After being approved by Congress, this rare original copy of the Bill of Rights was signed by Vice President John Adams (president of the Senate) and dispatched by President George Washington to consider for ratification in 1789. The New York Public Library acquired the document in 1896, when John S. Kennedy – a trustee of The New York Public Library – donated it along with other items he purchased from Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, a noted surgeon and collector of Americana. The Emmet Collection has been accessible to researchers ever since, currently in the Manuscripts and Archives Division. The Library last displayed the document several decades ago, and has never displayed it for an extended period of time for preservation reasons. As part of the historic agreement, the Center announced today it will display the document to the general public for three years starting in the fall of 2014.

“This is a win for Pennsylvania, New York and the citizens of the United States,” said Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. “For the first time in decades, this historic document will be seen by ‘We the People,’ the people who were granted these inalienable rights and privileges that we are still guided by today.”

“This landmark agreement makes public one of the most important documents in the nation’s history, an over 200-year-old, original copy of the Bill of Rights,” said New York Public Library President Tony Marx. “The document has been expertly preserved at the Library for over a century, leaving it in prime condition and ready to inspire and educate the public now and in the future.”

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Many of the rights and liberties Americans cherish —such as speech, religion, and the right to fair trial—were not enumerated in the original Constitution drafted at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 but were included in the first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, which were ratified in 1791. By displaying this American treasure, the Center will provide visitors of all ages with a better understanding of the Constitution, the essential American freedoms it protects, and its enduring relevance in our daily lives. The document will complement the Center’s current exhibits and artifacts—including the popular Signers’ Hall and its first public printing of the Constitution—and strengthen the museum’s ability to tell the story of America’s founding in an engaging way.

“This is a milestone moment for the Center as we look towards the next decade as the museum of ‘We the People,’” said National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen. “We are thrilled to be able to offer visitors the opportunity to experience one of America’s founding documents up close. In addition to exploring the historic value of this priceless document, our exhibition will provide a national forum for three years of discussion, education, and constitutional debate about contemporary issues related to the Bill of Rights.”

“The Center is working proactively to display and interpret America’s most significant historic documents,” said National Constitution Center Chairman of the Executive Committee Doug DeVos. “Today marks a shining example of civic-minded cooperation between institutions for the benefit of all citizens, and should serve as a model for future partnerships.”

About the Document

One of the fundamental achievements of America’s founding era, Congress commissioned 14 official copies of the Bill of Rights—one for the federal government and one for each of the original 13 states, which President George Washington dispatched to the states to consider for ratification. Four states are missing their copies —Georgia, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. Two unidentified copies are known to have survived; one is in the Library of Congress, and the other is in the collection of The New York Public Library, which is the copy that will be displayed at the Center. The Center is currently working closely with The New York Public Library, who has contracted the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to build an encasement similar to those built for the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives, to properly display the document.

About The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 91 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library serves more than 18 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.

About the National Constitution Center

The National Constitution Center is an interactive hands-on museum, national town hall, and civic education headquarters celebrating the United States Constitution and the story of “We the People.” Located on Independence Mall in Historic Philadelphia, the Center illuminates constitutional ideals and inspires active citizenship through a state-of-the-art museum experience, including hundreds of interactive exhibits, films, and rare artifacts; must-see feature exhibitions; the internationally acclaimed, 360-degree theatrical performance Freedom Rising; and the iconic Signers’ Hall, where visitors can sign the Constitution alongside 42 life-size, bronze statues of the Founding Fathers. As America’s town hall, the Center engages diverse, distinguished leaders of government, public policy, journalism and scholarship in timely public discussions and debates. The Center also houses the Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach, the national hub for constitutional education, which offers cutting-edge civic learning resources both onsite and online. Join us at the museum of “We the People” as we celebrate our 10-year anniversary in 2013. For more information, call 215.409.6700 or visit constitutioncenter.org.

What is the Bill of Rights?

The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. These amendments guarantee essential rights and civil liberties, such as the right to free speech and the right to a fair trial, as well as reserving rights to the people and the states.

