Oliver ellsworth biography

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Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth joined the U.S. Supreme Court on March 8, , replacing Chief Justice John Rutledge. Ellsworth was born on April 29, near Hartford, Connecticut. He initially pursued his education at Yale but transferred to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), from which he graduated in Ellsworth was admitted to the bar in He later served as state attorney for Hartford County and participated in the Continental Congress during the American Revolution. During the s, Ellsworth also joined the Connecticut Governor’s Council and served as a judge in the state court system.

Ellsworth left a major impact on the Constitutional Convention in He helped devise the Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise because Ellsworth and Roger Sherman, its other sponsor, both hailed from Connecticut. This resolved the conflict between a group of delegates who favored equal representation for each state in the national legislature and a group who urged that each state should be represented in proportion to its population. The Great Compromise set up the bicameral legislature that we know today, with a Senate where states have equal representation and a House of Representatives where the population model applies.

In addition, Ellsworth served on the Committee of Detail, which prepared the first draft of the Constitution. Although he did not sign the final version of the Constitution, he vigorously argued for its ratification at the Connecticut convention in Ellsworth then became one of the first two Connecticut Senators in the U.S. Senate. In that role, he crafted the Judiciary Act of , which defined the structure and jurisdiction of federal courts.

On March 3, , President George Washington nominated Ellsworth to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed him on March 4 in a vote, and he took the judicial oath four days later. Far more memorable for political than judicial achievements, Ellsworth would

Chief justice of the United States from to

"Justice Ellsworth" redirects here. For other uses, see Justice Ellsworth (disambiguation).

Oliver Ellsworth (April 29, – November 26, ) was a Founding Father of the United States, attorney, jurist, politician, and diplomat. Ellsworth was a framer of the United States Constitution, United States senator from Connecticut, and the third chief justice of the United States. Additionally, he received 11 electoral votes in the presidential election.

Born in Windsor, Connecticut, Ellsworth attended the College of New Jersey where he helped found the American Whig–Cliosophic Society. In , he became the state attorney for Hartford County, Connecticut, and was selected as a delegate to the Continental Congress, serving during the remainder of the American Revolutionary War. He served as a state judge during the s and was selected as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, which produced the United States Constitution. While at the convention, Ellsworth played a role in fashioning the Connecticut Compromise between the more populous

One of the most influential senators of the First Federal Congress, Oliver Ellsworth was the principal author of the Judiciary Act of , which established the federal judiciary and shaped the Supreme Court. Having served in the Connecticut assembly and the Continental Congress, Ellsworth represented Connecticut at the Constitutional Convention of , where he orchestrated the “Great Compromise” that saved the convention from deadlock. Two years later, he became one of Connecticut’s first two senators. Highly esteemed by his fellow senators, Ellsworth devoted his service in the Senate to implementing the new Constitution and making the new government work. In President George Washington nominated Ellsworth as chief justice of the United States. John Adams later described Ellsworth as "the firmest pillar" of the federal government during its earliest years.

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