If you want to know who is behind the Electoral College, which has been a contentious issue in recent presidential elections, then look no further than Lawrence Township native son David Brearley.
Brearley, who was born in 1745 on his family’s farm on today’s Lewisville Road, was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pa. He chaired the special Committee on Postponed Matters, which resolved such issues as the president’s term and how he would be chosen.
Despite chairing the committee that decided such weighty issues, Brearley is perhaps one of the least known founding fathers of the United States, trailing behind George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and John Adams.
But amateur historian Thomas Pyle has tried to she some light on David Brearley, most recently at a presentation Sept. 14 co-sponsored by The Lawrenceville School and the Lawrence Historical Society.
Brearley was an attorney, a soldier, a signer of the U.S. Constitution, the chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and the first judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Pyle said.
Not much is known about Brearley’s early life, except that he descended from a family that was among the earliest settlers of Lawrence Township. They arrived in the late 1680s.
Brearley attended The College of New Jersey, as Princeton University was formerly known. He moved to Allentown, where he studied law under Samuel Rogers and became an attorney in the small Monmouth County town, Pyle said.
During the Revolutionary War, Brearley served in the Monmouth County Militia and then in the New Jersey Militia. He also served in the Continental Army, where he fought in several battles, Pyle said.
Perhaps Brearley’s most significant contributions came during his service on the Committee on Postponed Matters. As the Constitutional Convention drew to a close, there were many unresolved issues. The committee, which was chaired by Brearley, was appointed to settle them, he said.
Known informally as the Brearley Committee, it decided issues such as granting Congress the power to tax. It also settled the qualifications for president, the term of office, and the right of the president to appoint judges, cabinet members and ambassadors.
Finally, the Brearley Committee created the electoral college system to decide presidential elections – not the popular vote. The number of electors in each state is based on the number of House of Representatives seats in the state, plus the two senators.
The electoral college is an indirect means to elect the president – not a direct means that the popular vote represents. It grew out of philosophical concerns at the time that large states, such as New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, would not overwhelm small states, such as New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland.
Brearley died of toxic shock, the result of an ulcer, in 1790. He was 45 years old.
