The clamor raised about a bill of rights was pronounced idle. Were the States sovereign, doling out to the people such rights as the people could exact, the need of such a bill would indeed have been great. But they were not sovereign, they possessed no power not given. What reason was there then for the people to demand that they should be left secure in the enjoyment of their sovereign, undelegated powers?

From the character of the constitution as a whole the debate drifted off to the particular articles, and objection after objection was raised by the opposition. The Vice-President was a needless and dangerous officer. The Senate ought not to make treaties, nor try impeachments, nor have a share in the appointing power; nor its members be elected for so long a term as six years. Representation in the house was too small. The power of Congress was too great. It could borrow money, keep up a standing army, lay taxes, deprive electors of a fair choice of their representatives, call out the militia, and make all laws necessary to put these powers into execution. The President ought not to have the pardoning power. Trial by jury was not secure. It seemed, indeed, as if the whole plan of government was, in the opinion of the opposition, bad. This Mr. Findley protested was not the case. The opposition had no wish to reject it. A few amendments would remove every objection, and these Mr. Whitehill presented to the convention on the morning of the twelfth of December. They were fifteen in number, and are remark-able as containing the substance of the ten amendments after-1 wards added to the constitution. Similarity so marked cannot be accidental. There is much reason, therefore, to believe that when Madison, in 1789, drew up the amendments for the House of Representatives, he made use of those offered by the minority of the convention of Pennsylvania.

But the majority of the convention had no wish to use them, and, when the motion was made to adjourn to some future day, that the people might consider them, it was voted down by forty-six to twenty-three. By precisely the same vote, the constitution, just as it came from the body that framed it, was ratified a few minutes later. Without waiting to sign,

the convention, joined by the President and Vice-President of the State, the constables, the sub-sheriffs, the high-sheriff, the judges, the members of council, and all the state dignitaries, both civil and military, went in procession the following day to the State House, and there read the ratification to a great gathering of the people. On Saturday the 15th of December the convention adjourned.

And now the minority published their address and reasons of dissent. It was not, they said, till the close of the late glorious contest that any fault was found with the articles of confederation. Then the wants which, during the war, had been supplied by the virtue and patriotism of the people, began to be apparent. Then it was felt on every hand that it would be well for the union to enlarge the powers of Congress, and suffer that body to regulate commerce, and lay and collect duties throughout the United States. With this in view, Virginia proposed and Congress urged a convention of deputies to revise and amend the articles of confederation, and make them suited to the needs of the union. So hastily and eagerly did the States comply, that their legislatures, without the slightest authority, without ever stopping to consult the people, appointed delegates, and the conclave met at Philadelphia. To it came a few men of character, some more noted for cunning than patriotism, and some who had always been enemies to the independence of America.

The doors were shut, secrecy was enjoined, and what then took place no man could tell. But it was well known that the sittings were far from harmonious. Some left the dark conclave before the instrument was framed. Some had the firmness to withhold their hands when it was framed. But it came forth in spite of them, and was not many hours old when the meaner tools of despotism were carrying petitions about for the people to sign, praying the legislature to call a convention to consider it. The convention was called by a legislature made up in part of members who had been dragged to their seats and kept there against their wills, and so early a day was set for the election of delegates that many a voter did not know of it till it was passed. Others kept

7

away from the polls because they were ignorant of the new plan; some because they disliked it, and some because they did not think the convention legally called. Of the seventy thousand freemen entitled to vote but thirteen thousand voted.

Having given a history of the two conventions, the addressers repeated the fifteen amendments they offered in convention, and summed up their reasons of dissent under three general heads. They dissented because so wide a domain could never be governed save by a confederation of republics having all the powers of internal government, but united in the management of their general and foreign concerns. They dissented because the powers vested in Congress would break down the sovereignty of the States, and put up on their ruins a consolidated government, "an iron-handed despotism." They dissented because there was no bill of rights securing trial by jury, habeas corpus, liberty of conscience, and freedom of the press. Twenty-one of the twenty-three minority

signed the address.

