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Thomas McKean, 1734-1817
One of the most powerful politicians of his generation, Thomas McKean was a multiple officeholder in both Delaware and Pennsylvania, serving in the latter state as chief justice for twenty-two years and as governor for three terms. "The violent raging rebel McKean" -- Delaware's enthusiastic signer of the Declaration of Independence -- also served on the Continental Congress. He was its president when General George Washington marched to Yorktown and, a diligent attendee, was on hand from the first meeting in September 1774 until the preliminary articles of peace with England were signed in 1782.
Contentious, vain and hot-tempered-and notorious for shifting his political alliances -- McKean was an easy target for the scurrilous press of the 1790s that taunted, "he beats his wife and she beats him, and when she is drunk she throws his wig in the fire."
Attributed to Charles Willson Peale, after 1787 |