biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1732–94)
|
| biography:
| Legislator and Revolutionary statesman, born in Westmoreland Co, Virginia, USA. He strenuously opposed the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts. He became a leader of the radical wing of the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he was associated with Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. In June 1776 he introduced the resolution in Congress which led directly to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Later, he continued to serve in Congress, but he refused to attend the Constitutional Convention (1787) and vigorously opposed the new Constitution. As a US senator (1789–92) he worked for the ideas that were embodied in the Bill of Rights (1791). |
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