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((More citations needed|date=June 2022))
((short description|American Founding Father, politician, Anti-Federalist (1748-1826)))
((for|the Christian reformer|Martin Luther))
((Infobox person
| name          = <!-- use common name/article title -->
| image         =LutherMartinBig.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = Portrait of Luther Martin
| birth_name    = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date    = ((Birth date|1748|2|20))
| birth_place   = 
| death_date    = ((Death date and age|1826|7|10|1748|2|20))
| death_place   = 
| nationality   = 
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = 
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
))

'''Luther Martin'''  (February 20, 1748,  [[New Brunswick, New Jersey]] – July 10, 1826, [[New York City|New York, New York]])<ref name=ABDML>((cite book|title=A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789|volume=2: I-Z|last1=Papenfuse|first1=Edward C.|last2=Day|first2=Alan F.|last3=Jordan|first3=David W.|last4=Stiverson|first4=Gregory A.|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|pages=577–578|url=https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000800/000875/pdf/lutherbio.pdf))</ref> was a [[Founding Father of the United States]], framer of the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]], politician, lawyer, and slave owner. Martin was a delegate from [[Maryland]] to the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] in 1787, but did not sign the Constitution, having left the convention early because he felt the document as proposed violated [[states' rights]].  In the months following the convention, he was a leading [[Anti-Federalism|Anti-Federalist]], along with [[Patrick Henry]] and [[George Mason]], whose collective efforts led to the passage of the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]]. 

== Early life ==
Martin was an early advocate of [[American Revolution|American independence]] from [[Great Britain]]. In the fall of 1774,  as a resident of [[Somerset County, Maryland]],<ref>((cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j6EEAAAAYAAJ&q=%22residence+in+Somerset%22&pg=PA95|title=Modern Gratitude, in Five Numbers: Addressed to Richard Raynal Keene, Esq. Concerning a Family Marriage|first=Luther|last=Martin|date=25 September 2018|access-date=25 September 2018|via=Google Books))</ref> he served on the county's patriot committee and in December attended a convention of the [[Province of Maryland]] in Annapolis, which had been called to consider the recommendations of the [[Continental Congress]]. He went to the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and graduated with honors in 1766.

==Constitutional convention==
In 1785, he was elected to the [[Congress of the Confederation|Confederation Congress]] by the [[Maryland General Assembly]], but his numerous public and private duties prevented him from traveling to Philadelphia. Martin was elected as a delegate to the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention of 1787]] in [[Philadelphia]]. When he arrived on June 9, 1787, he expressed suspicion of the secrecy rule imposed on the proceedings. He also opposed the creation of a government in which the large states would dominate the small ones, he consistently sided with the small states, helping to formulate the [[New Jersey Plan]] and voting against the [[Virginia Plan]]. On June 27, Martin spoke for more than three hours in opposition to the Virginia Plan's proposal for proportionate representation in both houses of the legislature. 

He was known for his warm opposition to the development of a strong central government. He was known for his ability to talk and as stated by William Pierce "he was educated for the Bar... and he never speaks without tiring the patience of all who hear him."

Martin believed the legislative branch should be unicameral, proposed limiting the standing army during peacetime, and argued that the Convention had exceeded its powers by creating a national government when they were sent to Philadelphia "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation."<ref>3</ref>

Martin served on the committee formed to seek a [[Connecticut Compromise|compromise on representation]], where he supported the case for equal numbers of delegates in at least one house. Before the convention closed, he became convinced that the new government would have too much power over state governments and would threaten individual rights. Failing to find any support for a [[bill of rights]], Martin and another Maryland delegate, [[John Francis Mercer]], walked out of the convention on September 3, 1787. He was one of the most vocal opponents of slavery at the Constitutional Convention, denouncing it as "an odious bargain with sin" that was "inconsistent with the principles of the revolution and dishonorable to the American character."<ref>((cite news
|first=Jill
|last=Lepore
|title=You're Fired
|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]
|date=October 28, 2019
|pages=26–31))</ref>((rp|26))

