There were other prominent members of the Pennsylvania delegation, but
none of them took an important part in the Convention, not even the aged
Benjamin Franklin, President of the State. At the age of eighty-one his
powers were failing, and he was so feeble that his colleague Wilson read
his speeches for him. His opinions were respected, but they do not seem
to have carried much weight.

Other noteworthy members of the Convention, though hardly in the first
class, were the handsome and charming Rufus King of Massachusetts,
one of the coming men of the country, and Nathaniel Gorham of the same
State, who was President of Congress--a man of good sense rather than of
great ability, but one whose reputation was high and whose presence was
a distinct asset to the Convention. Then, too, there were the delegates
from South Carolina: John Rutledge, the orator, General Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney of Revolutionary fame, and his cousin, Charles
Pinckney. The last named took a conspicuous part in the proceedings in
Philadelphia but, so far as the outcome was concerned, left his mark on
the Constitution mainly in minor matters and details.

The men who have been named were nearly all supporters of the plan for
a centralized government. On the other side were William Paterson of New
Jersey, who had been Attorney-General of his State for eleven years
and who was respected for his knowledge and ability; John Dickinson
of Delaware, the author of the "Farmer's Letters" and chairman of
the committee of Congress that had framed the Articles of
Confederation--able, scholarly, and sincere, but nervous, sensitive,
and conscientious to the verge of timidity--whose refusal to sign the
Declaration of Independence had cost him his popularity, though he was
afterward returned to Congress and became president successively
of Delaware and of Pennsylvania; Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, a
successful merchant, prominent in politics, and greatly interested
in questions of commerce and finance; and the Connecticut delegates,
forming an unusual trio, Dr. William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, and
Oliver Ellsworth. These men were fearful of establishing too strong a
government and were at one time or another to be found in opposition to
Madison and his supporters. They were not mere obstructionists, however,
and while not constructive in the same way that Madison and Wilson
were, they must be given some credit for the form which the Constitution
fi