Daniel Carroll
Only two Catholics signed the Constitution of the United States, Thomas Fitzsimons of Pennsylvania and Daniel Carroll of Maryland. Daniel Carroll was from the wealthy and influential Carroll family of Maryland, his cousin Charles Carroll signed the Declaration of Independence and his younger brother John would go on to found Georgetown University, as well as become the first Roman Catholic Bishop in the United States. Carroll was a wealthy slaveholder in Maryland whose support of the American Revolution was based on financial grounds more than political opposition to the King and Parliament. Until 1776 there was little Carroll could do politically.
Until the Maryland Constitution was adopted in 1776 the colony’s laws prohibited Catholics from holding public office. In this Maryland was no different from the twelve other English colonies. Maryland’s Constitution was thus an important step forward towards freedom of religion in the United States, and once enacted Carroll entered public service in the state Senate. Maryland contributed some of the best trained and equipped units of the Continental Army, and Carroll was instrumental in developing financial support for them in the Senate. Carroll signed the Articles of Confederation for Maryland but blocked their enforcement.
Carroll wanted the states claiming to hold land west of the Appalachian Mountains to relinquish them to the Confederation, which had little power to force them to do so. That any of the states could ignore the enforcement of the Confederation Congress’s acts demonstrates just how ineffective an instrument that document was. When the call for a convention to amend and strengthen the Articles was issued, Carroll was immediately supportive of the idea and he was selected as a delegate from Maryland. Carroll arrived at the convention convinced that the states must be subordinate to the new federal government and worked tirelessly towards achieving that goal.
Nonetheless Carroll lobbied hard to ensure the rights of the people were represented in the new government. He opposed the election of the President by the state legislatures or by the Congress. He believed that the states should be subordinate to the central government, which in turn should be subordinate to the people, and he was a strong supporter of the checks and balances which ensure that no one branch of government can dominate the other two. Carroll was the author of the clause which closes the Constitution ensuring that powers not specifically assigned to the federal government are reserved to the states or to the people.
Carroll was elected to the First Congress and served on the three man committee which surveyed the area of the new federal city to be built on land acquired from Maryland and Virginia. He later returned to the Maryland Senate and to business interests, including the improvement of infrastructure connecting the states, necessary for commerce. He supported both the National Road and the construction of canals connecting the rivers which ran to the sea with those inland. He died in 1796, after several years of failing health.