==Ratification fight==
[[File:Episode 1 key.png|border|right|thumb|300px|Martin among the [[Philadelphia Convention|Constitutional Convention]] delegates in the U.S. National Archives 1936 Faulkner Mural, located in the building's rotunda above the [[Charters of Freedom]].]]
In November 1787, in a speech to the [[Maryland House of Delegates]], he assailed the Constitutional Convention for what it was attempting to do and for how it was going about the job. He broke the pledge to secrecy under which the convention had met and informed the Maryland legislators that the convention had violated its instructions to meet "for the sole and express purpose of revising" the [[Articles of Confederation]]. Instead, convention delegates had taken it upon themselves to make a fresh start by creating an entirely new system of government. To Martin, such an effort was akin to launching a [[coup d'état]]. [[George Washington]] and [[Benjamin Franklin]] had backed the change of direction of the convention, but, Martin said, we should not "suffer our eyes to be so far dazzled by the splendor of names, as to run blindfolded into what may be our destruction."

In an address to the Maryland House of Delegates in November 1787 and in numerous newspaper articles, Martin attacked the proposed new form of government and continued to fight ratification of the Constitution through 1788. He lamented the ascension of the national government over the states and condemned what he saw as unequal representation in Congress. He owned six slaves of his own, but he opposed including slaves in determining representation (most slave owners supported counting slaves for the purposes of determining representation because this would increase the power of Slave States), and he believed that the absence of a jury in the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] gravely endangered freedom. At the convention, Martin complained, the aggrandizement of particular states and individuals often had been pursued more avidly than the welfare of the country. The assumption of the term "[[Federal government of the United States|federal]]" by those who favored a ''national'' government also irritated Martin.

Martin served as a delegate to the [[List of delegates to the Maryland State Convention (1788)|Maryland State Convention of 1788]], to vote whether Maryland should ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States.<ref name="manual">((cite book |title= Maryland Manual 1914–1915: A Compendium of Legal, Historical and Statistical Information relating to the State of Maryland |author= Secretary of State of Maryland |publisher= The Advertiser-Republican |location= [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis, Maryland, USA]] |year= 1915 ))</ref> Most of the delegates at the convention ignored Martin's warnings. In April 1788, the majority of the delegates voted to ratify the Constitution, making Maryland the seventh state to do so. In June, when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify, the required threshold had been reached, and the new Constitution took effect. Three years later, the first 10 amendments were added.

==Legal career==
In the beginning of the 19th century, Martin was defense counsel in two controversial national cases. In the first case, Martin won an acquittal for his close friend [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court Justice]] [[Samuel Chase]] in [[Impeachment of Samuel Chase|his impeachment trial in 1805]]. Two years later, Martin was one of [[Aaron Burr]]'s defense lawyers when Burr stood trial for [[treason]] in 1807.

After a record 28 consecutive years as state attorney general, Martin resigned in December 1805. In 1813, he became chief judge of the court of [[oyer and terminer]] for the City and County of Baltimore. He was reappointed attorney general of Maryland in 1818, and, in 1819, he argued Maryland's position in the landmark Supreme Court case ''[[McCulloch v. Maryland]]''. The plaintiffs were represented by [[Daniel Webster]], [[William Pinkney]] and [[William Wirt (Attorney General)|William Wirt]].

Martin's fortunes declined dramatically in his last years. Alcoholism, illness, and poverty weighed heavily on Martin, taking their toll as he aged. By the mid-1820s, he was subsisting on a special tax imposed on Maryland lawyers solely for his personal support. Eventually, he was taken in by Burr. By this time, detestation of [[Thomas Jefferson]], his one-time decentralist ally, led Martin to embrace the [[Federalist Party]], in apparent repudiation of everything he had argued for so strenuously. [[Paralysis]], which had struck in 1819, forced him to retire as Maryland's attorney general in 1822.

== Death and legacy ==
[[File:Coat of Arms of Luther Martin.svg|150px|thumb|Coat of Arms of Luther Martin]]
On July 10, 1826, at the age of 78, Martin died in Burr's home in [[New York City]] and was buried in an unmarked grave in St. John's churchyard. His death came six days after the deaths on July 4 of Jefferson and [[John Adams]].

