Americans in recent years have increasingly looked to our Founding Fathers for guidance. That’s true not only of the tea party movement and those who call themselves constitutional conservatives, but of thoughtful Americans of all political stripes, as we can see from the bestselling sales of books about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. There is a lot to be learned from these famous Founders, but also from other Founders who are not so famous. One such is Oliver Ellsworth, member of the Constitutional Convention and the First Congress, senator in the First Congress and third Chief Justice of the United States.
Now Michael Toth, an aide in the George W. Bush White House, lawyer and Marine Corps reservist, has written a succinct biography, Founding Federalist: The Life of Oliver Ellsworth, published by ISI Books. Ellsworth, as Toth points out, was a devout Calvinist, more religious than most of his colleagues, who at the same time managed to forge compromises over some of the most difficult issues facing the Founders. He was the chief advocate at the Constitutional Convention of the Connecticut compromise, which apportioned members of the House of Representatives to the states by population but gave each state two and only two members of the Senate. And he was the chief sponsor of the Judiciary Act of 1789, organizing the lower federal courts, which with minimal changes remains in effect today.
Founding Federalist is clearly and gracefully written, as readable as any of David McCullough’s books, and it’s also a work of some legal scholarship. Highly recommended.
