James McHenry
James McHenry served the Continental Army during the Revolution and sat in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 before entering Washington's cabinet as secretary of war in 1796.
Born November 16, 1753 / Died May 3, 1816
On November 16, 1753, in Ballymena, County Antrim, Kingdom of Ireland, James McHenry was born into a Scots-Irish family that emigrated to Philadelphia during his youth. He studied at the Newark Academy and then apprenticed in medicine under Benjamin Rush. The Revolution drew him from medical training into service as a surgeon and then as an aide in the Continental Army.
McHenry served on George Washington's staff, later worked closely with the Marquis de Lafayette, and represented Maryland at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. In the 1790s he entered the federal government as secretary of war under George Washington and John Adams, supervising frontier defense and army administration. His prominence at the War Department was so visible that the fort defending Baltimore in 1814 took his name as Fort McHenry.
McHenry's career linked the military improvisation of the Revolution to the more formal War Department of the constitutional state. Fort McHenry later connected his name to the War of 1812 and to the patriotic memory carried by 'The Star-Spangled Banner.'
Key Contributions
- McHenry was a signer of the United States Constitution from Maryland, initiated the recommendation for Congress to form the Navy, and was the eponym of Fort McHenry.
- He represented Maryland in the Continental Congress.
- He was a delegate to the Maryland State Convention of 1788, to vote whether Maryland should ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States.
Related Events
Constitutional Convention convenes
From May to September 1787, delegates in Philadelphia abandoned revision of the Articles of Confederation and drafted a new Constitution under George Washington's presidency.
United States Constitution signed
On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution in Philadelphia and sent the proposed frame of government to the states for ratification.
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