As a distinct historical document, drafted separately from the seven articles that form the body of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights has its own fascinating story. But ever since the first 10 amendments were ratified in 1791, the Bill of Rights has also been an integral part of the Constitution.

How many original copies of the Bill of Rights exist? Where are they?

Congress commissioned 14 official copies of the Bill of Rights—one for the federal government and one for each of the original 13 states, which President George Washington dispatched to the states to consider for ratification.

Today, most of these original copies reside at the archives of their respective states. The federal government’s copy is on display at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.—alongside the original, handwritten copies of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Four states are missing their copies—Georgia, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. Two unidentified copies are known to have survived; one is in the Library of Congress, and the other is in the collection of The New York Public Library, which is the copy that will be displayed at the National Constitution Center.

North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights was missing for nearly 140 years after being stolen by a Union soldier during the Civil War. The National Constitution Center played a key role in the recovery of the document in 2003, including assisting in an FBI sting operation.

Why wasn’t the Bill of Rights included in the original Constitution?

Toward the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, George Mason, a delegate from Virginia, proposed adding a bill of rights, which would, he argued, give great quiet to the people” and “might be prepared in a few hours.”

Though it might be surprising today, the state delegations unanimously rejected Mason’s proposal. Some delegates reasoned that a federal bill of rights was unnecessary because most state constitutions already included some form of guaranteed rights; others said that outlining certain rights would imply that those were the only rights reserved to the people. However, historian Richard Beeman, a Trustee of the National Constitution Center, has pointed out a much more prosaic reason the delegates were so skeptical: They had spent four arduous months of contentious debate in a hot, stuffy room, and were anxious to avoid anything that would prolong the convention. They wanted to go home, so they took a pass. A bill of rights was overruled.

The Constitution was signed by 39 delegates on September 17, 1787, at the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. Three delegates were present but refused to sign, in part because of the absence of a bill of rights: George Mason, Edmund Randolph, and Elbridge Gerry.

After the convention, the absence of a bill of rights emerged as a central part of the ratification debates. Anti-Federalists, who opposed ratification, viewed its absence as a fatal flaw. Several states ratified the Constitution on the condition that a bill of rights would be promptly added, and many even offered suggestions for what to include.

Pauline Maier, author of Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788, noted of these proponents of a bill of rights:

“Without their determined opposition, the first ten amendments would not have become a part of the Constitution for later generations to transform into a powerful instrument for the defense of American freedom. … Their example might well be their greatest gift to posterity.”

Who wrote the Bill of Rights?

After the Constitution was ratified in 1788, James Madison, who had already helped draft much of the original Constitution, took up the task of drafting a bill of rights. Madison largely drew from the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was primarily written by George Mason in 1776 two months before the Declaration of Independence; he also drew from amendments suggested by state ratifying conventions.

Madison drafted 19 amendments, which he proposed to Congress on June 8, 1789. The House of Representatives narrowed those down to 17; then the Senate, with the approval of the House, narrowed them down to 12. These 12 were approved on September 25, 1789 and sent to the states for ratification.

When was the Bill of Rights ratified?

The 10 amendments that are now known as the Bill of Rights were ratified on December 15, 1791, thus becoming a part of the Constitution.

The first two amendments in the 12 that Congress proposed to the states were rejected: The first dealt with apportioning representation in the House of Representatives; the second prevented members of Congress from voting to change their pay until the next session of Congress. This original “Second Amendment” was finally added to the Constitution as the 27th Amendment, more than 200 years later.

Bill of Rights Day is observed on December 15 each year, as called for by a joint resolution of Congress approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.

Where was the Bill of Rights written?

The Bill of Rights was drafted in New York City, where the federal government was operating out of Federal Hall in 1789. (The Declaration of Independence and the original, unamended Constitution were written and signed in Philadelphia.)

Why is the Bill of Rights so important?

The Bill of Rights represents the first step that “We the People” took in amending the Constitution “in Order to form a more perfect Union.” The original, unamended Constitution was a remarkable achievement, establishing a revolutionary structure of government that put power in the hands of the people. The Bill of Rights built on that foundation, protecting our most cherished American freedoms, including freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and due process of law. For more than two centuries—as we have exercised, restricted, expanded, tested, and debated those freedoms—the Bill of Rights has shaped and been shaped by what it means to be American.

Editor’s Note: The National Constitution Center announced today that starting in 2014, it will display an American treasure: one of the 12 surviving copies of the Bill of Rights. Learn more here.

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The original Josiah Bartlett was one of the first to speak up to approve the break from Great Britain in 1776 in Philadelphia. Sheen’s character, the modern-day Josiah Bartlet (with one T), was said to be a descendant of the Declaration’s second signer.

The Founding Father version had a life worthy of his own movie, with parallel careers as a doctor and a patriot. Josiah Bartlett had an important role in the founding of New Hampshire, and he held most of the important offices in the state until his death on May 19, 1795, at the age of 65.

Today, aside from the connection to the TV show, Bartlett is best known as the second person to sign the Declaration, after John Hancock.

As the representative from New Hampshire, the most northern of the states represented at the meeting, Bartlett was the first to cast a vote approving independence at the Continental Congress.

His path to Philadelphia started in Massachusetts, where he was born in 1729. Bartlett moved to New Hampshire, studied medicine and opened his practice at the age of 21.

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Bartlett also became involved in public service and politics, serving as a justice, militia leader, and legislator.

In 1774, Bartlett was elected to the Continental Congress, but a mysterious fire destroyed his home (possibly started by Loyalists). Bartlett built a new house on the same site and then headed to Philadelphia.

He worked behind the scenes in Philadelphia by serving on most committees as a delegate from New Hampshire. Bartlett also played a role on drafting the Articles of Confederation before he left Congress to return home to New Hampshire in 1778 to manage his farm and maintain his medical practice.

For the rest of his career, Bartlett served on New Hampshire’s Supreme Court; became that court’s chief justice; helped to ratify the Constitution in New Hampshire; declined an appointment to the U.S. Senate; and became the state’s governor.

Bartlett also practiced medicine for 45 years and founded the New Hampshire Medical Society in 1790.

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Independence Hall.

The City of Brotherly Love became the ex-capital for several reasons, including the machinations of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, and a compromise over slavery.

But it was some rowdy actions in 1783 by Continental soldiers that started a movement for a capital city that was more secure and controllable.

Until then, Philadelphia had been the hub of the new nation. Important decisions were made there, and it was equally accessible from the North and the South.

The Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia in June 1783 at what we now call Independence Hall, operating under the Articles of Confederation.

However, there were serious problems afoot. The government had problems paying the soldiers who fought in the war against the British for their service.

The Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 was a crisis that literally forced the Congress to focus on its personal safety and pitted the federal government (in its weakened form) against the state of Pennsylvania.

Unpaid federal troops from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, marched to Philadelphia to meet with their brothers-in-arms. A group of about 400 soldiers then proceeded to Congress, blocked the doors to the building, and demanded their money. They also controlled some weapons storage areas.

Congress sent out one of its youngest delegates to negotiate with the troops: Alexander Hamilton, a former soldier himself. Hamilton convinced the soldiers to free Congress so they could meet quickly and reach a deal about repaying the troops.

Hamilton did meet with a small committee that night, and they sent a secret note to Pennsylvania’s state government asking for its state militia for protection from the federal troops.

Representatives from Congress then met with John Dickinson, the head of Pennsylvania’s government; Dickinson discussed the matter with the militia; and the state told Congress it wouldn’t use the state’s troops to protect it.

On the same day, Congress packed up and moved temporarily to Princeton, New Jersey. It traveled to various cities over the following years, including Trenton, New Jersey; Annapolis, Maryland; and New York City.

Delegates agreed to return to Philadelphia in 1787 to draw up the current U.S. Constitution, while the Congress of the Confederation was still seated in New York City.

Part of the new Constitution addressed the concerns caused by the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783.

