Caleb Strong
Encyclopedia : C : CA : CAL : Caleb Strong
Caleb Strong (January 9, 1745 - November 7, 1819) was a U.S. political figure. Born in 1745 in Northampton, Massachusetts, he was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Massachusetts in 1780. He also served as the governor of Massachusetts between 1800 and 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816.
Strong was elected as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution. Illness forced him to return to Massachusetts before the work was completed, so he did not sign the document. However, he supported its adoption by the state's ratifying convention.
Governor Strong opposed the War of 1812 to the point of refusing to call out the State militia to support the war. A strong Federalist, he nonetheless adhered to the States rights view that only the Governor had to power to call out the state militia, not the U.S. President. This stance, combined with a shortage of volunteer soldiers, forced Andrew Jackson and commander Oliver Hazard Perry to allow colored men into the ranks of the Federal army.
Strong died in 1819 in Northampton, Massachusetts, and is buried at the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton, Massachusetts.
In World War II the United States liberty ship SS Caleb Strong was named in his honor.
|- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align: center;"
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.