The Non-Signers

The Non-Signers

"We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

In an age where revolution was on everyone's minds, there was a group of men who, through trial and error, developed a collection of laws and requirements that would eventually become the cornerstone of our nation; the United States Constitution. These men were from all walks of life; farmers, preachers, businessmen, and teachers. According to the 2006, American Government textbook, "In terms of education, thirty-one went to college; twenty-four did not. Most of those who did not attend college were trained in business, legal, and printing apprentices" (O'Connor 45). They came from different states and were of very different opinions. Coming together for what they considered to be the good of the nation; they overcame obstacles from all directions. Although these men worked together in the writing of this charter, not all of them could make the decision to put their pens to the paper in the final hours. There is much in the history books about great men who had a part in the signing such as George Washington and Alexander Hamilton but little is to be found on the three men who could not sign their names. Who were these men and what were the reasons behind their actions? Elbridge Gerry, George Mason and Edmund Randolph are three men who are hardly mentioned in history yet had a great impact on today's U.S. Constitution.

Eldbridge Gerry was a middle aged merchant from Marblehead Massachusetts. He was a personal friend of Samuel Adams who, along with Gerry, was a known Democrat. Gerry was a business man and a politician but when it came to the liberties and rights of the people, he often spoke with so much fervor and passion that he would begin to stutter. He was elected to be in "the General Court of Massachusetts an 1772 and subsequently the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. From his position in this body he managed supply procurement operations for his state's patriot forces in the early days of the American Revolution" (Diller 142). A political theorist and a consummate businessman, Gerry was afraid that a large and powerful central government would overstep boundaries and interfere with free enterprise. Being the business man that he was, he could see the possibilities of certain favors that a government could grant someone such as himself. A local administration would be easier to control yet a larger political body would have the ways and means for granting larger favors. Unable to decide, whether to follow his heart or his pocketbook, Gerry was still undecided on the cool autumn day in September.

Virginia's first Attorney General and the youngest man at the convention, Edmund Randolph, came from a family who had grown accustomed to being in charge. He had relatives who, before the Revolution, had been attorneys for kings. Through ancestral roots, deeply planted in Virginian soil, his love for his state kept him from wanting to give any leeway whatsoever to a strong central government. Standing as he was, Virginia's Governor, perhaps he realized how strong and powerful political authority could become; by no means was he ignorant to the ways of politics as he was also mayor of Williamsburg Virginia. Randolph believed the states should be given the power to amend the Constitution during their own conventions. According to Charles Mee, "Randolph's way of thinking, (was, a) "indefinite and dangerous power" had been given to the central government" (Mee 79). Even though Randolph is credited for introducing the highly centralized Virginia Plan, he was still unsure of how he felt towards having a one person executive office.

Although he himself was a slave holder, George Mason was extremely concerned that there was no Bill of Rights to be included in the Constitution. An older gentleman of sixty-two, he shared Martha Washington's sentiment of "we have not a simple article of news but pollitick which I do not concern myself about" (Bourne 105); hating political gatherings of any sort. Perhaps the regular stomach problems and suffering from gout, is what led to Mason's general irritability;