Article I, Section 8 gave Congress the power to create a federal district to “become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful buildings.”

When Congress met in 1789, two locations were proposed for the capital: one near Lancaster and another in Germantown, an area just outside Philadelphia.

However, Hamilton became part of a grand bargain to move the capital to an undeveloped area that encompassed parts of Virginia and Maryland, receiving some help from Thomas Jefferson along the way.

The Residence Act of 1790 put the capital in current-day Washington as part of plan to appease pro-slavery states who feared a northern capital as being too sympathetic to abolitionists.

In turn, Hamilton received a commitment to reorganize the federal government’s finances by getting the southern states to indirectly pay off the war debts of the northern states.

A twist in a deal was negotiated by Robert Morris. Until the new capital was built on the Potomac, the capital would move be in Philadelphia for 10 years.

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During the following decade, Philadelphians lobbied hard for the capital to stay in Pennsylvania. They offered President Washington an elaborate mansion as an incentive to stay. Instead, he and his successor, John Adams, lived in a more modest house near Congress.

Also, a yellow fever epidemic hit Philadelphia in 1793, raising doubts about the safety of the area.

And native Virginians like Washington, Madison, and Jefferson were actively planning for a capital near their home.

So one May day in 1800, Congress ended its business in Philadelphia and started the move to the new Federal District. President Adams also left Philadelphia in April and moved into the White House in November.

Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.

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Jamestown depicted in 1624.

But Jamestown barely survived, as recent headlines about the confirmation of cannibalism at the colony confirm. The adaption to the North American continent by the early Europeans was extremely problematic.

The success of tobacco as an early cash crop helped Jamestown weather the loss of most early colonists to disease, starvation, and attacks by the resident population of Native Americans.

A turning point in Jamestown’s fortunes was in 1619, when a General Assembly met at a church on July 30. Two representatives from 11 regions of the area debated the qualifications of membership and other matters for six days. A heat wave ended the session of what would be known as the House of Burgesses.

The session established a government that citizens could address to settle grievances and end legal disputes.

It was a huge step forward, since numerous European attempts to establish any foothold in North America had failed for almost a century.

Spain has tried to establish at least five colonial settlements in North America during the 16th century. It had established footholds in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Peru.

But Spanish efforts failed in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, and Virginia, in short order.

The settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in what is now Georgia or South Carolina was built in 1526 with the first use of African slaves in North America. It only lasted three months. The colonists dealt with same problems as the Jamestown residents, with the added dimension of a slave revolt.

Another Spanish attempt near St. Petersburg, Florida, failed in 1527.

Fort San Juan was another failed Spanish effort in what is now western North Carolina in 1566 and 1567. The fort was abandoned and most other troops at other forts died.

The Spanish also tried to set up a Jesuit mission in Virginia in 1570, which failed when it was left unprotected and its priests and brothers were killed.

France failed in three attempts, before Jamestown, to set up colonies in the current-day United States in South Carolina, Florida and Maine. The settlement at Sainte-Croix Island in 1604 quickly moved on to a fort at Port Royal in Nova Scotia, in order to survive. Half the settlers died at Port Royal, and the survivors moved on to what became Quebec.

And the English had two notable failures.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke was set up in 1585 and its first settlers lasted almost a year, until they went back to England with Sir Frances Drake. A small force was left to guard a fort.

A second expedition returned in 1587 to try again to establish a settlement. The guards were all missing. About 115 people stayed behind. When English ships returned three years later, all the people, and their buildings, were gone.

The Popham Colony in Maine was established at the same time as Jamestown but only lasted for one year.

There were some early colonies that did survive from the pre-Jamestown era.

The settlement at Saint Augustine in Florida endured since about 600 colonists from Spain established the settlement in September 1565. The town was burned several times by pirates and English forces, but it survived.

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John Dickinson

In September 1774, when America’s First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, there were no “united states,” just a collection of British colonies largely going their separate ways whose primary loyalty was to a distant British king. The brilliant, though occasionally cranky, Massachusetts delegate John Adams described the assembled delegates as a “gathering of strangers,” complaining that “the art of address of Ambassadors from a dozen belligerent Powers of Europe . . . would not exceed the Specimens We have seen here.”

