Oliver Ellsworth was a Founding Father of the United States, attorney, jurist, politician, and diplomat. Ellsworth was a framer of the United States Constitution, United States senator from Connecticut, and the third chief justice of the United States. Additionally, he received 11 electoral votes in the 1796 presidential election.
Portrait by Ralph Earl, 1785.
Oliver and Abigail Ellsworth by Ralph Earl
Letter from Ellsworth to George Washington wishing former president "a most respectful and most cordial farewell," March 1797
Ellsworth's gravesite
Constitution of the United States
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constitution delineates the national frame and constrains the powers of the federal government. The Constitution's first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, in which the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress ; the executive, consisting of the president and subordinate officers ; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. Article IV, Article V, and Article VI embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, the states in relationship to the federal government, and the shared process of constitutional amendment. Article VII establishes the procedure subsequently used by the 13 states to ratify it. The Constitution of the United States is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world.
Page one of Jacob Shallus' officially engrossed copy of the Constitution signed in Philadelphia by delegates of the Constitutional Convention in 1787
Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, a 1940 portrait by Howard Chandler Christy depicting the signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia
"We the People" in its original edition
The signatures in the closing endorsement section of the United States Constitution