Did 26 ministers sign the constitution?

[Hamlette]

seems like I saw a discussion of this here recently but a search didn't turn it up.

Rollins just said it on CNN re: Huckabee

[goddess40]

1. That's another right wing fundy lie

I don't have the proof in front of me but I've read it somewhere. I'll look and get back to you if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

[Ian David]

2. Computer says NoOOooo....

And in any case, even if it WERE true, having a bisexual sadomasochist swinger (Benjamin Franklin) sign it would negate it.

[Birthmark]

3. There were no active clergymen...

...at the Constitutional Convention. I know there was at least one retired clergyman there, but I can't remember if there were others.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Huckabee wants to be the Prime Minister

[Hamlette]

5. Ah, the answer and a source! ONE was a minister/lawyer

and not unsurprisingly, most of the signers were lawyers. Hence the president should be a lawyer?

http://www.usconstitution.net/constframedata.html

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. I wonder if that meme began because they were lawyers,

and most universities in the colonies were religiously based, like Harvard. Doesn't mean they were ministers, but they did have to take classes in theology - as well as Latin and Greek and what-all.

[enlightenment]

6. I believe a number of them had training in theology

but I don't think twenty-six were actually ministers . . . about half were lawyers (or had trained in the law).

Gordon Woods' Revolutionary Characters is a pretty good look at the founders, if you're interested.

[hvn_nbr_2]

7. Define what you mean by "sign the constitution"

The constitution wasn't "signed" in the same manner as the Declaration of Independence was signed, with John Hancocks and all that. I've never seen a copy of the constitution with signatures. The constitution was "ratified" by states (states' legislatures, I think, although it might have been by direct vote or convention in some states). I suppose the members of the Constitutional Convention "signed" it in some sense, but not in the same manner as the Declaration.

[Hamlette]

8. I think they did sign it

yes, it had to be ratified by the states (colonies) but the members of the const. convention signed it.

http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/constitution/

[TexasProgresive]

10. 39 signers

George Washington Virginia
2 George Read Delaware
3 Gunning Bedford, Jr. Delaware
4 John Dickinson³ Delaware
5 Richard Bassett Delaware - a devout Methodist and held religious meetings at Bohemia Manor and supported the church financially.
6 Jacob Broom Delaware - lay leader at the Old Swedes Church
7 James McHenry Maryland
8 Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer Maryland
9 Daniel Carroll³ Maryland - brother of a Catholic bishop
10 John Blair Virginia
11 James Madison Jr. Virginia
12 William Blount North Carolina
13 Richard Dobbs Spaight North Carolina
14 Hugh Williamson North Carolina
15 John Rutledge South Carolina
16 Charles Cotesworth Pinckney South Carolina
17 Charles Pinckney South Carolina
18 Pierce Butler South Carolina
19 William Few Georgia - devout Methodist
20 Abraham Baldwin Georgia - This one was clergy
21 John Langdon New Hampshire - devoutly religious
22 Nicholas Gilman New Hampshire
23 Nathaniel Gorham Massachusetts
24 Rufus King Massachusetts
25 William Samuel Johnson Connecticut
26 Roger Sherman¹ Connecticut
27 Alexander Hamilton New York
28 William Livingston New Jersey
29 David Brearley New Jersey
30 William Paterson New Jersey
31 Jonathan Dayton New Jersey
32 Benjamin Franklin Pennsylvania
33 Thomas Mifflin Pennsylvania
34 Robert Morris² Pennsylvania
35 George Clymer Pennsylvania
36 Thomas Fitzsimons Pennsylvania
37 Jared Ingersoll Pennsylvania
38 James Wilson Pennsylvania
39 Gouverneur Morris Pennsylvania

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

11. They were mostly deists, as am I. nt