PAY ORDER SIGNED BY FOUNDING FATHER OLIVER ELLSWORTH

Document signed by Oliver Ellsworth as lieutenant colonel. Hartford, Connecticut, 18 December 1776. 2 pages, approx. 8 1/8 x 3 7/8 in. Docketing to verso. 

A pay order for £172 to Capt. Pain[e]. Converse signed by Lt. Col. Oliver Ellsworth. The money was so Converse could "Enlist a Company to Serve in one of the four Battalions ordered to be rais'd for the Winters Campain." 

Ellsworth was born on 29 April 1745 in Windsor, Connecticut, where 18 years later, he began his secondary education at Yale, then transferred to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). He graduated in 1766, then went to law school, and was admitted to the bar in 1771. Two years later, Ellsworth was commissioned as a captain of the 3rd Connecticut in the state's militia. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel the following year, a role he held through his two-year tenure in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Beginning in 1777, though, Ellsworth dedicated his efforts to serving Connecticut as a politician, most notably in this decade as a representative in the Continental Congress. 

In 1787, Ellsworth participated in the Constitutional Convention as a delegate from Connecticut, where he took an active part in its proceedings. It was his proposal to use "the United States" to identify the government under the Constitution's authority to emphasize the new country's status as a federation rather than a single entity. He also helped approve the Connecticut Compromise, promoting the bicameral Congress we still use today. Ellsworth advocated for the abolition of slavery and voted for the Three-Fifths Compromise. Finally, Ellsworth served on the Committee of Detail, which prepared the first draft of the Constitution; however, he did not sign the complete final document, having left the Convention prior to its completion. 

Ellsworth also served as one of Connecticut's first two U.S. senators in the new federal government, identifying as a Federalist. His first project as senator was the Judiciary Act, which established a hierarchical arrangement among state and federal courts. He then sponsored the Senate's acceptance of the Bill of Rights, which counterbalanced the Judiciary Act. Ellsworth's term in the Senate also included supporting Alexander Hamilton's economic program, helping to admit North Carolina and Rhode Island into the union, and convincing President Washington to send John Jay to England to negotiate the Jay Treaty of 1794.

On 3 March 1796, Ellsworth was nominated by Washington to be the chief justice of the U.S.; he was quickly confirmed and sworn in five days later. While no major cases came before the Supreme Court when Ellsworth was chief justice, he did institute the practice of the Supreme Court coming to a consensus and writing one opinion rather than an opinion from each justice. Additionally, Ellsworth administered the oath of office to John Adams when the latter was sworn in as president in 1797. 

At the end of his life, Ellsworth acted as the U.S.'s envoy extraordinary to France in attempt to settle shipping differences with Napoleon's government. He also served one more time on the Connecticut Governor's Council and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died on 26 November 1807. 

[American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]