by David Barton
Rev. Cotton Mather (circa 1662-1727; Massachusetts) Puritan clergyman, theologian, educator; graduated from Harvard (1678); assisted his father at the Second Church in Boston (1680); was associated with the Salem Witch Trials, but advocated principles which – if they had been followed – would have prevented the executions (1688-93); wrote several works relating to witchcraft in which he promoted prayer and fasting rather than execution as the solution; appointed by the House of Representatives as president of Harvard, but as he was considered too conservative, that appointment was overruled by Harvard trustees (1703); invited to become the president of the Connecticut College (1721); he was the founder of many societies for good causes and was a prolific author, writing over 450 books.
Rev. Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766; Massachusetts) Clergyman; graduated with honors at Harvard (1744); called to pastor the West Church, Boston (1747); he preached what he considered a rational and practical Christianity based on the Scriptures rather than on Calvin’s teachings; a true Puritan, he was a staunch defender of civil liberty and published many sermons related to the preservations of those liberties, including one immediately following the repeal of the Stamp Act entitled The Snare Broken (1766); highly thought of by many patriots, including John Adams.
James McHenry (1753-1816; Ireland, Maryland) Physician, soldier, public official; born and educated in Ireland; moved to Philadelphia (1771); studied medicine under Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia and was assigned to the military hospital there (1775); captured by the British (1776) and exchanged (1778); abandoned medicine and was assigned as military secretary to General George Washington (1778-80); transferred to Lafayette’s staff (1780); commissioned as a Major (1781); member of the State Senate (1781-86); member of the Continental Congress (1783-86); member of the State Assembly (1789-91); delegate to the Constitutional Convention where he signed the federal Constitution (1787); member of the State convention to ratify the federal Constitution (1788); Secretary of War under Presidents George Washington and John Adams (1796-1800); a founder and president of the Baltimore Bible Society (1813).
Thomas McKean (1734-1817; Pennsylvania, Delaware) Attorney, public official, jurist; educated at Rev. Francis Allison’s academy in New London, Connecticut (1744-51); deputy clerk and recorder for probate and wills in New Castle County (1752); studied law and admitted to the bar (1755); Deputy Attorney General for Sussex County (1756-58); member of the General Assemblies of the Lower Counties of Delaware (1762-75); member of the Stamp-Act Congress (1765); member of the Continental Congress (1774-76, 1778-82) where he signed the Declaration of Independence (1776) and served as President of Congress (1781); member of the Delaware House of Representatives (1776-77); helped author the Delaware constitution (1776); President (Governor) of the State of Delaware (1777); Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (1777-99); member of the Pennsylvania State convention to ratify the federal Constitution (1787); delegate to the Pennsylvania State constitutional convention (1790); Governor of Pennsylvania (1799-1808); he was the only signer of the Declaration to be the chief executive of two States and a concurrent office-holder in two States.
John Francis Mercer (1759-1821; Virginia, Maryland) Soldier, attorney, public official; born in Virginia; graduated from the College of William and Mary (1775); military officer in the Revolution (1776-1780); studied law under Thomas Jefferson (1779-1780) and commenced practice of the law after the Revolution (1781); member of the Virginia House of Burgess (1782, 1785-1786); member of the Continental Congress from Virginia (1782-1785); delegate to the federal Constitutional Convention from Maryland but voted against the Constitution because there was no Bill of Rights to prevent a centralization of power (1787); member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1788-1789, 1791-1792, 1800, 1803-1806); member of the third federal Congress under President George Washington (1792-1794); Governor of Maryland (1801-1803).
James Monroe (1758-1831; Virginia) Soldier, attorney, public official, diplomat; entered William & Mary (1774) but left school to join the Continental Army as a Lieutenant (1776); studied law under Governor Thomas Jefferson (1780); elected to Virginia House of Delegates (1782, 1787); one of nine judges to decide the boundary dispute between Massachusetts and New York (1784); delegate to the State ratification convention for the federal Constitution (1788) where he assented to the ratification on condition that certain amendments should be adopted (the Bill of Rights); U. S. Senator (1790-94); envoy to France (1794); Governor of Virginia (1799-1802); U. S. Secretary of State under President James Madison (1811-17); also served as Secretary of War under President Madison (1814-15); elected fifth President of the United States and served two terms (1816-25).
