The
Founding Fathers: Connecticut
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Oliver
Ellsworth, Connecticut
 Oliver
Ellsworth was born on April 29, 1745, in Windsor, CT, to
Capt. David and Jemima Ellsworth. He entered Yale in 1762
but transferred to the College of New Jersey (later Princeton)
at the end of his second year. He continued to study theology
and received his A.B. degree after 2 years. Soon afterward,
however, Ellsworth turned to the law. After 4 years of study,
he was admitted to the bar in 1771. The next year Ellsworth
married Abigail Wolcott.
From
a slow start Ellsworth built up a prosperous law practice.
His reputation as an able and industrious jurist grew, and
in 1777 Ellsworth became Connecticut's state attorney for
Hartford County. That same year he was chosen as one of
Connecticut's representatives in the Continental Congress.
He served on various committees during six annual terms
until 1783. Ellsworth was also active in his state's efforts
during the Revolution. As a member of the Committee of the
Pay Table, Oliver Ellsworth was one of the five men who
supervised Connecticut's war expenditures. In 1779 he assumed
greater duties as a member of the council of safety, which,
with the governor, controlled all military measures for
the state.
When
the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787
Ellsworth once again represented Connecticut and took an
active part in the proceedings. During debate on the Great
Compromise, Ellsworth proposed that the basis of representation
in the legislative branch remain by state, as under the
Articles of Confederation. He also left his mark through
an amendment to change the word "national" to
"United States" in a resolution. Thereafter, "United
States" was the title used in the convention to designate
the government.
Ellsworth
also served on the Committee of Five that prepared the first
draft of the Constitution. Ellsworth favored the three-fifths
compromise on the enumeration of slaves but opposed the
abolition of the foreign slave trade. Though he left the
convention near the end of August and did not sign the final
document, he urged its adoption upon his return to Connecticut
and wrote the Letters of a Landholder to promote its ratification.
Ellsworth
served as one of Connecticut's first two senators in the
new federal government between 1789 and 1796. In the Senate
he chaired the committee that framed the bill organizing
the federal judiciary and helped to work out the practical
details necessary to run a new government. Ellsworth's other
achievements in Congress included framing the measure that
admitted North Carolina to the Union, devising the non-intercourse
act that forced Rhode Island to join, drawing up the bill
to regulate the consular service, and serving on the committee
that considered Alexander Hamilton's plan for funding the
national debt and for incorporating the Bank of the United
States.
In
the spring of 1796 he was appointed Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court and also served as commissioner to France
in 1799 and 1800. Upon his return to America in early 1801,
Ellsworth retired from public life and lived in Windsor,
CT. He died there on November 26, 1807, and was buried in
the cemetery of the First Church of Windsor.
Image:
Courtesy of Independence National Historical Park
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William Samuel Johnson, Connecticut
 William
Samuel Johnson was the son of Samuel Johnson, the first
president of King's College (later Columbia College and
University). William was born at Stratford, CT, in 1727.
His father, who was a well-known Anglican clergyman-philosopher,
prepared him for college and he graduated from Yale in 1744.
About 3 years later he won a master of arts degree from
the same institution and an honorary master's from Harvard.
Resisting
his father's wish that he become a minister, Johnson embraced
law instead--largely by educating himself and without benefit
of formal training. After admittance to the bar, he launched
a practice in Stratford, representing clients from nearby
New York State as well as Connecticut, and before long he
established business connections with various mercantile
houses in New York City. In 1749, adding to his already
substantial wealth, he married Anne Beach, daughter of a
local businessman. The couple was to have five daughters
and six sons, but many of them died at an early age.
Johnson
did not shirk the civic responsibilities of one of his station.
In the 1750s he began his public career as a Connecticut
militia officer. In 1761 and 1765 he served in the lower
house of the colonial assembly. In 1766 and 1771 he was
elected to the upper house. At the time of the Revolution,
Johnson was disturbed by conflicting loyalties. Although
he attended the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, moderately opposed
the Townshend Duties of 1767, and believed that most British
policies were unwise, he retained strong transatlantic ties
and found it difficult to choose sides. Many of his friends
resided in Britain; in 1765 and 1766 Oxford University conferred
honorary master's and doctor's degrees upon him; he had
a strong association with the Anglican Church; he acted
as Connecticut's agent in Britain during the years 1767-71;
and he was friendly with men such as Jared Ingersoll, Sr.,
who were affiliated with the British administration.
Johnson
finally decided to work for peace between Britain and the
colonies and to oppose the extremist Whig faction. On that
basis, he refused to participate in the First Continental
Congress, to which he was elected in 1774, following service
as a judge of the Connecticut colonial supreme court (1772-74).
