the convention fifteen resolutions; not as a system
of organic law, but as leading principles whereon to form a new
government.

Very soon after the commencement of the session, eleven states were
represented. New Hampshire sent delegates at the close of June, but the
Rhode Island assembly refused to elect any. Some of the most influential
men of that little commonwealth united in a letter to the convention, in
which they expressed warm sympathy with the movement.

Sixty-one delegates had been appointed at the beginning of July, but
only about fifty served in the convention.[8] These were among the most
illustrious citizens of the republic, most of whom had been
distinguished for worth of character, talents, and patriotism, during
the late struggle for the independence of the colonies. Eighteen of them
were at that time members of the continental Congress.

It is not proposed to consider in detail, nor even in a synoptical
manner, the proceedings of that convention, which occupied several hours
each day for four months. We will merely glance at the men and measures,
contemplate the result, and leave the reader to seek, in special
sources, for information concerning the important and interesting
subject of the formation of our federal constitution.[9]

[Illustration: PORTRAITS OF RUFUS KING, JOHN DICKINSON, GOUVERNEUR
MORRIS, OLIVER ELLSWORTH, AND JOHN RUTLEDGE]

Next to Washington, the venerable Doctor Franklin, then a little over
eighty-one years of age, was the most conspicuous member. Thirty-three
years before, he had submitted to a convention of colonial delegates,
held at Albany, a plan for a confederation, similar to our federal
constitution, but it was not adopted. It satisfied neither the board of
trade to whom it was submitted, nor the colonial assemblies who
discussed it. "The assemblies did not adopt it," he said, "as they all
thought there was too much _prerogative_ in it, and in England it was
judged to have too much of the _democratic_."

Dickinson, Johnson, and Rutledge, had been members of the stamp-act
Congress in 1765. The first and last had been compatriots with
Washington in the Congress of 1774, and Sherman, Livingston, Read, and
Wythe, had shared the same honors. The two latter, with Franklin,
Sherman, Gerry, Morris, Clymer, and Wilson, had signed the Declaration
of Independence. Washington, Mifflin, Hamilton, and Cotesworth Pinckney,
represented the continental army; and the younger members