Martin married Maria Cresap (daughter of Captain [[Michael Cresap]]) on Christmas Day 1783. Of their five children, three daughters lived to adulthood. An extended display of his eloquence and volubility appears in "Modern Gratitude in Five Numbers: Addressed to Richard Raynall Keene, Esq. Concerning a Family Marriage"<ref>((cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/moderngratitude00martgoog|quote=Modern Gratitude, in Five Numbers.|title=Modern Gratitude, in Five Numbers: Addressed to Richard Raynal Keene, Esq. Concerning a Family Marriage|first=Luther|last=Martin|date=25 September 2018|access-date=25 September 2018|via=Internet Archive))</ref> (1802)—a closely documented, fiercely argued (and partly autobiographical) denunciation of a former protégé who, against Martin's express wishes, had wooed and married Martin's daughter Eleonora.

==Notes==
((Reflist))  3 Larson, Edward J.; Winship, Michael P. (2005). ''The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison''. New York: The Modern Library. ISBN 0-8129-7517-0.

==References==
* [http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/antifederalist/lmartin5.html  Luther Martin, Friday, March 28, 1788, Number III, To the Citizens of Maryland]
* [http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_2_5s16.html  Luther Martin, Impeachment Trial of Justice Samuel Chase, Senate, 23 Feb. 1804, Annals 14:429–32, 436]
* Larson, Edward J.; Winship, Michael P. (2005). The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison. New York: The Modern Library. ISBN 0-8129-7517-0.
* [[Bill Kauffman|Kauffman, Bill]], ''Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin''.  Wilmington, DE:  [[Intercollegiate Studies Institute]], 2008; ((ISBN|978-1-933859-73-6)).
* Crawford, Alan Pell, [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122204297442161385 "Bookshelf: Uncouth, Unheeded"] ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', September 22, 2008, p. A21.
* Reynolds, William L., "Luther Martin, Maryland and the Constitution", 47 ''Maryland Law Review'' 291 (1988).
*Ellis, Joseph J., "Founding Brothers, the Revolutionary Generation", first Vintage Books edition, 2002, p.&nbsp;92.

==Further reading==
* Paul Clarkson and R. Samuel Jett, ''Luther Martin of Maryland'' (1970).
* Albert J. Beveridge, ''Life of John Marshall'' (4 vols., 1916–1919).
* Martin's role in the Constitution struggle may be traced in Max Farrand, ed., ''The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787'' (4 vols., 1911–1937; rev. ed. 1966).
*. [https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_founding_fathers_maryland.html "The Constitution of the United States: America's Founding Fathers."]  National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, 2015
* [http://teachingamericanhistory.org/static/convention/delegates/martin_l.html "Delegates to the Constitutional Convention: Luther Martin."] 2015. 
* Bill Kauffman, ''[https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Founder-Drunken-Prophet-Founders/dp/1610171489/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Founding Father, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin]'' (2008) 
* ((EB1911|wstitle=Martin, Luther|volume=17|pages=794–795))
((s-start))
((s-legal))
((succession box | before = [[James Tilghman]] | title = [[Attorney General of Maryland]] | years = 1778–1805 | after = [[William Pinkney]]))
((succession box | before = [[John Montgomery (representative)|John Montgomery]] | title = [[Attorney General of Maryland]] | years = 1818–1822 | after = [[Thomas Beale Dorsey]]))
((s-end))

==External links==
* Confounding Father: A Contrarian View of the U.S. Constitution (2020): Educational documentary series highlighting Martin's criticisms of the 1787 Constitution. Luther Martin is the "Confounding father" of the title. [https://www.nerdsmakemedia.com/confounding-father Confounding Father webpage]
((Authority control))

((DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Luther))
[[Category:Maryland Attorneys General]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Piscataway, New Jersey]]
[[Category:People from Somerset County, Maryland]]
[[Category:1748 births]]
[[Category:1826 deaths]]
[[Category:Anti-Federalists]]
[[Category:Maryland Federalists]]
[[Category:American slave owners]]
[[Category:People from colonial New Jersey]]
[[Category:Patriots in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:Founding Fathers of the United States]]

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