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592; France) Attorney, public official; political philosopher; sent to college at Guienne at Bordeaux (1539-46); entered the study of law (1546); became magistrate at the Parliament at Bordeaux (1554); inherited the family estate (1568) and retired there (1571); awarded the order of Saint-Michel (1571) and served Henry III; wrote and published his political Essays in two volumes (1580); traveled widely, had an audience with the Pope, and was made a Roman citizen (1581); elected mayor of Bordeaux (1584-85); republished his Essays with an additional third volume (1588); an illness paralyzed his tongue, although he retained his other senses for some time; in 1592, he called together his friends in a final farewell and requested mass to be celebrated in his room; he died during the mass.
Charles Louis Secondat Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu (1689-1755; France) Political philosopher; Counsellor of the Parliament of Bordeaux (1714) and its President (1716-28); he toured Europe to observe the way of life and government in other areas (1728-30); authored numerous essays on law, government, the military, taxation, economics, religion, etc.; wrote The Spirit of Laws (1748) advocating that political reform could be achieved peacefully and political freedom maintained by separating political powers into three distinct branches ; his theory of “the separation of powers”, and “checks and balances” became an integral part of American constitutional philosophy.
Rev. David Lawrence Morril (1772-1849; New Hampshire) Physician, clergyman, public official; studied medicine and began practice in Epsom, N. H. (1793-1800); studied theology and was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Goffstown (1802-11); member of the State House of Representatives (1808-17) and its speaker (1816); U. S. Senator (1817-23); member and president of the State Senate (1823-24); Governor (1824-27); vice-president of the American Bible Society (1821-30); manager in the American Sunday School Union.
Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816; New York, Pennsylvania) Attorney, public official, soldier, and diplomat; graduated from Kings College (1768); studied law and admitted to the bar (1771); member of the New York Provincial Congress (1775-77); on the committee to form a government for New York (1776); Lieutenant-Colonel in the New York militia (1776); member of the first New York State Assembly (1777-78); member of the Continental Congress (1778-79); signed the Articles of Confederation (1778); Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention and a signer of the federal Constitution (1787); the most active member of the Constitutional Convention, speaking 173 times on the floor of the Convention; titled “the penman of the Constitution” because he was the head of the Committee on Style responsible for the final wording of the Constitution; Minister Plenipotentiary to France (1792-94); U. S. Senator (1800-03); authored numerous legal and political works.
Lewis Morris (1726-1798; New York) Jurist and public official; half-brother to Gouverneur Morris; graduated from Yale (1746); engaged in agricultural pursuits; appointed by the Crown as a judge in the Court of Admiralty (1760-74); delegate to the Provincial Convention of New York (1775); member of the Continental Congress (1775-77) where he signed the Declaration of Independence (1776); deputy to the State Provincial Congress (1776-77); State Senator (1777-81, 1784-88); delegate to the State convention to ratify the federal Constitution (1788); member of the first board of regents of the University of New York (1784-98).
John
Morton (1724-1777; Pennsylvania) Jurist and public official; attended common school and received tutoring in surveying; became a land surveyor; justice-of-the-peace (1757-64); member of the colonial General Assembly (1756-66, 1769-75) where he served as its speaker (1771-75); member of the Stamp Act Congress (1765); High Sheriff (1766-70); appointed president judge of the Court of General Sessions and Common Pleas (1770-74); associate justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Pennsylvania (1774); member of the Continental Congress (1774-76) where he signed the Declaration of Independence (1776); he believed that his “signing the Declaration of Independence to have been the most glorious service that I ever rendered my country.”
Stephen Moylan (1734-1811; England, Pennsylvania) Soldier and businessman; in his early years was educated and lived in England; when the Revolution erupted, he joined the Continental Army and was placed in the commissariat department (1775); General Washington appointed him one of his aides-de-camp (1776); appointed by Congress as Quartermaster-General (1776); raised the first Pennsylvania regiment of cavalry (1777-78); served in the infamous winter at Valley Forge (1777-78); participated in the campaigns in the Hudson River (1779) and Connecticut (1780) as well as in Wayne’s expedition to Bull’s Ferry (1780); commissioned Brigadier-General (1783); after the Revolution, he returned to mercantile pursuits and for several years prior to his death he was the U. S. Commissioner of Loans.
