Oliver Ellsworth (29 April 1745 – 26 November 1807) was a US Senator from Connecticut from 4 March 1789 to 8 March 1796, preceding James Hillhouse. He was also Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court from 8 March 1796 to 15 December 1800, succeeding John Rutledge and preceding John Marshall.
Biography[]
Oliver Ellsworth was born in Windsor, Connecticut in 1745, and he attended Princeton University. In 1777, he became the state attorney for Hartford County, and was selected as a delegate to the Continental Congress, serving during the American Revolutionary War. He served as a state judge during the 1780s and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, preparing the first draft of the US Constitution. He was one of Connecticut's inaugural US Senators from 1789 to 1796, and he empowered the Supreme Court with the Judiciary Act of 1789. He was a key Senate ally of Alexander Hamilton and was aligned with the Federalist Party, and he supported the Funding Act of 1790 and the Bank Bill of 1791, while he also supported the Bill of Rights and the Jay Treaty. In 1796, President George Washington nominated Ellsworth to serve as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, and he also served as envoy to France from 1799 to 1800, settling the hostilities of the Quasi-War in 1800. He died in 1807.