wording of the oration.
Henry's speaking style was a departure from the tradition of American oratory, which emphasized formal learning and allusions to classical texts. The new style, represented by Henry, resembled nothing so much as an evangelical preacher, with biblical references and, according to his critics, an appeal to passion rather than reason. This made Henry one of the first popular politicians in the emerging United States. After the war, Henry was a strong opponent of the proposed federal Constitution, believing that too much power was being given to the central government. His critique of the proposed Constitution at the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 stands as a clear and thorough statement of the states' rights position.
Henry became the first governor of the free state of Virginia, serving five terms, and was elected to several terms in the state legislature. His loyalty to his home state led him to decline offers to serve in the Continental Congress, the US Senate, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and as Secretary of State under Presidents Washington and Adams. Henry's fears of national chaos, as well as his personal dislike of Thomas Jefferson, led him to side with the Federalists in the Federalist-Republican debate. He was convinced to come out of retirement and serve in the Virginia Legislature as a Federalist in 1799, but died before he could do so.
James Madison
One of America's Founding Fathers, James Madison helped build the U.S. Constitution in the late 1700s. He also created the foundation for the Bill of Rights, acted as President Thomas Jefferson's secretary of state, and served two terms as president himself.
Born in 1751, Madison grew up in Orange County, Virginia. He was the oldest of twelve children, seven of whom lived to adulthood. His father, James, was a successful planter and owned more than 3,000 acres of land and dozens of slaves. He was also an influential figure in county affairs.
In 1762, Madison was sent to a boarding school run by Donald Robertson in King and Queen County, Virginia. He returned to his family's estate—now known as Montpelier—five years later. His father had him stay home and receive private tutoring because he was concerned about Madison's health. He would experience bouts of ill health throughout his life. After two years, Madison finally went to college in 1769, enrolling at the College of New Jersey—now known as PrincetonUniversity. There, Madison studied Latin, Greek, science and philosophy among other subjects. Graduating in 1771, he stayed on a while longer to continue his studies with the school's president, Reverend John Witherspoon.
Returning to Virginia in 1772, Madison soon found himself caught up in the tensions between the colonists and the British authorities. He was elected to the Orange County Committee of Safety in December of 1774, and joined the Virginia militia as a colonel the following year. Writing to college friend William Bradford, Madison sensed that "There is something at hand that shall greatly augment the history of the world."
The learned Madison was more of a writer than a fighter, though. And he put his talents to good use in 1776 at the Virginia Convention, as OrangeCounty's representative. Around that time, he met Thomas Jefferson, and the pair soon began what would become a lifelong friendship. When Madison received an appointment to serve on the committee in charge of writing Virginia's constitution, he worked with George Mason on the draft. One of his special contributions was reworking some of the language about religious freedom.
In 1777, Madison lost his bid for a seat in the Virginia Assembly, but he was later appointed to the Governor's Council. He was a strong supporter of the American-French alliance during the revolution, and solely handled much of the council's correspondence with France. In 1780, he went to Philadelphia to serve as one of Virginia's delegates to Continental Congress.
John Adams
John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts. His father, John Adams Sr., was a farmer, a Congregationalist deacon and a town councilman, and was a direct descendant of Henry Adams, a Puritan who emigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638. His mother, Susanna Boylston Adams, was a descendant of the Boylstons of Brookline, a prominent family in colonial Massachusetts.
At age 16, Adams earned a scholarship to attend HarvardUniversity, where he developed an interest in law, despite his father's wish for him to enter the ministry. After graduating in 1755, at age 20, Adams studied law in the office of John Putnam, a prominent lawyer. In 1758, he earned a master's degree from Harvard and was admitted to the bar.
Adams quickly became identified with the patriot cause, initially as the result of his opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765. He wrote a response to the imposition of the act by British Parliament titled "Essay on the Canon and Feudal Law," which was published as a series of four articles in the Boston Gazette. In it, Adams argued that the Stamp Act deprived American colonists of the basic rights to be taxed by consent and to be tried by a jury of peers. Two months later Adams also publicly denounced the act as invalid in a speech delivered to the Massachusetts governor and his council.
In 1770 Adams agreed to represent the British soldiers on trial for killing five civilians in what became known as the Boston Massacre. He justified defending the soldiers on the grounds that the facts of a case were more important to him than the passionate inclinations of the people. He believed that every person deserved a defense, and he took the case without hesitation. During the trial Adams presented evidence that suggested blame also lay with the mob that had gathered, and that the first soldier who fired upon the crowd was simply responding the way anyone would when faced with a similar life-threatening situation. The jury acquitted six of the eight soldiers, while two were convicted of manslaughter. Reaction to Adams's defense of the soldiers was hostile, and his law practice suffered greatly. However, his actions later enhanced his reputation as a courageous, generous and fair man.