George Read was an American lawyer and politician from New Castle in New Castle County, Delaware.
Background
George Read was born on September 18, 1733 near North East, Cecil County, Maryland. His father, John Read, born in Dublin, Ireland, sixth in descent from Sir Thomas Read of Berkshire, was a landholder of means, and helped to found Charlestown at the head of the Chesapeake as a trade rival to Baltimore. George's mother was Mary Howell, a Welsh lady, whose father also was a planter. Soon after George's birth his father moved to New Castle, Delaware.
Education
The lad attended school at Chester, Pennsylvania, and the academy of Rev. Francis Alison at New London, Pennsylvania, where he had as fellow students not a few of his later political contemporaries. He remained at Alison's school until his fifteenth year and then studied law in the office of John Moland, Philadelphia lawyer.
Career
In 1753 Read was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia and began to practise there, but feeling inadequately rewarded he removed to New Castle the following year. His profound legal learning, clear reasoning, and calm deliberation soon won him the title of the "honest lawyer" and a practice carrying him through the Lower Counties and Maryland.
On April 30, 1763, he received his first political appointment, that of attorney general for the Lower Counties. He held this post until his resignation, October 15, 1774, and in this capacity protested against the Stamp Act, declaring in July 1765 that if this or any similar law imposing an internal tax for revenue were enforced, the colonists "will entertain an opinion that they are to become the slaves" of Great Britain and will endeavor "to live as independent of Great Britain as possible. "
His rôle during the early Revolutionary period was that of the moderate Whig, a patriot of the same stamp as his close friend, John Dickinson - ready to uphold colonial rights but careful to avoid extreme measures.
In October 1765 New Castle County elected him to the provincial assembly, of which he continued a member for the next twelve years. He played a prominent part in bringing about the adoption of a non-importation agreement in his county in 1769, in securing relief for Boston in 1774, and in the proceedings leading up to the First Continental Congress, of which he was a member.
In the Second Continental Congress, in which he served until 1777, though irregular in attendance, he was inclined to be cautious and moderate but found himself frequently being carried with the radical tide. He refused to vote for the resolution of independence, July 2, 1776, whether because he believed reconciliation was still possible or because he judged such a step premature on account of the preponderance of Tory sentiment in Delaware is not clear.
Following its adoption, however, he not only signed the Declaration but zealously upheld it. In the Delaware constitutional convention of 1776 Read probably exerted more influence than any other member. "Timoleon, " a pamphleteer and political enemy, declared that his influence was paramount.
As the presiding officer of the convention he represented its moderate tendencies, and as a member of the drafting committee his opinions carried much weight. That he was the sole author of the constitution, as his biographer states, has never been substantiated.
Under the new frame of government state politics revolved very largely about him.
In 1776 he was elected to the legislative council; he became its speaker, and thereby vice-president of the state. The first legislature, controlled by the moderates, returned him to Congress, but at the same time recalled the radical delegates. When the British captured Wilmington in September 1777 and took President John McKinly prisoner, the presidential duties devolved upon Read.
Hurrying from Philadelphia by a circuitous route, he barely escaped capture at the hands of the enemy in crossing the Delaware, and after seeing his family safely across the Susquehanna, assumed active charge of the state's affairs in November 1777. Unremitting in his efforts to raise troops, clothing, and provisions, and in removing the general disaffection of the people, he gradually succeeded in injecting a new spirit into the state. Nevertheless, he wrote to Washington, January 9, 1778, "My situation is rather an unlucky one, in a government very deficient in its laws, and those greatly relaxed in their execution, and a Legislature as yet incomplete, and not disposed to unite and give aid to the executive authority".
At his own request he was relieved of the presidential duties, March 31, 1778, but continued as a member of the Council. On the Articles of Confederation Read's views were those of the small-state group. He believed taxes should be levied according to population rather than based on the value of lands and improvements, and that title to the western lands should be held jointly with specific limits on each state. Despite these objections, however, he yielded in 1779, and as a member of the assembly drafted the act authorizing Delaware's delegates in Congress to sign the Articles. Later in the year, ill health compelled him to resign his seat in the assembly and also to decline an election to Congress.
On December 5, 1782, Congress elected him a judge of the court of appeals in admiralty cases. He accepted only upon assurance that the post would be continued after the war and that he might practise law while holding it. He felt greatly discouraged when Congress in 1786 ordered the salaries of the judges to cease, yet retained the court for such cases as might arise for it. In 1784 New York and Massachusetts appointed him one of nine commissioners to adjust their conflicting land claims.
From 1782 to 1788 he again sat in the legislative council of Delaware, his influence manifesting itself particularly in behalf of measures to improve commerce and the state's finances. In 1785 he vigorously opposed an act redeeming bills of credit previously issued at a ratio of one to seventy-five, on the ground that it would seriously impair the state's credit.
Read was a representative to the Annapolis convention in 1786 and heartily indorsed the movement for a general convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Convinced that revision of the Articles was necessary, he demanded, however, adequate safeguards for the small states. Delaware, he contended, "would become at once a cypher in the union" if the principle of equal representation were not retained and the method of amendment provided for in the Articles. He would trust nothing to the candor, generosity, or ideas of public justice of the larger states, and on May 21, 1787, urged John Dickinson to hurry to the convention to assist in keeping a strict watch on the stronger states "who will probably combine to swallow up the smaller ones by addition, division, or impoverishment".
In the convention he was one of the most outspoken advocates for the rights of the smaller states, threatening on one occasion to lead the Delaware delegates from the floor of the convention if there were any change in representation, though he finally accepted the compromise adopted. Read's greatest fears were that the large states would get too much power, and not that the general government would be too strong. He favored a new government; to patch up the old was like "putting new cloth upon an old garment. " "If we do not establish a new government, " he said, "we must either go to ruin or have the work to do over again".
Distinctly Hamiltonian in his ideas, he would have given the national legislature the negative on all state laws adjudged improper, would have had senators hold their office during good behavior or at least for a nine-year term, and desired to clothe the chief executive with the broadest possible appointive powers. Largely through his efforts Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. One of the first senators from his state, he was allotted to the class retiring at the end of the first two years, but was reëlected in 1790.
On September 18, 1793, he resigned his seat to become chief justice of Delaware, which post he held until his death.
His mansion with its gardens and stables commanded an extensive view of the Delaware at New Castle. There he lived during the many years of his public service in the style of the colonial gentry, though he never enjoyed more than a moderate income.
Achievements
Politics
A loyal Federalist, though irregular in his attendance as in the Continental Congress, he earnestly supported party measures such as assumption, the national bank, and the excise law. He recommended giving the president broad powers over the removal of his appointees, declaring that the Senate was only a check to prevent impositions by the executive.
Personality
Read was tall, slight of frame, had fine features, and was punctilious in his dress. Agreeable and dignified in manner, though somewhat austere, he was a strict and consistent moralist.
Connections
Although a believer in the maxim that men of ambition should never wed, on January 11, 1763, he married Gertrude (Ross) Till, daughter of Rev. George Ross, rector of Immanuel Episcopal Church, New Castle, and widow of Thomas Till, whom she had married June 18, 1752. A daughter and four sons - one of them being John Read, 1769-1854 - were born to them.