Suspected of Independence
The Life of Thomas McKean, America's First Power Broker
-
- $18.99
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
The last signatory to the Declaration of Independence was one of the earliest to sign up for the Revolution: Thomas McKean lived a radical, boisterous, politically intriguing life and was one of the most influential and enduring of America's Founding Fathers.
Present at almost all of the signature moments on the road to American nationhood, from the first Continental Congress onward, Thomas McKean was a colonel in the Continental Army; president of the Continental Congress; governor of Pennsylvania; and, perhaps most importantly, chief justice of the new country's most influential state, Pennsylvania, a foundational influence on American law. His life uniquely intersected with the many centers of power in the still-formative country during its most vulnerable years, and shows the degree of uncertainty that characterized newly independent America, unsure of its future or its identity.
Thomas McKean knew intimately not only the heroic figures of the Revolutionary era -- George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin -- but also the fascinating characters who fought over the political identity of the new country, such as Caesar Rodney, Francis Hopkinson, and Alexander Dallas. His life reminds us that America's creation was fraught with dangers and strife, backstabbing and bar-brawling, courage and stubbornness. McKean's was an epic ride during utterly momentous times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McKean (Tommy the Cork), director of policy planning for the Department of State, reaches back into his family's history to tell the story of revolutionary-era America through the eyes of a lesser-known founding father. History may have left Thomas McKean behind, but in his lifetime he was a well-known and influential politician. Born in modest circumstances in Delaware in 1734, McKean built a reputation as a lawyer by age 20 though "technically still a legal apprentice" and at 24 he began serving in the Delaware state assembly. Such a hard-working and ambitious man would likely have done well anywhere, but the extraordinary circumstances of the 1760s and 1770s catapulted McKean into the political limelight. He joined the Stamp Act Congress of 1764, which was convened in protest against a despised parliamentary tax; served as a delegate to both Continental Congresses; became chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1777; and later served as Pennsylvania governor. McKean signed the Declaration of Independence and joined the Pennsylvania militia to fight for his new country. The author efficiently alternates between politics and military developments, keeping the cradle-to-grave biography moving briskly. As interesting as McKean's life was, however, his descendant doesn't quite make the case for his enduring importance. Illus.
