Upon arrival in Westmoreland County, Findley was almost immediately elected to the Council of Censors. On this Council, which was to decide whether the radical Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 needed revision, he established himself as an effective supporter of what the "best people" considered the radical position in state politics.[citation needed]
In the following years Findley served in the Ninth through Twelfth General Assemblies and on the Supreme Executive Council. Findley was an early exponent of a political style in which candidates openly expressed their interests and proposals, as opposed to the "disinterested" style of governance many Founding Fathers envisioned.[5] In 1786 he was a critic of the Bank of North America, the nation's first central bank; he accused Robert Morris, the Continental Congress's Superintendent of Finance, of using the bank to enrich himself personally.[5] Findley also publicized the statement of fellow legislator Hugh Henry Brackenridge that "the people are fools" for opposing the bank, contributing to Brackenridge's defeat in the subsequent election.[6]
Findley was also a major opposition voice[7][8] in the Pennsylvania convention that ratified the federal Constitution and was a signer of the Minority Dissent.[9] Findley was regularly mocked during convention's debates by gentry who attempted to portray him an uneducated ' country hick '. At one point, Constitutional Convention delegate James Wilson and Pennsylvania Chief Justice Thomas McKean disputed one of Findley's statements about jury trials in Sweden; Findley returned two days later with William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England and demonstrated that his reference had been correct.[10]
Findley was one of the leaders in the convention that, in 1789, wrote a new Constitution for Pennsylvania. As an Anti-Federalist, Findley wrote papers under the name of "An Officer of the Late Continental Army".
After declining nomination to the Sixth Congress, he was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate because he allowed his name to be placed on the local ticket to rally western support for Thomas McKean's campaign for governor.
Elected to the Eighth Congress, he served through the Fourteenth, the turbulent years of the Burrconspiracy, the embargo, and the War of 1812 as a strong supporter of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He was known as "The Venerable Findley," and because he was the senior representative in years of service, he was in 1811 designated "Father of the House", the first man to be awarded that honorary title.[11] He died in his home along the Loyalhanna Creek on April 5, 1821, and is buried in Latrobe's Unity Cemetery.
Wood, Gordon S. (2009). Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815. Oxford University Press.
Further reading
Caldwell, John. William Findley: A Politician in Pennsylvania, 1783–1791. Gig Harbor, WA: Red Apple Publishing, 2000.
Caldwell, John. William Findley From West of the Mountains, 1783–1791. Gig Harbor, WA: Red Apple Publishing, 2000.
Caldwell, John. William Findley From West of the Mountains, 1791–1821. Gig Harbor, WA: Red Apple Publishing, 2002
Eicholz, Hans L. "A Closer Look at 'Modernity:' The Case of William Findley and Trans-Appalachian Political Thought". In W. Thomas Mainwaring, ed., The Whiskey Rebellion and the Trans-Appalachian Frontier. Washington, Pennsylvania: Washington and Jefferson College, 1994, 57–72.
Ewing, Robert (1919). "Life and Times of William Findley". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 2: 240–51.
Schramm, Callista (1937). "William Findley in Pennsylvania Politics". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 20: 31–40.
