James McHenry Summary PDF

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James McHenry Summary - Mandatory Assignment ...

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Ashley Smith October 16th 2017 Core 100 Professor Matthews

 James McHenry

James McHenry was born November 16th 1753, in Ballymena, Ireland. He was the son of a prosperous merchant and was very well educated. He immigrated to the “New World” at the age of 17. When he arrived he lived in Philadelphia and went to school at the Newark Academy. He studied medicine in school and became a trained physician. At age 23 he was appointed surgeon. He served as a surgeon during the American Revolution. At the end of 1776 however, he was taken prisoner by Sir William Howe. He was paroled in January of the following year,

and finished parole in 1778. This impressed George Washington at the time, and McHenry was appointed as the side of the secretary to commander in chief. In 1780, he was transferred to work under Major General Lafayette. McHenry was present at the battle of Monmouth. He retired from the Army in 1781, and became a member of the Maryland senate in 1781 staying until 1786.  During  part of this period, he served concurrently in the Continental Congress from 1783-86. He became a delegate to the Maryland legislature in 1784. In the same year he also married Margaret Allison Caldwell. In 1787, he went to Philadelphia to the Constitutional Convention, which was originally supposed to be a revision of the Articles of Confederation, instead it lead to the creation of the United States Constitution. James McHenry is a signature on our constitution. In 1789, he was in the state assembly until 1791. Then from 1791-1796 he was back in the state senate. McHenry was openly a staunch federalist. He was asked by Washington to be the secretary of war and he accepted the offer and lasted in this position into the administration of John Adams. Serving under Adams though, McHenry looked to Hamilton rather than to Adams for leadership. As time passed, John Adams became increasingly dissatisfied with McHenry's performance and distrustful of his political motives and in 1800 forced him to resign. After his resignation he moved back to Baltimore. Where he lived until his death on May 3rd, 1816 at the age of 62....