Michael’s Episcopal Church Graveyard, Trenton, New JerseyPennsylvania half its size? Little Rhode Island three times bigger?Was this the key to equitable representation among the first thirteen states? We’ll never know—but it’s certainly one of the strangest ideas floated at the Constitutional Convention, and it comes courtesy of David Brearley.Brearley was born in Spring Grove, New Jersey. He was one of five children in a family that owned land but wasn’t particularly wealthy. Nevertheless, he received a good education and attended the College of New Jersey, a little school that was later known as Princeton, although he left before graduation to pursue law. Things moved along rather nicely for young Brearley. By the age of twenty-two, he had been admitted to the New Jersey bar, moved to Allentown to start his own practice, and married Elizabeth Mullen, with whom he would have four children.Then came the Revolutionary War and all the skirmishes proceeding from that first shot heard ’round the world.
What do You think about Signing Their Rights Away?
