, who became
prominent after the Declaration of Independence, were Hamilton, Madison,
and Edmund Randolph. The latter was then governor of Virginia, having
succeeded Patrick Henry.

The leading speakers in the long and warm debates elicited by the
resolutions of Governor Randolph and others, were King, Gerry, and
Gorham, of Massachusetts; Hamilton and Lansing, of New York; Ellsworth,
Johnson, and Sherman, of Connecticut; Paterson, of New Jersey, who
presented a scheme counter to that of Randolph; Franklin, Wilson, and
Morris, of Pennsylvania; Dickinson, of Delaware; Martin, of Maryland;
Randolph, Madison, and Mason, of Virginia; Williamson, of North
Carolina; and the Pinckneys, of South Carolina. Such were the men with
whom Washington was associated in the contrivance and construction of a
new system of government.

"At that time," says Curtis, "the world had witnessed no such spectacle
as that of the deputies of a nation, chosen by the free action of great
communities, and assembled for the purpose of thoroughly reforming its
constitution, by the exercise and with the authority of the national
will. All that had been done, both in ancient and in modern times, in
forming, moulding, or modifying constitutions of government, bore little
resemblance to the present undertaking of the states of America. Neither
among the Greeks nor the Romans was there a precedent, and scarcely an
analogy."

The great political maxim established by the Revolution was the original
residence of all human sovereignty in the people; and the statesmen in
the federal convention had scarcely any precedent, in theory or
practice, by which they might be governed in parcelling out so much of
that sovereignty as the people of the several states should be willing
to dismiss from their local political institutions, in making a strong
and harmonious federal republic, that should be at the same time
harmless toward reserved state-rights.

Randolph's resolutions proposed: First, To correct and enlarge the
Articles of Confederation, so as to accomplish the original objects of
common defence, security of liberty, and general welfare. Secondly, To
make the right of suffrage in the national legislature proportioned to
the quotas of contribution, or to the number of free inhabitants, as
might seem best in different cases. Thirdly, To make the national
legislature consist of two branches; the members of the first to be
elected by the people of the several st