of them to be less interesting than
their past. Washington and Madison became Presidents of the United
States; Elbridge Gerry became Vice-President; Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney and Rufus King became candidates for the Presidency, and Jared
Ingersoll, Rufus King, and John Langdon candidates for the
Vice-Presidency; Hamilton became Secretary of the Treasury; Madison,
Secretary of State; Randolph, Attorney-General and Secretary of State,
and James McHenry, a Secretary of War; Ellsworth and Rutledge became
Chief-Justices; Wilson and John Blair rose to the Supreme bench;
Gouverneur Morris, and Ellsworth, and Charles C. Pinckney, and Gerry,
and William Davie became Ministers abroad."[19]

The long list of distinguished men who took part in the deliberations of
that body is noteworthy, however, for the absence of such names as
Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry and other
democratic leaders of that time. The Federal Convention assembled in
Philadelphia only eleven years after the Declaration of Independence was
signed, yet only six of the fifty-six men who signed that document were
among its members.[20] Conservatism and thorough distrust of popular
government characterized throughout the proceedings of that convention.
Democracy, Elbridge Gerry thought, was the worst of all political
evils.[21] Edmund Randolph observed that in tracing the political evils
of this country to their origin, "every man [in the Convention] had
found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy."[22] These views
appear to reflect the general opinion of that body. Still they realized
that it was not the part of wisdom to give public expression to this
contempt for democracy. The doors were closed to the public and the
utmost secrecy maintained with regard to the proceedings. Members were
not allowed to communicate with any one outside of that body concerning
the matters therein discussed, nor were they permitted, except by a vote
of the Convention, to copy anything from the journals.[23]

It must be borne in mind that the Convention was called for the purpose
of proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation. The delegates
were not authorized to frame a new constitution. