reduction of the minimum rate of representation in the House of Representatives from 40,000 to 30,000, made on the suggestion of Washington. Resolutions submitting the Constitution, and an address to Congress to be signed by the President, were agreed to. On the final vote the States present were unanimous, viz.: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Single delegates were present from New York and Maryland, but they could not cast the votes of those States. 173. SIGNING AND ADJOURNMENT.-Monday, September 17, the Convention met for the last time. The Constitution had been engrossed and was ready to be signed. Only fortytwo of the fifty-five members who had attended were present, and three of these had declared themselves in opposition. In the hope that the signatures of all might be secured, a form that made the signers merely witnesses to what had been done, and did not declare their approval had been adopted. "Done in Convention by unanimous consent of the States present, the 17th day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, and of the independence of America the twelfth. In witness whereunto we have hereunto subscribed our names." But the three members refused to sign even with this ambiguous form. So the thirty-nine men signed, and the Convention adjourned sine die. 174. THE THREE COMPROMISES.-The history of these compromises is of the greatest interest. It reveals some of the difficulties attending constituting a federal government, and particularly a federal republic, involving, as it does, the adjustment of two jurisdictions. Secondly, it shows the great skill with which, in the present case, this problem was solved. And, thirdly, it is a good illustration of the political genius of the English-speaking people, who never press an abstract principle to an extreme, but always consult the facts of history. The first and third com promises have been denounced as compromises of a moral question. Slavery then existed in most of the States; the Convention could not abolish it, even if such were its wish; and the members generally thought it as proper a subject for compromise as any other. So far as we can now see, without these compromises no constitution would have been made, and the American Union would have gone to pieces. Furthermore, they were made at different stages of the Convention's progress as the subjects were reached. 175. A SECOND CONVENTION PROPOSED.-The last few days of the Convention, the idea of calling a second convention got afloat. The Constitution provided for its own amendment after it should go into effect, but this did not satisfy the men who brought forward this proposition. They insisted that it should be amended before going into effect, or at least that an opportunity for amendment should be given. Governor Randolph twice made that motion, and said he would vote for the Constitution if the motion were carried. His second motion was in these words: "That amendments to the plan might be offered by the State conventions that were to be called to ratify, which should be submitted to, and finally decided by another general Convention." Mr. Mason said in favor of this motion: "A second convention will know more of the sense of the people, and be able to provide a system more consonant to it." Mr. Pinckney replied: "Nothing but confusion and contrariety will spring from the experiment. The States will never agree in their plans, and deputies to a second convention coming together under the discordant impressions of their constituents, will never agree." The motion was lost by a unanimous vote. 176. THE SPIRIT OF THE CONVENTION.-The three members who refused to sign were Gerry, of Massachusetts, and Mason and Randolph, of Virginia. They had all taken an active part in the Convention, and Mason and Randolph had supported the strongest features of the Virginia plan. But now that the work was finished, and they could survey it as a whole, they seemed surprised and alarmed at the long step forward that had been taken. Randolph afterwards favored the ratification of the Constitution, but Mason and Gerry opposed it to the end. The three statesmen assigned various and conflicting reasons for their final stand, which called out a number of the signers in reply. Franklin said he expected no better constitution, and was not sure but this one was the best Gouverneur Morris had objections, but he considered the plai agreed upon the best one attainable. Hamilton said no man's ideas were more remote from the plan than his own; but, "is it possible,” he asked, "to deliberate between anarchy and convulsion on one side, and the chance of good to be expected from the plan, on the other?" All the reasons that were assigned breathed the same spirit of compromise that had marked the later stages of the Convention. How utterly the objectors failed to read the future, is shown by the prophecy of Mason, that "the dangerous power and structure of the government" would "end either in monarchy or a tyrannical aristocracy; which, he was in doubt, but one or the other he was sure." 177. JAMES MADISON.-Perhaps no statesman of the time gave the country greater service in the years 1785-1789 than Mr. Madison. He bore an able part in the discussions and movements leading to the Federal Convention. In that body, his work was of the greatest value. Furthermore, the notes that he took of the discussions are the only existing report covering the whole period of the Convention, and are of far more value than all other sources of information relating to the subject. The Constitution framed and put before the people, Mr. Madison was active in procuring its ratification. He contributed many papers to "The Federalist," and was one of the most influential members of the Virginia Convention. 178. ANECDOTE OF DR. FRANKLIN.-Mr. Madison closes his report of the debates of the Convention with this paragraph: "Whilst the last members were signing, Dr. Franklin, looking towards the President's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. 'I have,' said he, 'often and often in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President's chair without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.'"'1 1 Elliot's Debates, V., 565. 1 179. THE OFFICIAL RECORDS.-Just before adjourning, the Convention, in response to a question by its President as to the disposition to be made of the Journal and other papers, voted that they be all intrusted to him, subject to the order of Congress, if ever organized under the Constitution. March 19, 1796, Washington deposited the three manuscript volumes containing them in the State Department. CHAPTER X. THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. Re 180. THE CONSTITUTION SENT TO CONGRESS.-The Constitution reached Congress September 20, 1787, accompanied by the two resolutions and the address that the Convention had adopted. This is the first of the two resolutions: solved, That the preceding Constitution be laid before the United States in Congress assembled, and that it is the opinion of this Convention that it should afterwards be submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen in each State by the people thereof, under the recommendation of its legislature, for their assent and ratification; and that each convention assenting to and ratifying the same, should give notice thereof to the United States in Congress assembled." And this is the last paragraph of the address: "That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every State is not, perhaps, to be expected; but each will doubtless consider that, had her interest been alone consulted, the consequences might have been particularly disagreeable or injurious to others; that it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have been expected, we hope and believe; that it may promote the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish.” 181. THE ACTION OF CONGRESS.--The Articles of Confederation provided that no alteration should at any time be made in them unless it were first agreed to in Congress, and were afterwards confirmed by the legislature of every State. The |