Gunning Bedford Jr.
Gunning Bedford Jr. was an American Founding Father, delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, Attorney General of Delaware, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 which drafted the United States Constitution, a signer of the United States Constitution, and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.
Education and career
Bedford was born in 1747, in Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania, British America, the fifth of eleven children to a wealthy family. He graduated from the College of New Jersey on September 25, 1771, with honors, as a classmate of James Madison. He was admitted to the Delaware bar and entered private practice in Dover from 1779 to 1783.On July 17, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved to elect Bedford to deputy-muster-general for New York in the Continental Army, during the American Revolutionary War. On February 28, 1776, he was assigned to the northern army in Canada to muster troops there monthly. On June 18, 1776, he was promoted to muster-master-general and assigned to New York. He served briefly as an aide to General George Washington.
He was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation from 1783 to 1785. He was Attorney General of Delaware from April 26, 1784, to September 26, 1789. He was appointed a commissioner to the Annapolis Convention in September 1786 but did not attend. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which drafted the United States Constitution and was a signer of the Constitution. During the convention, Bedford's threat, "the small ones would find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith, who will take them by the hand and do them justice" was shouted down as treasonous by the other delegates.
He was a member of the Delaware convention which ratified the Constitution in 1787. He was a member of the Delaware Legislative Council in 1788, and was a candidate in the 1789 United States House of Representatives election for Delaware's at-large seat. Bedford was nominated by President George Washington on September 24, 1789, to the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, to a new seat authorized by. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 26, 1789, and received his commission the same day. Bedford was a leading advocate for the abolition of slavery.