Summary
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Gunning Bedford served on the committee that drafted the Great Compromise over equal representation of the states in the Senate.
Gunning Bedford | Signer of the Constitution
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Biography
Gunning Bedford was born in 1747 in Philadelphia, the fifth of seven children of a distinguished family. Although he was not actually a junior, he added this designation to avoid confusion with his cousin, the Delaware statesman and military officer Colonel Gunning Bedford.
The younger Gunning graduated with honors from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) where he was a classmate of Virginian James Madison. While still in school, Bedford married Jane Parker and the two had a daughter. After graduation, Bedford began reading law in Philadelphia but chose to be admitted to the bar in Delaware. He set up his practice in Dover in 1779; later, he would move to Wilmington.
In 1775, the Second Continental Congress elected Bedford to serve in the Continental Army as deputy-muster-general for New York. By 1776, he had been promoted to muster-master-general. He also served briefly as an aide to General George Washington.
After the war, he entered politics as a delegate to the Confederation Congress from 1783 to 1785. He became the Attorney General of Delaware in 1784. Then, in 1787, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. William Pierce described Bedford as “a bold and nervous Speaker” with a commanding and striking manner. But he had, Pierce added, an impetuous temper and jumped too quickly to judgment. Pierce could not end his sketch without noting that Gunning Bedford was very corpulent – that is, overweight.
Despite Pierce’s insistence that Bedford had an impetuous temper, most delegates judged him to be a jovial, sociable man, whose huge body was generally more imposing than his arguments. But as a representative from a small state, he was alert for any sign of a cabal of the large states to oppress the smaller ones.
During the debate over representation in the House and Senate, Alexander Hamilton tried to assure the delegates from states like Connecticut and Delaware that the large states would never join together on any issue at all. Later, Bedford retorted, “I do not, gentlemen, trust you. If you possess the power, the abuse of it could not be checked…” And, at one point, Bedford went so far as to suggest that, for their own protection, the small states “would find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith, who will take them by the hand and do them justice.” This threat was greeted by shouts of treason. Not surprisingly, Bedford agreed to serve on the committee that drafted the Great Compromise with its assurances of equal representation of the states in the Senate.
Bedford went on to serve as a member of the Delaware convention that was the first to ratify the Constitution. President Washington nominated him to serve on the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, and the Senate confirmed his appointment in September of 1789. During the following years, he became a leading advocate for the abolition of slavery.
Bedford died in office as a federal judge in 1812. He was 65. His tombstone bore a tribute to his physical size that Bedford would surely have enjoyed. It noted that “his form was goodly…”
