Ellsworth motion to name the government the United States

Background. The Federal Convention convened in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787, initially to revise the Articles of Confederation, though proponents such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton sought a new frame of government. Oliver Ellsworth attended as a Connecticut delegate alongside Roger Sherman and William Samuel Johnson.

The Attributed Motion of June 20. A legacy record states that on June 20, 1787, Ellsworth moved that the government be called the United States. No supplied passage mentions this motion, its date, or its content; the passages confirm only Ellsworth's presence at the Convention and his role as a framer of the Constitution. The claim therefore remains unverified and is preserved solely for lineage.

Context within the Convention. Three weeks before the attributed motion, on May 30, 1787, Edmund Randolph had moved to create a national government with a supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary. A naming proposal would have fallen within these early structural debates, presided over by George Washington, whom delegates had elected convention president.