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Thomas M'Kean

THOMAS M'KEAN was of Irish descent, and born in New London Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 19th of March, 1734. After completing the regular course of school instruction, he was entered as a student at law, in the office of David Finney, who resided in Newcastle, in Delaware. Before he had attained the age of twenty one years, he commenced the practice of the law, in the Courts of Common Pleas, for the counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, and also in the Supreme Court. In 1757, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania, and was elected Clerk of the House of Assembly. The political career of Mr. M'Kean commenced in 1762, at which time he was returned a member of the Assembly from the county of Newcastle. This county he continued to represent in the same body for several successive years, although the last six years of that period, he spent in Philadelphia. A Congress, usually called the Stamp Act Congress assembled in New York in 1765, for the purpose of obtaining a redress of the grievances under which the colonies then labored. Of this memorable body, Mr. M'Kean was a member, along with James Otis, and other celebrated men.

A short time previous to the meeting of the Congress of 1774, Mr. M'Kean took up his permanent residence in the city of Philadelphia. The people of the lower counties on the Delaware, were desirous that he should represent them in that body, and he was accordingly elected as their delegate. On the 3d of September, he took his seat in Congress. From this time until the 1st of February, 1783, a period of eight years and a half, he was annually chosen a member of the great national council. At the same time, Mr. M'Kean represented Delaware in Congress; he was president of it in 1781, and from July, 1777, was the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania.

Mr. M'Kean was, from the first, decidedly in favor of the Declaration of Independence. He subscribed his name to the original instrument, but, by some mistake it was omitted in the copy published in the journals of Congress. At the time Congress passed the Declaration of Independence, the situation of Washington and his army in New Jersey, was extremely precarious. On the 5th of July, it was agreed by several public committees in Philadelphia, to despatch all the associated militia of the State to the assistance of Washington. Mr. M'Kean was at this time Colonel of a regiment of associated militia. A few days subsequent to the Declaration of Independence, he was on his way to Perth Amboy, in New Jersey, at the head of his battalion.

The associate militia being at length discharged, Mr. M'Kean returned to Philadelphia, and was present in Congress on the 2d of August, when the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence was signed by the members. A few days after this, receiving intelligence of his being elected a member of the Convention in Delaware, assembled for the purpose of forming a constitution for that State, he departed for Dover. Although excessively fatigued, on his arrival, at the request of a committee of gentlemen of the Convention, he retired to his room in the public inn, where he was employed the whole night in preparing a constitution for the future government of the State. This he did without the least assistance, and even without the aid of a book. At ten o'clock the next morning it was presented to the Convention, by whom it was unanimously adopted.

In 1777, Mr. M'Kean was chosen President of the State of Delaware, and during the same year was appointed Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. The duties of the latter station he discharged with great dignity and impartiality for twenty-two years. At the time of accepting these offices, he was speaker of the House of Assembly, and member of Congress. He was chosen president of Congress in 1781; and his conduct in the chair was highly honorable and satisfactory.

Mr. M'Kean was a delegate from Philadelphia, in 1787, to the Convention assembled to ratify the Constitution of the United States. He was a principal leader in this assembly, and was an able and eloquent advocate for the adoption of the Constitution; declaring it to be, in his consideration, "the best the world had yet seen."

In 1799, he was elected a governor of the State of Pennsylvania, and his administration continued for nine years. His course was ultimately beneficial to the State; but the numerous removals from office of his political opponents produced considerable excitement, and perhaps placed his character in an unamiable light. During the years 1807 and 1808, an attempt was made to impeach him of certain crimes and misdemeanors; and an inquiry was instituted by the Legislature into his official conduct. The result was an honorable acquittal from the charges alleged, and a total vindication of his character. In 1808, Mr. M'Kean retire from public life, having discharged the duties of a great variety of offices with much ability and reputation. He died on the 24th of June, 1817, in the eighty-third year of his age.