Rev. Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg (1750-1801; Pennsylvania, New York) Clergyman, public official; brother of John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg; was educated at Halle, Germany; ordained to the ministry of the Lutheran Church (1770); preached in Lebanon, Pennsylvania (1770-74); pastor of Christ German Lutheran congregation in New York City (1773-76); forced to flee New York when British troops occupied it (1776); member of the Continental Congress (1779-80); member of the Pennsylvania Legislature (1780-83) and its speaker (1780); president of the State convention to ratify the federal Constitution (1787); member of the U. S. Congress and the original speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives (1789-97) where he helped frame the Bill of Rights.
Rev. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746-1807; Virginia, Pennsylvania) Clergyman, soldier, public official; brother of Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg; was educated in Germany (1763-66); entered the Lutheran ministry (1768); on a visit to England, he was ordained in the Anglican Church (1772); member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1774); while pastoring at Woodstock, Virginia he raised the 8th Virginia regiment, of which he became Colonel (1775); member of the Virginia convention (1776); Brigadier-General in the Continental Army (1777); fought in the Battles of Brandywine (1777), Germantown (1777), Monmouth (1778), and at Yorktown (1781) and passed the infamous winter at Valley Forge (1777-1778); Major-General (1783); vice-president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania (1787-88); member of the U. S. House of Representatives (1789-91, 1793-95, 1799-1801) where he helped frame the Bill of Rights; U. S. Senator (1801); Collector of the Port of Philadelphia (1803-06).
Napoleon Achille Murat (1801-1847; France, Florida) Public official; born in Paris, was the son of the King of Naples, who was Napoleon’s most famous calvary General; moved to America and settled in Tallahassee (1821); accompanied Lafayette through most of his final American tour (1824); elected alderman of Tallahassee (1824) and then mayor (1825); appointed postmaster (1826-38); nominated for Congress but declined (1832); published several essays on the United States of which his last was the most popular and was translated into numerous other languages.
Thomas Nelson, Jr. (1738-1789; Virginia) Public official, and soldier; graduated from Cambridge (1761); member of the House of Burgesses (1774); member of the first provincial convention held in Williamsburg (1774); Colonel of the Virginia militia (1775); delegate to the State constitutional convention (1776); member of the Continental Congress (1775-77, 1779) where he signed the Declaration of Independence (1776); appointed commander-in-chief of the State forces of Virginia (1777-81); elected Governor of Virginia (1781) but resigned shortly thereafter due to poor health; retired to his home.
Joseph Nourse (1754-1841; England; Virginia) Soldier and public official; emigrated with his family to Virginia (1769); entered the Revolutionary army as military secretary to General Charles Lee (1776); clerk and paymaster for the Board of War (1777-81); U. S. Assistant Auditor-General; Register of the U. S. Treasury (1781-1829); vice-president of the American Bible Society (1816-41).
James Otis (1725-1783; Massachusetts) Attorney, public official, jurist, and soldier; graduated from Harvard (1743); studied law and admitted to the bar (1748); became Advocate-General of the Court System but resigned in order to argue against the Writs of Assistance (1761); (John Adams credited that argument with beginning the movement for American Independence); member of the Massachusetts General Court for years, authoring numerous State papers for the Colonies against British oppressions; became recognized in England as a chief of “the rebellious spirit”; member of the Stamp Act Congress (1765); authored a famous defence of the Colonies’ position (1766); mentor of Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty (1761-69) and was considered the acknowledged political leader of Massachusetts Bay; a physical attack upon Otis by a British customs commissioner resulted in a severe head wound which left Otis greatly affected both physically and mentally (1769); despite his occasional attacks of temporary insanity brought on by the head injury, he was reelected to the General Court (1771); volunteered at the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775); argued his last case in 1778; ironically, according to his wish, he was mercifully struck by lightning thus ending his tormented physical condition.