An examination of this list reveals the fact that the little band of malcontents was made up of all the delegates from the counties of Cumberland, Berks, Westmoreland, Bedford, Dauphin, Fayette, half of those from Washington, half from Franklin, and John Whitehill, of Lancaster. The reason is plain. The constitution proposed for the United States

was in many ways the direct opposite of the constitution of Law Lect at

Pennsylvania. The legislature of Pennsylvania consisted of a single house. The legislature of the United States was to consist of two houses. The President of Pennsylvania was chosen by the Assembly. The President of the United States was chosen by special electors. The constitution of Pennsylvania had a bill of rights, provided for a body of censors to meet once each seven years to approve or disapprove the acts of the legislature; for a council to advise the President; for annual elections; for rotation in office, all of which were quite unknown to the proposed constitution for the United States. But the Pennsylvania constitution of 1776 was the work of the patriot party; of this party a very

considerable number were Presbyterians; and the great Presbyterian counties were Cumberland, Westmoreland, Bedford, Dauphin and Fayette. In opposing the new plan these men simply opposed a system of government which, if adopted, would force them to undo a piece of work done with great labor, and beheld with great pride and satisfaction. Every 'man, therefore, who gave his vote for the ratification of the national constitution, pronounced his state constitution to be bad in form, and this its supporters were not prepared to do. By these men, the refusal of the convention to accept the amendments they offered was not regarded as ending the matter. They went back to the counties that sent them more determined than ever but failed to gain to their side the great body of Presbyterians.

Elsewhere the action of the convention was heartily approved. At Lancaster the delegates were received with bell ringing and discharge of cannon. At Easton the delegates from Northampton county held a meeting, and issued an address to their constituents giving nine reasons why they voted for ratification. The state of the union required a concentration of the powers of government for general purposes. The proposed constitution provided for such a concentration in the best form that could be agreed on. Under it commerce would be restored to its former prosperity, agriculture would flourish, taxes be cut down, manufactures and the arts would be recognized, and the public creditors duly paid. There would be no more bloody contests between neighboring States over boundaries and territories; no more paper money and tender laws; no more partial laws of any kind. The delegates from Northampton were sure their constituents could not fail to approve so good a plan of government, and in this belief they were not mistaken.

While these things were happening in Pennsylvania, the convention of New Jersey met and ratified the constitution without one dissenting voice. Delaware had already done so, and these two with Pennsylvania made one-third of the number of States necessary to put the new plan into force. This continued success the Federalists of Carlisle determined

should be duly celebrated, and chose the last Wednesday in December as the day, secured a cannon, and made a great pile of barrels for a bonfire on the public square; but no sooner were they assembled than a mob of Antifederalists attacked them, drove them from the ground, spiked the cannon, burned a copy of the constitution, and went off shouting "Damnation to the forty-six; long live the virtuous twentythree." On the morrow the Federalists, fully armed, again met and carried out their celebration. When they had finished, the Antifederalists in turn appeared and burned two effigies, labelled, "Thomas M'Kean, Chief Justice," and "James Wilson, the Caledonian." Twenty of the rioters were in time arrested, but were speedily set at liberty by men chosen for that purpose by the companies of militia.

Thus stirred up, the excitement spread over all the antifederal counties. The country beyond the mountains was wholly in the hands of the Antifederalists. While the legislature was in session in September, a petition against the state convention was passed round in the two counties of Franklin and Cumberland, and soon bore four thousand signatures. So overwhelming was the number of the Antifederalists that the few Federalists did not think it worth while to make any demonstration at all. In Fayette county, at a great county meeting, but two supporters of the constitution appeared; in Bedford county, in the mountains, the number was estimated at twenty; in Huntingdon county not above thirty; in Dauphin, in the middle country, less than one hundred; in Berks, where the taxable inhabitants were nearly five thousand, the number of active Federalists was put down at fifty*. Through all these counties associations and societies were formed for the purpose of opposing the constitution, and committees of correspondence appointed to secure unity of action. Such action was greatly needed, for their chances of success grew smaller and smaller every day. In January came news that Georgia had ratified unanimously, and hard upon this the news that Connecticut had accepted the constitution by a vote of more than three to one. February 6th

* "Centinel," Letter 18.