Born in 1752, died in 1816; member of the First and Second
Continental Congresses; chairman of the committee which
conferred with the British peace commissioners in 1778;
drafted a scheme for a system of coinage which is the basis
of our present system; member of the Convention which
drafted the Constitution, taking a leading part in all the
debates; went to France in 1789 on private business, and
witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution; kept a diary and
wrote important letters; minister to France in 1792; United
States Senator from New York in 1800; active in promoting
the Erie Canal project until his death; his biography
written by Theodore Roosevelt; his "Diary and Letters"
published in 1888.
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