ELLSWORTH, OLIVER American states man and jurist, was born at Windsor, Conn., on April He studied at Yale and Princeton, graduating from the latter in 1766, studied theology for a year, then law, and began to practise at Hartford in 1771. He achieved extraordinary success at the bar, amassing what was for his day a large fortune. From 1773 to 1775 he represented the town of Windsor in the general assem bly of Connecticut. In 1779 he again sat in the assembly, this time representing Hartford. From 1777 to 1783 he was a member of the Continental Congress. From 1780 to 1785 he was a member of the governor's council of Connecticut, and from 1785 to 1789 he was a judge of the State superior court. In 1787, with Roger Sherman and William Samuel Johnson, he was one of Connecti cut's delegates to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. When disagreement seemed inevitable on the question of repre sentation, he, with Roger Sherman, proposed what is known as the "Connecticut compromise," by which the Federal legislature was made to consist of two houses, the upper having equal repre sentation from each State, the lower being chosen on the basis of population. From 1789 to 1796 he was one of the first senators from Connecticut under the new constitution. In the Senate he was looked upon as President Washington's personal spokesman and as the leader of the Administration Party. His most im portant service to his country was in connection with the estab lishment of the Federal judiciary. As chairman of the committee having the matter in charge, he drafted the bill by the enactment of which the system of Federal courts, almost as it is to-day, was established. By President Washington's appointment he became chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in March, 1796, and in 1799 President John Adams sent him, with William Vans Murray (1762-1803) and William R. Davie (1756-182o), to negotiate a new treaty with France. It was largely through the influence of Ellsworth, who took the principal part in the negotia tions, that Napoleon consented to a convention, Sept. 3o, 180o, which provided for freedom of commerce between the two nations. Failing health compelled him in 1800 to resign the chief-justice ship. He died in Windsor on November 27, 1807.
See W. G. Brown's Oliver Ellsworth (19o5), an excellent biography. There is also an appreciative account of Ellsworth's life and work in H. C. Lodge's A Fighting Frigate and Other Essays and Addresses (1902), which contains in an appendix an interesting letter by Senator George F. Hoar concerning Ellsworth's work in the Constitutional Convention.