Yet by July 4, 1776, the members of that congress, in spite of the significant differences in interests and ideology among them, were able to come together on that audacious decision to break all ties with Britain–a decision that makes congressional quarreling over debt ceilings, sequesters, or judicial appointments seem utterly trivial.

The critical question facing those 18th-century politicians was no different than those facing our politicians today–how to transcend their differences and find the path toward serving the common good. How was it that the founders were able to achieve that transcendence when our political leaders seem so hopelessly mired in partisan, and trivial, acrimony?

Some of the answers lie in the seriousness of the conflict with an imperial ruler. The First Continental Congress convened in order to fashion a united American response to Britain’s Coercive Acts, a series of parliamentary statutes aimed at punishing the colony of Massachusetts and, in particular, the “fanatics” of Boston who had dumped 92,000 pounds of tea in the town harbor. And, as the conflict with Britain escalated to life-and-death struggles on the battlefield, the stakes were raised, and congressional representatives from other parts of the country began to realize that a threat to one colony could soon be a threat to all.

But it was not only the increasingly dangerous external threat posed by the British army and navy that brought America’s congressional representatives together. For most of the 22 months between September 1774 and July 4, 1776, those “strangers” from across the more than 330,000 square miles of American territory lived together in cramped quarters in Philadelphia’s boardinghouses, and drank and dined together daily in the city’s taverns. Unlike their congressional counterparts today, who spend three or four days a week in Washington and then fly off to raise money for their next political campaign, the members of America’s revolutionary Congress worked and lived together. They acquired a level of familiarity and respect for one another that is altogether missing in politics today.

The months between January and early July of 1776 were particularly difficult for the 56 men living together in Philadelphia. They were months during which, as Adams’ older cousin Sam described them, “the child independence was struggling to be born.” When Virginia’s Richard Henry Lee finally introduced a resolution proposing independence on June 7, as many as five or six colonial delegations resisted the move.

On July 1, when the highly respected Philadelphia lawyer John Dickinson delivered a long and carefully prepared speech warning that a precipitous move for independence might result in burning towns, bloodshed, and ignominious defeat, there were many in the room who shared his fears, and many others who were still sitting on the fence. In a straw vote about 7 that evening, nine colonial delegations voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence. South Carolina and Pennsylvania opposed it, Delaware was divided, and New York abstained. The advocates of independence had obtained their majority. But they knew that even a two-thirds majority on a matter of such epochal importance would not be sufficient.

By the next morning, a divided American congress became a united one. Although New York’s delegates would have to wait until July 9 before getting their legislature’s official permission to support independence, the other three colonies that had withheld their backing on July 1 came around. The dynamic in each of those colonies differed, but it was the actions of the Pennsylvania delegates–representatives of the country’s most rapidly growing and economically powerful colony, whose support for independence was vital to its success–that provide us with the most instructive lesson in political leadership.

Dickinson still controlled the balance of power within his colony’s delegation. He remained committed to the position that he had taken the previous day, but in the decisive vote on July 2, he, along with his Pennsylvania colleague Robert Morris, withdrew “behind the bar”–the rail which to this day keeps visitors from walking into the space in which the delegates to the Congress were doing their business–thus enabling a bare majority of the Pennsylvania delegation to cast votes in favor of independence.

Dickinson’s decision to absent himself from the vote was every bit as much an expression of his love of country as was the passionate advocacy of independence by his frequent political adversary John Adams. A few days later, Dickinson would give yet another demonstration of his love of country by leading a battalion of Pennsylvania militiamen in battle against the British army in Elizabethtown, New Jersey.

