Senators of the Revolutionary Generation

Two hundred and fifty years ago, in the spring of 1776, John Adams emerged as a leading voice for independence in the Second Continental Congress. Representing Massachusetts, an embattled colony hardened by a year-long British siege, Adams urged the colonies to sever bonds with the British Crown-a bold effort that reached its peak with the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. In signing this Declaration, the delegates from 13 individual states united in their revolutionary cause. They asserted that "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" and claimed that "it is the Right of the People…to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

As a delegate in the Second Continental Congress, Richard Henry Lee (one of Virginia's first senators) had introduced the resolution proposing independence for the American colonies on June 7, 1776. In addition to declaring "that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states," the Lee Resolution also called for the states to "plan for a confederation" and form foreign alliances. Before joining the Continental Congress, Lee had served in the Virginia House of Burgesses where he joined in opposition to the policies of the British government. He also helped develop committees of correspondence, the important temporary state governments and colonial communication networks employed throughout the Revolution. After resigning his seat in the Continental Congress in 1779, Lee served as a colonel of the Westmoreland County Militia. Following the British surrender, he became a delegate in the Confederation Congress (the unicameral legislature that was the governing body under the Articles of Confederation), serving as its president for a year. An antifederalist who feared a powerful federal government, Lee favored amending the new Constitution to protect individual liberties. Despite being aged and in ill health, he agreed to join the Senate to ensure that a Bill of Rights was adopted. "[T]o secure civil liberty…was, I assure you, the sole reason that could have influenced me to come here," Senator Lee wrote to his friend and fellow revolutionary Patrick Henry in May 1789.⁴

Like Lee, Charles Carroll (who styled himself "of Carrolton" to distinguish him from his father) contributed to the committees of correspondence prior to his service in the Second Continental Congress. Born to a wealthy Irish Catholic family in Annapolis, Maryland, Carroll received extensive formal education in Europe as a young man, returning to Maryland in 1765. A Maryland colonial law prohibiting Roman Catholics from holding office barred him from entering politics. However, writing in the Maryland Gazette under the pseudonym "First Citizen," he became a leading voice for colonial rights, defending independent legislatures and government based upon the consent of the governed. In 1774 the Continental Congress selected him to join a diplomatic mission to Canada to seek aid. During the war, he served in the Maryland Senate, helped draft Maryland's constitution, and served on the Board of War. The last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, he died on November 14, 1832.⁵

Philadelphia merchant Robert Morris is often referred to as "the financier of the American Revolution" due to his critical role in securing money and supplies to aid in the revolutionary cause. He later served as superintendent of finance under the Confederation Congress. In response to the Stamp Act in 1765, Morris joined with other merchants to boycott British imports. Though he believed independence to be premature in July 1776, he did not attend the vote on the Lee Resolution, thus allowing the Pennsylvania delegation to support passage, and he ultimately signed the Declaration. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Morris led several important committees related to foreign affairs and securing supplies for the war effort. In addition to providing financial leadership during the Revolutionary Era, Morris also served in the Pennsylvania Assembly, represented his state at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and signed the Constitution. Morris became one of the first two United States senators (along with William Maclay) when Pennsylvania became the first state to elect its senators in 1788.⁶

As a Delaware assemblyman in the 1760s, George Read had participated in the colonial resistance efforts, including boycotts and committees of correspondence. He nevertheless hesitated to support independence, hoping to peaceably reconcile with Britain. On July 2, 1776, Read voted against the Lee Resolution. Following its adoption, however, he willingly joined with his fellow delegates in signing the document. He is the only signatory who voted against it. In 1776 Read was also deeply engaged in the organizational matters of his state, drafting Delaware's constitution and presiding over its constitutional convention. After the British captured Delaware's president during the Revolutionary War, Read-then vice president of Delaware-barely evaded capture himself when he returned from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to assume the state presidency. Following the war, he served again as a state legislator and as judge of the court of appeals in admiralty cases. In 1786 Read joined representatives from five states to revise the flawed Articles of Confederation at the Annapolis Convention. One year later, he attended the Constitutional Convention, representing the interests of the small states and favoring a strong central government. He signed the Constitution, and thanks largely to his efforts, Delaware became the first state to ratify it in December 1787.⁷

