The Un-Founding Father

The U.S. Constitution is understandably revered, but there was difficulty getting it approved in a divided, fractious convention of states in 1787, and no one objected to it more than Maryland delegate Luther Martin, described by an admirer as “awkward, coarse, gross, crude and ungrammatical.” Yet his words, delivered at great length, carried weight, as they do today. The great dissenter is lost to memory, writes Bill Kauffman in his book “Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet,” and he shouldn’t be. Continue reading “The Un-Founding Father”