Who Sits at the Seat

Virginia delegate, notetaker of the Federal Convention, co-author of The Federalist, fourth president.

Why at the SeatHe kept the record of the Federal Convention and co-wrote The Federalist: the Constitution's design, from inside the room.

Commander of the Continental Army, president of the Federal Convention, first president.

Why at the SeatHe commanded the army, presided over the Convention and set the first precedents of the presidency.

Massachusetts lawyer and diplomat, author of the Massachusetts Constitution, second president.

Why at the SeatAuthor of Thoughts on Government and the Massachusetts Constitution, and the president who signed the Sedition Act.

Author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, third president.

Why at the SeatHe drafted the Declaration, and his record on liberty and slavery has to be read whole.

Printer, scientist and diplomat; signer of the Declaration and delegate to the Federal Convention.

Why at the SeatThe eldest founder at the Seat, a printer and diplomat whose record runs from paper money in the 1720s to abolition in 1789.

New York delegate, co-author of The Federalist, first secretary of the treasury.

Why at the SeatAuthor of the 1790 plan for a national bank and the 1791 opinion defending it; co-author of The Federalist.

New York lawyer and diplomat, co-author of The Federalist, first chief justice.

Why at the SeatNegotiator of the 1794 treaty with Great Britain, co-author of The Federalist and first chief justice.

Pamphleteer of the Revolution: Common Sense, The American Crisis, Rights of Man, The Age of Reason.

Why at the SeatThe pamphleteer whose Common Sense made the case against monarchy and hereditary rule in 1776.

Author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights; refused to sign the Constitution for want of a bill of rights.

Why at the SeatAn Anti-Federalist: he wrote Virginia's Declaration of Rights and refused to sign the Constitution without one.

Boston organizer of resistance to Parliament, Committee of Correspondence leader, signer, governor of Massachusetts.

Why at the SeatThe Boston organizer of resistance: the colonial case against taxation without consent.

Orator of the Revolution and leading Anti-Federalist; led the fight against ratification in Virginia in 1788.

Why at the SeatThe leading Anti-Federalist orator, who warned that the Constitution would consolidate power.

Pennsylvania lawyer and Convention delegate, theorist of popular sovereignty, original Supreme Court justice.

Why at the SeatThe Convention's leading theorist of popular sovereignty, and one of the first Supreme Court justices.

Philadelphia physician and signer; wrote on education in a republic, abolition, penal reform and medicine.

Why at the SeatA physician and signer who wrote on what a republic owes its citizens: schooling, reform and health.

Letter-writer and political partner of John Adams; asked that the new code of laws "remember the ladies" (1776).

Why at the SeatHer letters are a running political record of the Revolution, and an early voice on the legal standing of women.

French jurist whose Spirit of the Laws (1748) gave the founders the separation of powers.

Why at the SeatThe writer the founders turned to on separating legislative, executive and judicial power.

Oxford professor whose Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69) taught the founders English law.

Why at the SeatThe founders' textbook of English law: the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of the press.

English philosopher of consent, natural rights and the right of revolution (Two Treatises, 1689).

Why at the SeatThe philosopher of government by consent and of the right to replace a government.

Scottish philosopher and historian; his essays on parties and on a large republic shaped Madison's thinking on faction.

Why at the SeatThe Scottish philosopher whose essays on parties bear on the founders' fear of faction.

Greek biographer and moralist; his Lives were the founders' handbook of republican virtue and its enemies.

Why at the SeatThe ancient biographer of statesmen: the founders' examples of virtue and ambition in public life.

Roman statesman and orator; his natural-law republicanism (On the Laws, On the Republic, On Duties) ran through the founders' education.

Why at the SeatThe Roman statesman whose natural law and idea of a republic ran through the founders' schooling.

Milanese reformer whose On Crimes and Punishments (1764) argued for proportionate punishment and against torture and the death penalty.

Why at the SeatThe reformer behind proportionate punishment and the case against torture and execution.

German natural-law jurist (Of the Law of Nature and Nations, 1672), a standard text in colonial colleges.

Why at the SeatA natural-law jurist read in colonial colleges: how the law of nature binds people and nations.

Dutch jurist, founder of the modern law of nations (The Rights of War and Peace, 1625; Freedom of the Seas, 1609).

Why at the SeatThe founder of the modern law of nations: natural law, just war and the freedom of the seas.

English republican executed in 1683; his Discourses Concerning Government defended resistance to tyranny.

Why at the SeatThe English republican who died for the right to resist a tyrant.

Author of Leviathan (1651): an absolute sovereign as the price of peace, the view the founders set themselves against.

Why at the SeatThe counterpoint: the case for an absolute sovereign, which the founders set themselves against.

English republican whose Oceana (1656) tied political power to the balance of property.

Why at the SeatThe republican who tied political power to the distribution of property.

Swiss jurist whose Law of Nations (1758) the founders cited on treaties, neutrality and sovereignty.

Why at the SeatThe jurist the founders cited on treaties, neutrality and the rights of sovereign nations.

John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, authors of Cato's Letters (1720-23), among the most widely cited English writings on liberty in the colonies.

Why at the SeatCato's Letters: the English essays on liberty and free speech that the colonists quoted.

Scottish Whig writer, co-author of Cato's Letters, author of the Discourses on Tacitus and Sallust.

Why at the SeatCato's co-author, answering from his own later writings on government and tyranny.