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Thomas McKean was born in 1734 in New London, a township in the joint proprietorship of New Jersey/Pennsylvania. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1754. After only two years in private practice, McKean became Deputy Attorney General of Sussex County, Delaware, thus beginning forty years of public service - on county, state, and federal levels.
In 1757, McKean became a clerk to the Delaware legislature. He was accepted as a full-fledged member to the legislature in 1762. McKean served as a member of the Delaware legislature from 1762 to 1779, during which time he was also a Justice for the County Court of Common Pleas, a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, Speaker of the Delaware House of Representatives, and a member of the Continental Congress.
At the Stamp Act Congress, McKean proposed the procedure that was later used for determining representation in the Continental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation. It was McKean's suggestion to allow each colony to have one vote regardless of size and/or population. This principle of state equality remained an important consideration when American legislative leaders designed the Senate and the House of Representatives, still allowing every state equal representation in the Senate though not in the House.
An ardent supporter of American liberty, Judge McKean ignored and openly defied the British law regarding the taxation of legal papers under the Stamp Act of 1765. In fact, McKean only allowed legal documents in his courtroom that did NOT bear the British stamps, rejecting those papers that had been taxed.
In 1766, McKean added his support to the position of Delaware delegate Caesar Rodney in approving the Declaration of Independence. McKean's vote was pivotal in that the third Delaware delegate, George Read - a patriot, albeit a cautious one - had registered a "no" vote for the State of Delaware. While Read supported independence from England, he feared that the Declaration of Independence was too radical a move. However, with a two-to-one vote, Delaware joined the delegates from the other twelve states who signed the Declaration of Independence, with McKean and Rodney convincing Read to sign with them so that they were in unanimous agreement in representing Delaware on that historical document.
As Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, McKean was well acquainted with the power of the pen, contributing legal decisions that helped mold the state's legal system. He and George Reed drafted the constitution for the State of Delaware; and, as the first President of the Congress of the Confederation, McKean assisted Pennsylvania statesman John Dickinson in writing the Articles of the Confederation.
Thomas McKean spoke in support of the United States Constitution at the Pennsylvania Ratification Convention. He believed the Constitution - and publicly espoused it - to be the "best the world (had) yet seen." McKean and Read worked together to convince the people of the State of Delaware to ratify the Constitution and were successful in that endeavor. In fact, Delaware owns the position in American history as the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
In 1799, McKean resigned as Chief Justice to accept the Governorship of Pennsylvania, serving in that capacity until 1808. Governor McKean's last years were spent in private life in Philadelphia. He died on June 24, 1817.
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