The behavior of those members of Congress who reluctantly added their assent to independence on July 2, as well as that of men like Dickinson, who went “behind the bar,” provides us with an example of what may be the most striking difference between the politicians of 1776 and those who sit in Congress today. They understood that there were at least some occasions in which the attribute of humility–the ability to subordinate one’s personal opinions in the name of unity and consensus–was a vital ingredient in serving the public good. Don’t we wish that our elected officials today could carry out their business with at least some of that sense of humility?

Richard R. Beeman is the author of “Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776,” the John Welsh Centennial Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, and a trustee at the National Constitution Center. He will discuss his book on Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Constitution Center. The program will be moderated by Jeffrey Rosen, the center’s new president and CEO. For reservations, call 215.409.6700, or visit constitutioncenter.org.

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Last year, George Washington’s personal version of the U.S. Constitution was sold at auction for $9.8 million. It was purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union.

The association plans to make the folio, which includes the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Washington’s handwritten notes, the centerpiece of a new library that opens in late September at Mount Vernon.

Until then, the folio is going on tour at various presidential libraries around the country. Like the rock star it is, the folio has official tour dates established until September 21, 2013.

The document has made stops at the Reagan, Nixon, Ford, and Eisenhower libraries. Its final date is at the Truman Library in mid-September. In all, it will appear at 13 presidential libraries.

The folio caused quite a stir when it came up for auction last June. It had been owned by several private parties, including William Randolph Hearst. The pre-auction sale price had been estimated at $2 million to $3 million.

The other ultra-rare constitution was displayed for nine hours by a library in Georgia in late April.

It is one of two copies of the Constitution of the Confederate States, which is owned by the University of Georgia’s Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The state of Georgia donated the document to the university in 1939 after it was acquired from a private collection.

The document is very fragile and kept in a lined case in a rare-book room with tight security. It is more than 12 feet long and written on vellum (0r animal skin), not paper.

It was abandoned along with other Confederate documents in South Carolina in 1865 and found by a war correspondent, along with another version of the Confederate Constitution. Both were sold to private parties in 1883; the other constitution is now at a museum in Richmond, Virginia.

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Those were the words of President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958, when he issued a proclamation urging the legal profession and the media to promote and participate in the celebration. Congress added Law Day to the federal code three years later.

Today, the American Bar Association helps to coordinate Law Day as a series of public and private events for people of all types, including educators and students who engage in activities that promote learning.

The theme of Law Day 2013 is the movement for civil and human rights in America. President Barack Obama has issued the annual Law Day proclamation to ““honor the courageous men and women who fought to bring those ageless ideals of freedom and fairness into the rule of law—from the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act to Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

By the way, the president is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and a former lecturer on constitutional law. In fact, 24 presidents were lawyers at some point in their careers.

And among the Founding Fathers, 35 of the 55 delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were lawyers or had legal training.

In honor of Law Day, here’s a look at 10 people you may recognize who were lawyers at some point in their lives.

1. Alexander Hamilton

Hamilton was admitted to the bar when he was 25 years old and learned on the job. He had a successful firm, where he specialized in maritime litigation. Hamilton gave it up to enter public service, and returned to the firm in 1795 to pay for his expenses.

2. Aaron Burr

Burr was a formidable attorney in his own right and also appeared with Hamilton early in his career in court proceedings.(However, the legend that they were law partners isn’t true.) Maria Reynolds, the woman at the center of a sex scandal involving Hamilton, was represented by Burr in her divorce case. After leaving public life, Burr had a successful law practice.

3. Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s abilities as a lawyer were legendary even before he was elected president in 1860. Unlike Hamilton and Burr, Lincoln had little formal schooling. He also always had a law partner. Lincoln argued one case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which he lost. His skills were reading juries and making oral arguments.

4. Gandhi

Mohandas Gandhi studied law in London, briefly practiced in India, and then he went to South Africa, where he spent two decades. Gandhi originally went there as a legal adviser, but his life changed as he became an advocate for the rights of the oppressed.

5. Clarence Darrow

Many people know the character of Darrow from the play and movie, Inherit the Wind, which is a fictionalized portrayal of the Scopes monkey trial. (His name was changed in the play to “Henry Drummond”.) His high-profile roles in the cases of accused murderers Leopold and Loeb, union leader Eugene Debs, and the McNamara brothers made him a household name.

