Today, it may seem impossible to imagine the U.S. government without its two leading political parties, Democrats and Republicans. But in 1787, when delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia to hash out the foundations of their new government, they ...read more
The rivalry between Founding Fathers Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton stretched much further than the legendary duel where sitting Vice President Aaron Burr shot and fatally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. Both were orphans. Both fought in the American ...read more
He was a founding father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an American hero—but most have probably not heard of Caesar Rodney or his dramatic 18-hour midnight horseback ride to Philadelphia to cast a critical, deciding vote in favor of separating from Great ...read more
Succession, or the transition of power from one ruler to the next, hasn’t always been smooth in Great Britain or other monarchies, but it has served as a template for governments around the world. In the United States, the line of presidential succession was established by the ...read more
The game of politics in America has long been a heated one, with partisan, divisive actions on both sides. In fact, there’s not much on Capitol Hill that hasn’t been said or done between politicians with opposing stances. However, one U.S. Representative recently suggested ...read more
It’s said that a fine wine only gets better with time. But the recent discovery of wine bottled at the time George Washington was still president really puts that theory to the test. Preservationists at the Liberty Hall Museum in Union, New Jersey recently unearthed one of the ...read more
In 2015, Allen started the Declaration Resources Project when she realized how much was still unknown about one of the most important documents in the history of the United States. Sneff joined the project as a researcher, and was busy assembling a database of every known edition ...read more
1. He died after a gruesome bit of self-surgery. After suffering from crippling gout throughout the fall of 1816, the Founding Father’s pain grew even worse when he began to experience a urinary tract blockage. From the don’t-try-this-at-home department, Morris then attempted to ...read more
1. He only had two years of formal education. The man considered the most brilliant American of his age rarely saw the inside a classroom. Franklin spent just two years attending Boston Latin School and a private academy before joining the family candle and soap making business. ...read more
1. Several framers met with untimely deaths. Was there a curse of the Constitution? Alexander Hamilton was famously killed by Aaron Burr in 1804, but he wasn’t even the first framer of the U.S. Constitution to die in a duel with a political rival. In 1802, North Carolina delegate ...read more
From 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in reaction to the Coercive Acts, a series of measures ...read more
These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have ...read more
On this day in 1776, writer Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries. Originally ...read more
On this day in 1734, Patriot politician Thomas McKean is born to Scots-Irish Presbyterian parents in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He will eventually serve as president of the state of Delaware, president of the U.S. Congress under the Articles of Confederation and chief justice ...read more
On this day in 1813, New York Patriot Robert R. Livingston dies. Robert R. (or R.R.) Livingston was the eldest of nine children born to Judge Robert Livingston and Margaret Beekman Livingston in their family seat, Clermont, on the Hudson River in upstate New York. The ...read more
On this day in 1776, Edward Rutledge, one of South Carolina’s representatives to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, expresses his reluctance to declare independence from Britain in a letter to the like-minded John Jay of New York. Contrary to the majority of his ...read more
Silas Deane, Connecticut delegate to the Continental Congress, leaves for France on a secret mission on this day in 1776. The Committee of Congress for Secret Correspondence, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, John Dickinson, John Hay and Robert Morris, ...read more
On this day in 1776, the body of Peyton Randolph is returned to Williamsburg, Virginia, for re-interment at his alma mater, the College of William and Mary. Randolph had died on October 22, 1775, at the age of 54, while in Philadelphia representing Virginia in the second ...read more
After years of poor health, Peyton Randolph, former president of the Continental Congress, dies on this day in 1775 at the age of 54. Born in 1721 to a prominent and influential Virginia family, Randolph graduated from the College of William and Mary before attending law school ...read more
On this day in 1761, Revolutionary War hero and faithful Patriot Robert Barnwell is born in Beaufort, South Carolina. Beaufort enthusiastically participated in each stage of his country’s revolutionary coming-of-age. At age 16, Barnwell enlisted as a private in the Patriot ...read more
On this day in 1789, New Jersey ratifies the Bill of Rights, becoming the first state to do so. New Jersey’s action was a first step toward making the first 10 amendments to the Constitution law and completing the revolutionary reforms begun by the Declaration of Independence. ...read more
On this day in 1781, American General Nathanael Greene receives two bags of specie (coin as opposed to paper currency) from Elizabeth Maxwell Steele at her tavern in Salisbury, North Carolina–an incident later memorialized in a painting by Alonzo Chappel. General Greene spent ...read more
On this day in 1776, shortly after the American victory at Boston, Massachusetts, General George Washington orders Brigadier General Nathanael Greene to take command of Long Island and set up defensive positions against a possible British attack on New York City. Greene’s troops ...read more
On this day in 1780, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne leads two brigades of Pennsylvania militia, supported by four artillery pieces, in an attempt to destroy a fortified blockhouse located approximately four miles north of Hoboken, in Bull’s Ferry, New Jersey. The blockhouse, or ...read more