8th President of the Confederation Congress Nathaniel Gorham

Nathaniel Gorham, his first name is sometimes spelled Nathanial was a politician and merchant from Massachusetts. He was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, and for six months served as the presiding officer of that body.
Born: May 27, 1738, Charlestown, Boston, MA
Died: June 11, 1796, Charlestown, Boston, MA
Place of burial: Phipps Street Burying Ground, Boston, MA
Previous office: President of the Continental Congress (1786–1786)
Children: Benjamin Gorham
Siblings: Elizabeth Gorham

Nathaniel Gorham was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts on May 27th, 1738 and died there on June 11th, 1796. He was the son of a small boat operator growing-up in a family of modest means. After receiving a public school education, Gorham worked in various small businesses in his birth­place of Charlestown. He was apprenticed in 1754 to Nathaniel Coffin, a merchant in New London, Connecticut where he learned the import and export business. He left Coffin’s employ in 1759 and returned to his hometown establishing his own small business there, which quickly succeeded.

In 1763 he wed Rebecca Call, who was to bear the couple nine children. In 1770, Gorham launched his public career as a notary, soon winning election to the colonial legislature in 1771. He took an active part in public affairs at the beginning of the Revolution, as a strong supporter of the Whigs. He was then elected delegate to the Massachusetts’ Provincial Congress in 1774 and served throughout 1775. During the war he was a member of the Massachusetts board of war from 1778 until its dissolution in 1781, which oversaw the State’s military strategy, logistics and recruitment. He paid the price for the effective service in that office, as British troops ravaged much of his property during the occupation of Charlestown.

Early Nathaniel Gorham Autograph Letter Signed on legal folio, Charles Town, Nov. 5, 1772 to Philadelphia merchants John Reynell and Samuel CoatesEarly Nathaniel Gorham Autograph Letter Signed on legal folio, Charles Town, Nov. 5, 1772 to Philadelphia merchants John Reynell and Samuel Coates writing that: “…by Capt. Hinkley I wrote you desiring you to ship me 2 Tons Barr Iron which I take this opportunitiy to desire you to alter & in the room of it to send six Tons pig Iron & if you cannot get pig Iron then to send the Barr Iron as above mentioned…” According to the Iron Act of 1750, iron manufacture was prohibited in the colonies and all pig and bar iron was to be shipped to Great Britain for finishing. Many Colonial merchants and manufacturers skirted these laws and future President Gorham’s business was no exception to circumventing these British Laws. While most of the arms used during the American Revolution were of European manufacture, some of the numerous New England iron furnaces did supply shot, shells and the occasional cannon.

In 1779 Gorham served as a delegate to the Massachusetts’ Constitutional Convention. He was elected to the new Massachusetts’ Upper House in 1780. In 1781 he was elected to the Lower House and served until 1787. In 1782, Gorham was also elected delegate to the United States in Congress Assembled, serving through 1783. He was re-elected in 1785 and served as a represen­tative of Massachusetts until 1787. On May 15, 1786 he accepted the Chair of Congress upon the resignation of John Ramsay and the absence of President John Hancock.

Gorham was the antithesis of his predecessor Richard Henry Lee as he was conservative in gov­ernment and many history textbooks claim that he was “monarchy inclined.” According to the Library of Congress: “Historians were once fascinated with the idea of monarchical tendencies in the United States, seizing upon a number of statements and rhetorical flourishes gleaned from the correspondence of several founding fathers. As [Rufus] King and his col­league Nathaniel Gorham had been linked with such sentiments, Edmund C. Burnett discussed the issue at this point in his edition of congressional correspondence, explaining that ‘King’s remark is one among many indications that the idea of estab­lishing a monarchy in America was in circulation at that time, although perhaps only in whispers.’ Burnett, Letters, 8:459n.3.”

The research, however, indicates these claims to be unfounded especially of President Gorham who played a major role in framing the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1779. He also chaired, on frequent occasions, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and signed the final document. The chief sources cited in this thesis can be found in Richard Krauel’s, “Prince Henry of Prussia and the Regency of the United States, 1786.

Forgotten U.S. Capitols 1774-1789 Nathaniel Gorham’s Massachusetts Broadside ordering a State Constitutional Convention stating that “More than two-thirds of the towns … think it proper to have a new Constitution or form of Government and are of the opinion that the same ought to be formed by a convention of Delegates.” This Broadside was Delegate Gorham’s as evidence by the docket and the penning of his name on the verso.

Nathaniel Gorham, in 1786, was considered by many delegates an esteemed veteran of the United States in Congress Assembled serving 1782, 1783, and now in 1786. The year of his Presidency, 1786, had been the strangest session in the Articles of Confederation’s Congress since its incep­tion in 1781.