There are so many now-obscure figures in our nation’s great history that bear remembering nonetheless. One such figure is Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut.

At the Constitutional Convention, on this day in 1787,  Edmund Randolph of Virginia moved to create a “National Government” consisting of a supreme judiciary, an executive and legislative branch.

Ellsworth stood up briskly and seconded the motion but insisted that the nascent country be called “The United States” in its founding constitution, as it was a union of sovereign states which were both bound together and distinct at the same time.

E Pluribus Unum!