17 Facts About Luther Martin

Luther Martin was a Founding Father of the United States, framer of the US Constitution, politician, lawyer, and slave owner.

Luther Martin was an early advocate of American independence from Great Britain.

Luther Martin went to the College of New Jersey and graduated with honors in 1766.

Luther Martin was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia.

Luther Martin opposed the creation of a government in which the large states would dominate the small ones, he consistently sided with the small states, helping to formulate the New Jersey Plan and voting against the Virginia Plan.

Luther Martin was known for his warm opposition to the development of a strong central government.

Luther Martin served on the committee formed to seek a compromise on representation, where he supported the case for equal numbers of delegates in at least one house.

Luther Martin broke the pledge to secrecy under which the convention had met and informed the Maryland legislators that the convention had violated its instructions to meet "for the sole and express purpose of revising" the Articles of Confederation.

Luther Martin lamented the ascension of the national government over the states and condemned what he saw as unequal representation in Congress.

Luther Martin owned six slaves of his own, but he opposed including slaves in determining representation, and he believed that the absence of a jury in the US Supreme Court gravely endangered freedom.

At the convention, Luther Martin complained, the aggrandizement of particular states and individuals often had been pursued more avidly than the welfare of the country.

Luther Martin served as a delegate to the Maryland State Convention of 1788, to vote whether Maryland should ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States.

Two years later, Luther Martin was one of Aaron Burr's defense lawyers when Burr stood trial for treason in 1807.

Luther Martin was reappointed attorney general of Maryland in 1818, and, in 1819, he argued Maryland's position in the landmark Supreme Court case McCulloch v Maryland.

Alcoholism, illness, and poverty weighed heavily on Luther Martin, taking their toll as he aged.

On July 10,1826, at the age of 78, Luther Martin died in Burr's home in New York City and was buried in an unmarked grave in St John's churchyard.

Luther Martin married Maria Cresap on Christmas Day 1783.