The Penmen: America’s Forgotten Founders

Everyone knows George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. But some who played crucial roles in creating the United States have faded into oblivion.

In this weekend’s episode of our radio show and podcast, America at 250: Due Diligence, co-host Bill Bernardoni and I look at two of the most consequential and overlooked figures of the founding generation: John Dickinson and Gouverneur Morris, both whom scholars label “penmen.”

Historian Jane Calvert, director and chief editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project and author of Penman of the Founding, joins us to explain how Dickinson became one of the most famous Americans of the revolutionary era, why he refused to support independence when Congress voted in 1776, and why his decision to abstain was very different from opposing the Revolution. She also discusses Dickinson’s military service, his antislavery efforts, his influential political writings and how John Adams, the second president of the United States, bad-mouthed Dickinson, helping shape the negative reputation that followed the fifth president of Delaware for generations.

Our other guest on program, Dennis Rasmussen, a Syracuse University political science professor and author of The Constitution’s Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America’s Basic Charter, introduces us to one of the most colorful characters at the Constitutional Convention. (Gouverneur was Morris’s given name, he never became a governor.) Morris spoke more often and proposed more motions than any other delegate and ultimately became the principal draftsman of the Constitution’s final text—including the words We the People. Rasmussen explores Morris’ opposition to slavery, his vision of a strong national government and presidency, his remarkable career in revolutionary France and the mystery of why someone so central to the Constitution remains largely unknown today. For those who want to go beyond our polite discussion and are curious about the bizarre death of this peg-legged philanderer, Rasmussen’s book includes the graphic details which we didn’t think appropriate for family radio (but we’ll give a warning they have to do with a urinary tract blockage and a whale bone catheter).

This is one of the more compelling episodes of the program since we went on air at the start of June, shining the spotlight on two founders who helped shape the American Revolution and the Constitution. While there are distinct reasons Dickinson and Morris faded from public memory the singular question remains: Who gets remembered in American history—and who gets left out?

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