Commentary
This series of essays focuses on those American Founders who exercised the most influence on the original Constitution as amended by the Bill of Rights. Each essay thumbnails the life and contributions of at least one individual. The essays also will tell you more about “the supreme Law of the Land.”
Before proceeding with the series, some terminology may be helpful. When the series uses the word “framers,” it means the 55 men who drafted (“framed”) the Constitution. They were the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia from May 25, 1787, to Sept. 17, 1787.
The word “ratifiers” means the 1,648 delegates at the 13-state ratifying conventions meeting from December 1787 (Delaware) to May 1790 (Rhode Island). The term “Founders” includes the framers, the most significant ratifiers, and major opinion leaders in the public debate over the Constitution….