Nathaniel Gorham |
| Relationship to the Speculation Lands: |
| Believing that he could rapidly sell his new purchase and realize a profit. Tench Coxe writes to a prospective agent, Nathaniel Gorham, "I am willing to sell, at twenty cents, one hundred thousand acres of land in North Carolina ...[land] ...in a county ... in which is now a courthouse, iron works, four or five great roads ..." In a blatant abuse of public office, Tench Coxe makes Gorham, a subordinate in the revenue office in Massachusetts, his principal land agent. (Coxe to Nathaniel Gorham, Nov. 7, 1795, Coxe Papers) |
| Biography: |
Nathaniel Gorham, of Massachusetts, was one of five delegates to the Committee of Detail that explored revision of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. The other members included John Rutledge of South Carolina (chair), James Wilson of Pennsylvania, Edmund Randolph of Virginia, and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. It was the work of this and other committees that resulted in the evolution of the Constitution through a series of public debates and revisions. In fact the work of the Committee of Style which took the work of the Committee of Detail resulted in the revision of the most famous of lines "We the People of the United States ..." This was only one revision or rewriting of the 23 articles and 40 sections of the revised Committee of Detail report submitted to the Committee of Style. Governor Robert Morris of Pennsylvania was responsible for much of the work on these revisions, including this preamble to our Constitution. It originally read "We the People of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts ....," etc. |
| Links: |
| Historical Society of Pennsylvania |
| Bibliography: |
| Patton, Sadie Smathers. Buncombe to Mecklenburg
Speculation Lands. The Western North Carolina Historical
Association, Forest City, North Carolina. 1955. Patton, Sadie Smathers . Sketches of Polk County History. 1976. |