William Paca (1740-1799; Maryland) Attorney, public official, jurist; graduated from the College of Philadelphia (1759); admitted to the bar (1764); elected to the Provincial Legislature (1768); member of the Provincial Assembly (1771-74); member of the Continental Congress (1774-79) where he signed the Declaration of Independence (1776); member of the State Senate (1777-79); Chief Judge of the Maryland General Court (1778-80); Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals (1780-82); Governor (1782-85); helped establish Washington College (1786); delegate to the State ratification convention for the federal Constitution (1788); appointed U. S. federal Judge by President George Washington (1789-99).
Rev. Robert Treat Paine (1731-1814; Massachusetts) Clergyman, attorney, public official, and jurist; graduated from Harvard (1749); studied theology and acted as chaplain of troops on the northern frontier (1755); preached in the pulpits of the regular clergy in Boston and its vicinity; admitted to the bar (1757); delegate to the State Convention (1768); member of the Colonial House of Representatives (1773); delegate to the federal Provincial Congress (1774-75); member of the Continental Congress (1774-76) where he signed the Olive Branch Petition (1775) and the Declaration of Independence (1776); reelected to the Continental Congress but declined in order to serve as speaker of the State House of Representatives (1777); first Attorney General of Massachusetts (1777-90); member of the Governor’s Council (1779-80); delegate to the State constitutional convention (1779); a founder of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780); judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court (1790-1804); helped suppress Shays’ Rebellion (1786-87); retired from the Massachusetts court due to advanced deafness (1804).
Thomas Paine (1737-1809; England, Pennsylvania) Soldier and public official; Paine met Benjamin Franklin in London where Franklin encouraged him to seek his fortune in the United States (1774); after arriving in Philadelphia, Paine worked as an editor for the Pennsylvania Magazine (1774); at the suggestion of, and with the help of Benjamin Rush, Paine published the pamphlet Common Sense calling for independence from England (1776) (that pamphlet was credited by many with raising the fervor for independence to a fever pitch); served as an aide to General Nathanael Greene (1776); appointed secretary of the congressional committee on foreign affairs (1777-79); clerk of the Pennsylvania assembly (1779); went to England where he was indicted for treason by the British government for the publication of his Rights of Man (1787); escap
ed to France and was elected to the Revolutionary Convention (1792); as the terrors of the French Revolution grew, he was imprisoned by one of its factions (1793-94); released at the request of U. S. Minister to France James Madison; published his Age of Reason, a deistic work which brought him much criticism from his former American friends (1794); upon his return to the United States (1802), he found no welcome and lived and eventually died as an outcast.
Albion Parris (1788-1857; Maine) Attorney, public official, jurist; graduated from Dartmouth College (1806); admitted to the bar (1809); prosecuting attorney for Oxford County (1811); member of the State Assembly (1813); State Senator (1814); member of the U. S. Congress (1815-19); appointed U. S. District Judge by President James Monroe (1818); delegate to the State constitutional convention and a member of the committee for drawing up the constitution (1819); appointed judge of probate (1820); Governor (1821-26); U. S. Senator (1826-28); judge of the Supreme Court of Maine (1828-36); second comptroller of the U. S. Treasury (1836-50).
William Paterson (1745-1806; Ireland, New Jersey) Attorney, public official, and jurist; parents were from Ireland, but he was born at sea; parents brought him to America when he was two years old; graduated from Princeton (1763); studied law in the office of signer of the Declaration Richard Stockton (1764); admitted to the bar (1769); along with others he founded a literary society titled the “Well-Meaning Society” (1765-68); member of the New Jersey Provincial Congress (1775); member of the convention that formed the State constitution (1776); Attorney General of New Jersey (1776); delegate to the Constitutional Convention where he signed the federal Constitution (1787), being one of seven foreign born signers of that document; U. S. Senator and helped write the Judiciary Act, as well as the Bill or Rights (1789-90); Governor (1790-93); helped to codify the State laws (1792); appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court by President George Washington (1793-1806); published the Laws of the State of New Jersey (1800).