When Roger Sherman of Connecticut took his Senate seat in 1791 at the age of 70, he was preeminent even among his experienced contemporaries. He is the only person to have signed the Articles of Association of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. Self-educated and a cobbler by trade, he was first elected to the Connecticut Assembly in 1755 and went on to serve as a state senator and a state superior court judge. He attended the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775, serving on the "Committee of Five" appointed to draft the Declaration, alongside Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Robert R. Livingston. During the Revolutionary War, he helped stockpile munitions and other provisions as a member of Connecticut's council of safety. At the Constitutional Convention, it was Sherman who crafted (with the support of his Connecticut colleague-also a future senator-Oliver Ellsworth) the so-called Great Compromise (or Connecticut Compromise), which provided for equal representation of the states in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives. Sherman had first proposed the idea of a bicameral legislature with mixed representation in 1776, during the Continental Congress debates over a national government framework. "Everything depended on this," Sherman argued in 1787. "The smaller States would never agree to the plan on any other principle than an equality of suffrage" in the Senate.⁸

George Walton of Georgia, the last signer of the Declaration to serve in the Senate, filled a Senate vacancy by appointment in 1795. Orphaned as a young child, Walton developed a love of learning and studied law. He became a leader in Georgia's revolutionary movement, helping to organize the colony's Provincial Congress and serving as its secretary. He served as president of Georgia's Council of Safety (a wartime executive body) before his selection as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. Walton arrived just one day before the vote on the Lee Resolution, in time to hear John Adam's final impassioned speech in favor of independence. He was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. During the war, as a colonel in the Georgia Militia, he was wounded in the leg and subsequently captured by the British during the siege of Savannah in 1778. A year later, the British released him in a prisoner exchange. He then briefly served as governor of Georgia in 1779 (a position he would hold again in 1789). After the war, he became chief justice of Georgia. Elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he declined to attend.⁹

The senators who had signed the Declaration, and many other senators from the Revolutionary generation, garnered extensive political experience throughout the period. More than 70 of these senators also gained valuable experience through their contributions to the war effort. Some demonstrated extraordinary valor as battlefield soldiers. Some were commissioned officers and ranked among the military leadership. Richard Bassett of Delaware was a captain of a cavalry regiment in the state militia. James Gunn of Georgia served as a captain of dragoons, a mounted regiment. Philip John Schuyler of New York, a former officer in the British army during the Seven Years' War, was commissioned one of four major generals in the Continental Army. Rhode Island's Joseph Stanton, Jr., served as a colonel in the state militia. Appointed captain at the age of 23 in 1776, Maryland's John Eager Howard rose to the rank of colonel by the war's end. The Confederation Congress awarded him a silver medal for his gallantry in leading a decisive bayonet charge at the Battle of Cowpens in 1781.¹⁰

John Condit of New Jersey and Michael Leib of Pennsylvania were surgeons during the war, as was Delaware's Henry Latimer, who served in a mobile surgical unit known as the "flying hospital." John Laurance of New York, who had immigrated to America in 1767, attained the rank of colonel as a commissioned officer. As judge advocate general, Laurance prosecuted the 1779 court martial of Major General Benedict Arnold for misconduct and the trial of Major John André, the British army officer who was sentenced to death for conspiring with an embittered Arnold for the surrender of West Point.¹²

Robert Morris was not alone in helping to finance the Revolution. New Hampshire's John Langdon (the Senate's first president pro tempore) secured military supplies, oversaw the building of several war ships, and staked his personal fortune to equip General John Stark's pivotal expedition against British General John Burgoyne. Ralph Izard of South Carolina pledged his large estate to pay for warships.¹⁴