Road to Liberty: Thomas Stone | The White House Founders Museum | PragerU

Thomas Stone was born in 1743, in Charles County, Maryland, to a wealthy planter family. After completing preparatory studies in classics, he pursued law in Annapolis under Thomas Johnson, who would become Maryland's first state governor.

Admitted to the Maryland bar in 1764, Stone opened a practice in Frederick, Maryland. His political career began in 1774, when he was elected from Charles County to the first Maryland Convention. Stone was initially cautious on the question of independence, even as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, expressing in April 1776 his "wish to conduct affairs so that a just and honorable reconciliation should take place, or that we should be pretty unanimous in a resolution to fight it out for Independence. The proper way to effect this is not to move too quick."

Of course, a near-unanimous "resolution to fight" did pass, and Stone signed his name for the cause of Independence. He then served as a Maryland state senator. While in the Congress, he was a member of the committee that framed the Articles of Confederation in 1777.

In 1787, he was elected to attend the Constitutional Convention, but declined due to his wife's failing health. Margaret Stone died in June that year, and Stone soon followed on October 5, 1787, in Alexandria, Virginia, at the age of 44, succumbing to what many believed was a devastating heartbreak.

This video is a part of the Road to Liberty Exhibit for The Founders Museum at the White House. Watch the full series here 👉

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