 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. |
