{{Short description|American politician}} {{similar names|William Findlay (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name =William Findley | image =William Findley.jpg | image_size =200px | caption = | state = Pennsylvania | constituency = {{ushr|PA|8|C}} (1803–1813)<br>{{ushr|PA|11|C}} (1813–1817) | term_start = March 4, 1803 | term_end = March 3, 1817 | preceded = John Stewart | succeeded = David Marchand | constituency3 = {{ushr|PA|8|C}} (1791–1793)<br>{{ushr|PA|AL|C}} (seat H) (1793–1795)<br>{{ushr|PA|11|C}} (1795–1799) | term_start3 = March 4, 1791 | term_end3 = March 3, 1799 | preceded3 = ''district established'' | succeeded3 = John Smilie | office6 = Member of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania<br />from Westmoreland County | term_start6 = November 25, 1789 | term_end6 = December 20, 1790 | preceded6 = John Proctor | succeeded6 = ''Position dissolved'' | birth_date =1741 | birth_place =Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1821|4|4|1741|1|1}} | death_place =Greensburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. | party =Anti-Administration<br>Republican | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession =Politician, farmer | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''William Findley''' (c. 1741 – April 4, 1821) was an Irish-born farmer and politician from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He served in both houses of the state legislature and represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House from 1791 until 1799 and from 1803 to 1817. By the end of his career, he was the longest serving member of the House, and was the first to hold the honorary title "Father of the House". Findley was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1789.<ref>{{Cite web|title=William Findley|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=William+Findley|access-date=14 December 2020|website=American Philosophical Society Member History|publisher=American Philosophical Society}}</ref>
==Early years==
William Findley was born in Ulster, Ireland and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1763. In 1768, he bought a farm in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,<ref name=W218>Wood, p. 218</ref> where he married and started a family. Findley also worked for a time as a weaver.<ref>Wood, p. 17</ref> He owned slaves as well.<ref>{{Citation|title=Congress slaveowners|date=2022-01-19|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/congress-slaveowners-names-list/|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2022-07-11}}</ref> In the American Revolution he served on the Cumberland County Committee of Observation, and enlisted as a private in the local militia, and rose to the rank of captain of the Seventh Company of the Eighth Battalion of Cumberland County Associators. In 1783 he moved his family across the Allegheny Mountains to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.
==Public life== 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|date=March 2011}}
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.<ref name=W221/> 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.<ref name=W221>Wood, p. 221</ref> 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.<ref name=W219>Wood, pp. 219–20</ref>
Findley was also a major opposition voice<ref>[http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch8s17.html The Founders' Constitution]</ref><ref>[http://www.juntosociety.com/i_documents/wfpha.htm The Junto Society]</ref> in the Pennsylvania convention that ratified the federal Constitution and was a signer of the Minority Dissent.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/bdsdcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(bdsdccc0401)) Library of Congress: ''The Address and reasons of dissent of the minority of the convention, of the state of Pennsylvania, to their constituents.'']</ref> 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.<ref>Wood, p. 222</ref>
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 serving in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, he was elected to the Second Congress from the district west of the mountains in 1791, after being an unsuccessful candidate for the prior Congress in 1788.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/8g84mn39v |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=elections.lib.tufts.edu}}</ref> William Findley served in the Second through the Fifth congresses. A Jeffersonian Republican, Findley opposed the financial plans of Federalist Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and supported the cause of states' rights.<ref name=W223 /> As a voice of reason, in 1794 he helped to calm the passions of the Whiskey Insurrection.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}} Unlike many Democratic-Republicans, he opposed slavery.<ref name=W223 />
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 Burr conspiracy, 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.<ref name=W223>Wood, p. 223</ref> He died in his home along the Loyalhanna Creek on April 5, 1821, and is buried in Latrobe's Unity Cemetery.
==Writings== * ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RXsFAAAAQAAJ History of the Insurrection in the Four Western Counties of Pennsylvania in the Year M.DCC.XCIV (1794): With a Recital of the Circumstances Specially Connected Therewith, and an Historical Review of the Previous Situation of the Country]''. Philadelphia: Samuel Smith, 1796. * ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVc_AAAAIAAJ Observations on the Two Sons of Oil]''. Pittsburgh: Engles, 1812.
==References== {{Reflist}}
=== Bibliography === * 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. * {{Cite journal | last1 = Ewing | first1 = Robert | year = 1919 | title = Life and Times of William Findley | journal = Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine | volume = 2 | pages = 240–51 }} * {{Cite journal | last1 = Schramm | first1 = Callista | year = 1937 | title = William Findley in Pennsylvania Politics | journal = Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine | volume = 20 | pages = 31–40 }}
==External links== {{CongBio|F000124|William Findley}} * [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/finck-finlayson.html The Political Graveyard] * [http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=847 Explore Pennsylvania History]
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before=John Proctor | title= Member of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania representing Westmoreland County | years= November 25, 1789 – December 20, 1790 | after=Position dissolved }} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state= Pennsylvania | district= 8 | before= ''District created'' | after= ''District eliminated'' | years= March 4, 1791 – March 3, 1793 }} {{US House succession box | state= Pennsylvania | district= AL | before= ''District created'' | after= ''District eliminated'' | years= March 4, 1793 – March 3, 1795 | alongside= Fitzsimons, Muhlenberg, Kittera, Hartley, Scott, Armstrong, Muhlenberg, Gregg, Hiester, Irvine, Smilie & Montgomery }} {{US House succession box | state=Pennsylvania | district=11 | before= ''District created'' | after=John Smilie | years= March 4, 1795 – March 3, 1799 }} {{US House succession box | state=Pennsylvania | district=8 | before=John Stewart | after=William Piper | years= March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1813 }} {{US House succession box | state=Pennsylvania | district=11 | before=Abner Lacock | after=David Marchand | years= March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1817 }} {{s-end}} {{Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania}} {{Whiskey Rebellion}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Findley, William}} Category:1740s births Category:1821 deaths Category:People from Ulster Category:Farmers from Pennsylvania Category:Irish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:Anti-Administration Party United States representatives from Pennsylvania Category:Democratic-Republican Party United States representatives from Pennsylvania Category:Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Category:Pennsylvania state senators Category:Politicians from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:American militia officers Category:Pennsylvania militiamen in the American Revolution Category:People of the Whiskey Rebellion Category:United States representatives who owned slaves Category:19th-century United States representatives Category:18th-century United States representatives Category:Candidates in the 1788–1789 United States elections