6. Thurgood Marshall

The future Supreme Court justice had a stellar legal career. He was the chief legal counsel for the NAACP and won his first Supreme Court case at the age of 32. Marshall won 29 out of 32 cases he argued in front of the high court, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Marshall joined the Supreme Court in 1967 as its first African-American member.

7. Sandra Day O’Connor

O’Connor earned her law degree at Stanford, where she graduated third in her class in 1952. But O’Connor couldn’t get a job in a legal position at a California law firm because of her gender. (She reportedly had offers to be a secretary instead.) O’Connor took several positions as an attorney in public agencies and started her own law firm in Arizona in 1957. After a return to public service, O’Connor joined the Supreme Court in 1981 as its first female justice.

8. Janet Reno

Like President Obama, Reno is a Harvard Law graduate. She was a partner in a private Florida law firm before going into public service. In 1993, Reno became the first woman to be confirmed as the attorney general of the United States.

9. John Grisham

John Grisham isn’t really famous for his legal career. It is his series of bestselling books, which spawned several blockbuster movies, that are his biggest contributions to the legal community. He worked for a decade as a trial lawyer while pursuing an interest in writing. His second book, The Firm, became a national hit, and he’s sold more than 100 million books  in his writing career.

10. Nelson Mandela

The anti-apartheid icon was also a lawyer. He was the only black person in his law class and in 1952, Mandela and his partner, Oliver Tambo, established the first black law firm in South Africa. His role in the African National Congress soon eclipsed his legal career.

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James Monroe in 1819.

Monroe was born on April 28, 1758, in Virginia, and his public career started from humble roots. He was an eyewitness to many of the events that led to the creation of the United States and the U.S. Constitution.

But you won’t hear Monroe’s name used in the same lofty terms as his friends Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and his former commander, George Washington.

Monroe did leave a lasting impression on America’s destiny because of the Monroe Doctrine, a policy he established to keep other nations out of the Western Hemisphere.

Here are 10 interesting facts about an underrated Founding Father who spent more than four decades at the center of American change.

1. Teenage James Monroe was a hero at the Battle of Trenton. The 18-year-old lieutenant was sent across the Delaware River by Washington to scout, and he nearly died after being shot during the fight in Trenton. Some have said Monroe is the soldier holding the flag in the famous “Washington Crossing the Delaware” painting, but according to Washington Crossing Historic Park, that’s unlikely to have happened in reality.

2. Monroe was a law apprentice for Thomas Jefferson. Monroe studied under the third president, but he wasn’t an outstanding lawyer. Monroe was more interested in politics in his native Virginia and served in the Continental Congress at the age of 25.

3. Monroe initially opposed the Constitution. Monroe wasn’t at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and opposed it at Virginia’s ratification convention, wanting a strong bill of rights. Monroe eventually supported the document.

4. Madison and Monroe had an unusual friendship. James Madison won the fight in Virginia over ratifying the Constitution in 1789 and then ran against Monroe for a seat in the House of Representatives. Madison and Monroe took part in a series of public debates, and Madison narrowly won the election. But the two opponents became fast friends on the campaign trail, much to the chagrin of Madison’s enemy, Patrick Henry.

5. Monroe was not friendly with George Washington. The men had a falling out after Washington sent Monroe, his former lieutenant, to France as an ambassador. Washington eventually fired Monroe after he criticized the Jay Treaty. Monroe also wasn’t fond of Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s close associate.

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6. Monroe was a key player in two presidential administrations. Monroe was a minister to France and England for President Thomas Jefferson, and he served as both secretary of state and secretary of war for President James Madison. He held virtually every key public office before becoming president in 1817.

7. Monroe was one of the most dominant presidential candidates ever. Monroe received 68 percent of the vote when he defeated Rufus King in the 1816 election. He ran unopposed in the 1820 race, getting 81 percent of the vote. Only one cranky elector in New Hampshire kept Monroe from a unanimous win in the Electoral College.

