ing offices for the purpose of making a favorite an officer, at the expense of the people. * A TRUE WHIG.

[Cost of the Convention.]

Mr. Oswald: I am afraid we have got into a scrape by putting so many counsellors, judges, assemblymen and lawyers into our State Convention. They are spending a wonderful deal of their time and our money. I wish we had put in plain folks, not so much used to talking in public. I would not wish to hurry them, but that I think, if they do not like the Constitution proposed, they should say so at once. A week would have been time enough to talk the matter over, and then they might have taken the question. Really, Sir, public expenses are so great, trade so hampered, for want of power in Congress, produce of course so low, and living so expensive, that any needless charge is death to us, however great the sport is to them, who spend the money. I hope therefore the House will take the question very soon.† A FREEHOLDER.

Germantown Township, Dec. 4, 1787.

[A call for the question. J

Messrs. Dunlap and Claypoole: I have attended some of the debates of the convention, as well as your correspondent in this day's paper, who signs himself "One of the People."

I have listened with attention to the monotonous and pertinacious Whitehill, to the zealous Smilie, and to the candid, thoughtful Findley. On the other side of the room I have heard with conviction the clear and rational arguments of the Chief Justice, the good sense of Yeates, the fervency of Chambers, the pathos and imagination of Rush, the nervous thinking and correct eloquence of Wilson. I have heard in the gallery the whispers of approbation circulate, as true federal sentiments have been well expressed or happily introduced by the speakers; I have seen those who wished for the establishment of the proposed government return more zealous for it than before; I have seen those who went there

* Independent Gazetteer, Dec. 6, 1787. † Independent Gazetteer, Dec. 6, 1878.

undetermined depart in full decision to support it. I have enquired abroad for the opponents of the plan, and have found them almost uniformly the possessors or expectants of office, with their nearest friends and connections. I have seen the presses loaded with anti-federal compositions and the federal government almost left to defend itself. I have sought for the effect so many publications must have had on the public mind, and have almost everywhere met with confessions, that, objectionable as it might be, in the present situation of things we could not expect a better. I have seen the farmer storing his grain, the merchant suspending his enterprises, and the men of ready money hoarding up their cash, till the operation of the government should give activity and confidence to the people of this country in their dealings abroad and with each other. I have seen the landholders assemble and make an offer of territory, and I have witnessed the hopes of the manufacturers and mechanics that their offer may be accepted. I have noticed an anxiety lest Pennsylvania, often the leader, and always amongst the foremost in useful and distinguished measures, should suffer two of her weakest sisters to anticipate her laurels. I have at length heard something like murmurs, that the people of Pennsylvania should spend their time in debates, which being conducted without order, promise no certain end, in which the issue of the argument can only be guessed at from the countenance of the members, and the final vote upon the acceptance or rejection of the whole cannot possibly (for the reasons given) be influenced by this discussion on its parts; and I have heard it said, that however suitable these disquisitions might be in an academy of petty critics, or a divan of trembling slaves-where the evidence and ingenuity in one, or the exercise of freedom by the other, might consist in the dissection of a sentence, or the explanation of a synonima; yet it would be more manly, more characteristic of a convention of freemen, at once to put the question: Shall we be happy or miserable, powerful or contemptible? Shall Pennsylvania adopt or reject the Federal Government?*

Wednesday, Dec. 5th.

Yours, E. G. O.

*Pennsylvania Packet, Dec. 8, 1787.

[Reply to James Wilson.]

Mr. Oswald: In your paper of the 16th instant, some person under the signature of Puff or Froth, I don't now recollect which, came forward in the shape of a critique, and demonstrated it very clearly that a gallon of air would be necessary to support him, while he carped at a grammatical error, which he pretended to have discovered in Mr. J— Wh-h-ll's speech in Convention. But Mr. Oswald, how many gallons of air would it require to support this Dr. Froth, while he described all the errors of a different complexion made by members on his side of the house-I will mention a few, such as when J-s W-ls-n, Esquire, declared that German or Irish indented servants, imported, were not articles of commerce, and therefore not subject to the tax of 10 dollars each -but that freemen were properly articles of commerce, (as well as blacks).

That Virgina and most of the other States had no bills of rights, and therefore we ought not to have one; and added he, "some member said there would be no harm in having one, but it is my opinion that there would be much harm in it, and it would also put it out of the power of our independent judges to show their firmness in checking the lawmakers" (who appoints them, and who have the power to impeach and discard them).

Now, Mr. Oswald, I thought it was a bill of rights ascertaining the bounds of the legislative power, that gave the judges a right to say when the laws were unconstitutional, and therefore void.

The bill of rights of our Constitution, Mr. W-ls-n declared had been of great hurt. Do not you remember that it was the only thing saved you, when Judge Jeffries called you to his bar;-it was jury trial and the declaration of the freedom of the press which checked him, and saved you and the press from being crushed, at that time. But Jefferies hopes soon to be Judge and Jury. He and Mr. W-1s-n Saturday in Convention interrupted a member while speaking, and declared that jury trial never existed in Sweden or in any other country, out of Great Britain and America. O Truth, where

art thou gone? Fled from the councils of America! Are we thus to be fooled out of the transcendant privilege of freemen, trial by jury of our peers (or equals), and in the place of it be tried by corrupted judges?

It is thus that lawyers are allowed to rob us of our dearest privileges to serve themselves? Law will become a bottomless pit, indeed, if our right worshipful judgeships are allowed to re-examine and judge of facts as well as law, in their continental courts. * ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

[Conduct of the Majority of the Convention.]

Mr. Oswald: I am a sober, orderly citizen, not wise enough to frame governments, nor weak enough to act contrary to my conscience. If any thing could induce me to oppose the new Constitution, it would be the indecent, supercilious carriage of its advocates towards its opponents, which I take to indicate the spirit of the system itself. Every insult offered to the minority is offered to the State, which they, as well as the majority, represent; and it surely will not be denied that for general reasoning the friends do not muster stronger than the enemies of this plan. I declare to you, Sir, that the management of this business has shaken the faith of

* Independent Gazetteer, Dec. 11, 1787. † Independent Gazetteer, Dec. 11, 1787.

A FEDERALIST. †

CHAPTER VI.

AFTER THE CONVENTION ROSE.

[While the members of the Convention were eating their dinner and drinking their toasts at Epple's Tavern, some enthusiastic Federalists were busy in one of the ship-yards preparing a novel method of celebrating their victory. By evening all was ready, and what then took place was afterwards described in the Gazetteer.]

"On the evening of the public rejoicing for the ratification ✔of the Federal Constitution, a number of ship carpenters and sailors conducted a boat, on a wagon drawn by five horses, through the city, to the great amusement of many thousand spectators. On their way through the different streets, they frequently threw a sounding line and cried out, "Three and twenty fathom-foul bottom," and in other places, "Six and forty fathom-sound bottom-safe anchorage," alluding to the numbers that composed the minority and majority of the late Convention of Pennsylvania which ratified the Federal Constitution."

[If the rejoicing Federalists supposed that all opposition to their new plan would stop, they were greatly mistaken. The Antifederalists were far from humbled, and, till well into the autumn of 1788, the Antifederal presses of the State teemed with assaults on the Constitution. First in time and importance came]

THE ADDRESS AND REASONS OF DISSENT OF THE MINORITY OF THE CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS. *

It was not until after the termination of the late glorious contest, which made the people of the United States an independent nation, that any defect was discovered in the present *From The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, Dec. 18, 1787.