Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Plater, George

PLATER, George, statesman, b. in St. Mary's county, Md., in 1736; d. in Annapolis, Md., 10 Feb., 1792. He was graduated at William and Mary in 1753, studied law, and won reputation at the bar of Maryland. When the troubles with the mother country began he took an early and active part in resisting the encroachments of the British government upon the rights of the colonies. He was chosen a member of the Maryland convention that assembled at Annapolis, 8 May, 1776, and one of whose first public acts was the election of a committee, on 24 May, for the purpose of inviting Robert Eden, the royal governor, to vacate. On 26 May Plater was appointed one of the council of safety, a body created for the express purpose of preparing the state for the conflict that was every day growing more imminent. He represented St. Mary's county in the Maryland convention at Annapolis, 14 Aug., 1776, and on the 17th of the same month was chosen one of the committee “to prepare a declaration and charter of rights and a form of government” for the state of Maryland. From 1778 till 1781 he was a member of the Continental congress from Maryland, and he was president of the Maryland convention that, on 28 April, 1788, ratified the constitution of the United States. In 1791 he was elected governor of Maryland.