Caleb Strong - United States Senator

United States Senator

Strong was elected as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution in 1787. A committed Federalist, Strong opposed the idea of the Electoral College as a means of electing the president, instead supporting the idea that the legislature should choose him. He was also a key member of the delegation to enable passage of the Connecticut Compromise which brought agreement in the convention on the structure of the United States Congress. Illness of his wife forced him to return to Massachusetts before the work was completed, so he did not sign the document. However, he supported its adoption by the state's ratifying convention.

When the Constitution came into force in 1789, Strong was chosen by the state legislature to serve in the United States Senate. As a Class 2 Senator he came up for reelection in 1792, when he was again chosen. He was a member of the committee that drafted the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established the federal courts. He was also one of the principal movers in 1793 and 1794 of the development and passage by Congress the 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This measure was enacted in response to Chisholm v. Georgia, a Supreme Court decision in which a private individual sued the state of Georgia. The amendment expanded the sovereign immunity of states so they could not be sued.

Strong was also one of a small group of senators who convinced President George Washington in 1794 that a special envoy should be sent to Britain in order to avert war, and who convinced John Jay to accept that role. Jay ended up negotiating what became known as the Jay Treaty, which resolved a number of issues between the two nations, but also angered the leadership of Revolutionary France.

Strong resigned his seat in 1796 and returned to private life in Northampton.