 Strong
was born to Caleb and Phebe Strong on January 9, 1745 in
Northampton, MA. He received his college education at Harvard, from
which he graduated with highest honors in 1764. Like so many of the
delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Strong chose to study
law and was admitted to the bar in 1772. He enjoyed a prosperous
country practice.From 1774 through
the duration of the Revolution, Strong was a member of Northampton's
committee of safety. In 1776 he was elected to the Massachusetts
General Court and also held the post of county attorney for
Hampshire County for 24 years. He was offered a position on the
state supreme court in 1783 but declined it.
At the Constitutional Convention, Strong
counted himself among the delegates who favored a strong central
government. He successfully moved that the House of Representatives
should originate all money bills and sat on the drafting committee.
Though he preferred a system that accorded the same rank and mode of
election to both houses of Congress, he voted in favor of equal
representation in the Senate and proportional in the House. Strong
was called home on account of illness in his family and so missed
the opportunity to sign the Constitution. However, during the
Massachusetts ratifying convention, he took a leading role among the
Federalists and campaigned strongly for ratification.
Massachusetts chose Strong as one of its first
U.S. senators in 1789. During the 4 years he served in that house,
he sat on numerous committees and participated in framing the
Judiciary Act. Caleb Strong wholeheartedly supported the Washington
administration. In 1793 he urged the government to send a mission to
England and backed the resulting Jay's Treaty when it met heated
opposition.
Caleb Strong, the Federalist candidate,
defeated Elbridge Gerry to become Governor of Massachusetts in 1800.
Despite the growing strength of the Democratic party in the state,
Strong won reelection annually until 1807. In 1812 he regained the
governorship, once again over Gerry, and retained his post until he
retired in 1816. During the War of 1812 Strong withstood pressure
from the Secretary of War to order part of the Massachusetts militia
into federal service. Strong opposed the war and approved the report
of the Hartford Convention, a gathering of New England Federalists
resentful of Jeffersonian policies.
Strong died on November 7, 1819, 2 years after
the death of his wife, Sarah. He was buried in the Bridge Street
Cemetery in Northampton. Four of his nine children survived him. |
