Boudinot, Elias
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“Let no duty, however small or seemingly of little importance, be neglected by you.”
Elias Boudinot, Oration before the Society of the Cincinnati, July 4, 1793
Who was Elias Boudinot?
• Born in Philadelphia, on May 2, 1740 and moved to Princeton, New Jersey, in 1753
• Married Hannah (Stockton) in 1762
• Member of Essex County Committee of Correspondence and helped write the Essex County [NJ] Resolutions, in response to the Intolerable Acts in 1774. “… [We] resolve and agree… That this county will most readily and cheerfully join their brethren of the other counties in this Province, in promoting such Congress [of Delegates] to be sent from each of the Colonies, in order to form a general plan of union…” Essex County Resolutions, June 11, 1774
• Delegate to the New Jersey Provincial Congress in 1775
“… I move, that some Minister of the Gospel be requested to attend this Congress every morning… in order to open the Meeting with Prayer… humbly supplicating Almighty God to preside over and direct our Councils…” Elias Bourdinot, First Provincial Congress of New Jersey, 1775
• Commissioned by General Washington as Commissary-General of Prisoners in the Continental Army in 1777, and appointed by President Washington as Director of the U.S. Mint in 1795
• New Jersey Delegate to Continental Congress in 1778 and elected President of Continental Congress in 1782
• Elected to First Congress, voted in favor of the Bill of Rights and proposed the First Thanksgiving under the U.S. Constitution in 1789. “I could not think of letting the session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining, with one voice, in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings he had poured down upon them.” Elias Boudinot, Annals of Congress, Sep 25, 1789
• View on Slavery: “… when gentlemen attempt to justify this unnatural traffic [slavery], or to prove the lawfulness of slavery, they should advert to the genius of our Government, and the principles of the Revolution… ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’” Elias Boudinot, Annals of Congress, March 22, 1790
• Died at the age of 81 on October 24, 1821