Statesman; born in
Caroline county, Va., Sept. 9, 1721; was a leading member of the
Virginia House of Burgesses when the
Revolutionary War broke out, and, as a conservative patriot, was opposed to radical
Patrick Henry.
He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1774-75, and president of the
Virginia conventions of December, 1775, and May, 1776, the latter instructing their representatives in Congress to vote for independence.
Mr. Pendleton had been a member of the committee of correspondence before the war, and during the earlier period of the war was one of the committee of safety, which controlled the military and naval affairs of
Virginia.
On the organization of the State Senate he was appointed speaker of the Assembly, and with
Wythe and
Jefferson revised the colonial laws.
He was president of both the court of chancery and court of appeals, and in 1788 he presided over the convention that ratified the national Constitution, of which he was a powerful champion.
In 1789
Washington appointed him judge of the United States District Court of
Virginia, but he declined it; and when war with
France seemed imminent, in 1798, he protested against hostilities towards a sister republic.
He died in
Richmond, Va., Oct. 23, 1803.