8. Monroe had some help writing the Monroe Doctrine. John Quincy Adams was a driving force behind the policy, which President Monroe introduced with his annual message to Congress in 1823. The doctrine stated that Europe needed to stay out of the affairs of new countries and territories in the Western hemisphere; in exchange, the United States would stay out of European affairs.

9. Monroe was able to buy Florida for $5 million. Monroe had started talks with Spain about Florida while he was James Madison’s secretary of state in 1815. After violence in the region and a flurry of diplomacy, Adams helped negotiate a deal for Monroe where the U.S. would pay off damage claims made by Spain during the violence. The U.S. got Florida and promised that it would recognize Spain’s sovereignty over Texas.

10.  Monroe died on the Fourth of July, too. Three Founding Fathers who were elected president died on July 4. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Monroe died on July 4, 1831. Monroe was also the last president who was never photographed in his lifetime.

The battle at Concord.

We’ve done some historical sleuthing to find out what the real deal was with Paul Revere and the shot heard ‘round the world.

To set the scene: The Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts were the official start of hostilities between colonists who objected to British rule and British soldiers sent to restore order in the Colonies.

Not all colonists favored the Revolution and by some estimates, about 20 percent were Loyalists, while another 25 percent were mostly neutral.

But parts of New England were a hotbed of Patriot activity. British troops were garrisoned in Boston and their commander, General Thomas Gage, sent a force from Boston to seize military supplies stored by the Patriots in nearby Concord.

The rebel forces knew of the plans and were well-organized and armed. The British troops confronted one small group in Lexington, and for some reason, a shot rang out. The British upon the Patriots and then started a bayonet attack, killing eight local militia members.

The British ran into much stiffer resistance approaching Concord. Another shot rang out, and the British quickly found themselves outnumbered and outflanked by a combined force of Patriot minutemen and militia.

The British regulars then made a difficult retreat to Boston, which was greatly aided by the arrival of reinforcements led by Lord Percy. Today, we estimate that 49 Patriots and 73 British troops died in the fighting.

So let’s start with a few famous reports and quotes related to the first battle of the war.

1. Did Paul Revere really say, “The British are coming”?

That seems highly unlikely for several reasons. Revere was on a secret mission to warn the Patriots about the advance of British forces, and at the time, the colonists were British. His more likely response was, “The regulars are coming out.”

2. Did Revere ride by himself at midnight to warn the Patriots?

There were multiple riders as part of the intelligence effort set up by the Patriots. Two other men, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, rode with Revere. In fact, Revere never reached Concord as part of the ride. He was detained by the British after leaving Lexington. It was Prescott who rode from Lexington to Concord.

3. Who shot the shot heard ’round the world?

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” the “embattled farmers” fired “the shot heard ’round the world” at the British regulars in Concord. More likely, the shots were fired at Lexington, where the British fired on the Patriot militia, who also may have taken a few shots in the confusion.

One eyewitness to the skirmish was Paul Revere, who had been detained but not arrested by the British. He couldn’t tell who fired the first shot, in his account. Both sides later accused the other of firing first.

4. Were the colonists just a bunch of farmers fighting against the British?

In reality, the Patriots at Lexington and Concord were well organized and well supplied. Many were veterans of the French and Indian campaigns, and they better understood the battle tactics in the area than the British. After withdrawing back to Boston, Lord Percy said, “They have amongst them those who know very well what they are about, having been employed as rangers among the Indians.”

5. Did the Patriots engage the British from a distance using rifles?

The Colonists primarily used muskets, and not rifles, and had to get fairly close to the enemy in small-group formations to be effective.

An article on the American Rifleman website makes a convincing argument that the Patriots were better shots than the British, but only 2 percent of their shots were on target.

Much of the fighting in the British retreat was in hand-to-hand combat, and the British were able to use bayonets. The Patriots used circling tactics to constantly harass the British while building up their own troop strength. In the end, about 15,000 Patriot militia and Minutemen surrounded Boston as they trailed the British retreat.

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