Constitution Signer

Hugh Williamson

            Hugh Williamson was born December 5, 1735 in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  He was of Scottish-Irish decent and his father was a clothier.  Hoping he would become a Presbyterian minister, his parents oriented his education toward that calling.  He received his degree, trained for the ministry, received his license but was never ordained.  Around this time he took a position as professor of mathematics at the College of Philadelphia (later part of the University of Pennsylvania).  In 1768, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society where in 1769 he was appointed as part of a committee to observe the transit of Venus.  He later won considerable recognition through the publication of many of his scientific articles and collaboration with Benjamin Franklin.  Throughout his life Williamson enjoyed a varied career, that of preacher, physician, essayist, scientist, businessman, and politician.

            During the war he was surgeon general of the North Carolina troops 1779-1782.  After the war, he was a member of the State house of commons in 1782 and 1785, a member of the Continental Congress 1782-1785 and 1788.  In 1788, he was chosen to settle accounts between North Carolina and the federal government.  The next year, he was elected to the first U. S. House of Representatives where he served two terms.

            In 1787, Williamson was chosen as a delegate to the Continental Convention.  He attended faithfully and demonstrated a keen debating skill.  He served on five committees, notably on the Committee for Postponed Matters, and played a significant part in the proceedings, particularly in the major compromise on representation.  He felt that a strong central government was necessary to adequately protect and foster the political, economic, and intellectual future of a new country --- something the Articles of Confederation was unable to accomplish.  Shortly before the Convention adjourned, Williamson wrote a series of public letters in defense of a strong federal system.  These “Letters of Sylvius” addressed many of the practical concerns of his stat3e (North Carolina), where the rural and frequently debt-ridden farmers favored minimal government regulations, while the merchantile-planter group from the seaboard region wanted an economy strictly regulated by a central government.  Using simple examples, Williamson explained to both groups the dual dangers of inflationary finances and of taxes that would stunt the growth of domestic manufacture.  He exhorted them to support the Constitution as the basis for their future prosperity.  He explained that the ratification process would decide whether the United States would remain a “system of patchwork and a series of expedients” of become “the most flourishing, independent, and happy nation on the face of the earth.”  At the first ratification convention, North Carolina rejected the Constitution, but Williamson returned from New York and played a major role at a second convention that met in Fayetteville, NC where he was able to rally support for the Constitution.

            In 1793, Williamson moved to New York City where he resumed his scientific research, his writing, and his involvement in cultural research.  He published works on a variety of subjects, was an advocate for the Erie Canal, a founder of New York's Literary and Philosophical Society, a trustee of New York's College of Physicians and Surgeons, a volunteer for the orphans asylum, the Humane society, and New York Hospital's city dispensary.

            Hugh Williamson died in New York City on May 22, 1819.  Thomas Jefferson described Williamson’s role at the Constitutional Convention as: “He was a useful member of an acute mind, attentive to business, and of a high degree of erudition.”