When hostilities broke out, he confined his activities to
peacemaking efforts. In April 1775 Connecticut sent him
and another emissary to speak to British Gen. Thomas Gage
about ending the bloodshed. But the time was not ripe for
negotiations and they failed. Johnson fell out of favor
with radical patriot elements who gained the ascendancy
in Connecticut government and they no longer called upon
his service. Although he was arrested in 1779 on charges
of communicating with the enemy, he cleared himself and
was released.
Once
the passions of war had ebbed, Johnson resumed his political
career. In the Continental Congress (1785-87), he was one
of the most influential and popular delegates. Playing a
major role in the Constitutional Convention, he missed no
sessions after arriving on June 2; espoused the Connecticut
Compromise; and chaired the Committee of Style, which shaped
the final document. He also worked for ratification in Connecticut.
Johnson
took part in the new government, in the U.S. Senate where
he contributed to passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789.
In 1791, the year after the government moved from New York
to Philadelphia, he resigned mainly because he preferred
to devote all his energies to the presidency of Columbia
College (1787-1800), in New York City. During these years,
he established the school on a firm basis and recruited
a fine faculty.
Johnson
retired from the college in 1800, a few years after his
wife died, and in the same year wed Mary Brewster Beach,
a relative of his first bride. They resided at his birthplace,
Stratford. He died there in 1819 at the age of 92 and was
buried at OldEpiscopal Cemetery.
Image:
Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Roger Sherman, Connecticut
 In
1723, when Sherman was 2 years of age, his family relocated
from his Newton, MA, birthplace to Dorchester (present Stoughton).
As a boy, he was spurred by a desire to learn and read widely
in his spare time to supplement his minimal education at
a common school. But he spent most of his waking hours helping
his father with farming chores and learning the cobbler's
trade from him. In 1743, 2 years after his father's death,
Sherman joined an elder brother who had settled in New Milford,
CT.
Purchasing
a store, becoming a county surveyor, and winning a variety
of town offices, Sherman prospered and assumed leadership
in the community. In 1749 he married Elizabeth Hartwell,
by whom he had seven children. Without benefit of a formal
legal education, he was admitted to the bar in 1754 and
embarked upon a distinguished judicial and political career.
In the period 1755-61, except for a brief interval, he served
as a representative in the colonial legislature and held
the offices of justice of the peace and county judge. Somehow
he also eked out time to publish an essay on monetary theory
and a series of almanacs incorporating his own astronomical
observations and verse.
In
1761, Sherman abandoned his law practice, and moved to New
Haven, CT. There, he managed two stores, one that catered
to Yale students, and another in nearby Wallingford. He
also became a friend and benefactor of Yale College, and
served for many years as its treasurer. In 1763, or 3 years
after the death of his first wife, he wed Rebecca Prescott,
who bore eight children.
Meanwhile,
Sherman's political career had blossomed. He rose from justice
of the peace and county judge to an associate judge of the
Connecticut Superior Court and to representative in both
houses of the colonial assembly. Although opposed to extremism,
he promptly joined the fight against Britain. He supported
nonimportation measures and headed the New Haven committee
of correspondence.
Sherman
was a longtime and influential member of the Continental
Congress (1774-81 and 1783-84). He won membership on the
committees that drafted the Declaration of Independence
and the Articles of Confederation, as well as those concerned
with Indian affairs, national finances, and military matters.
To solve economic problems, at both national and state levels,
he advocated high taxes rather than excessive borrowing
or the issuance of paper currency.
While
in Congress, Sherman remained active in state and local
politics, continuing to hold the office of judge of the
Connecticut Superior Court, as well as membership on the
council of safety (1777-79). In 1783 he helped codify Connecticut's
statutory laws. The next year, he was elected mayor of New
Haven (1784-86).
Although
on the edge of insolvency, mainly because of wartime losses,
Sherman could not resist the lure of national service. In
1787 he represented his state at the Constitutional Convention,
and attended practically every session. Not only did he
sit on the Committee on Postponed Matters, but he also probably
helped draft the New Jersey Plan and was a prime mover behind
the Connecticut, or Great, Compromise, which broke the deadlock
between the large and small states over representation.
He was, in addition, instrumental in Connecticut's ratification
of the Constitution.
Sherman
concluded his career by serving in the U.S. House of Representatives
(1789-91) and Senate (1791-93), where he espoused the Federalist
cause. He died at New Haven in 1793 at the age of 72 and
is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery.
Image:
Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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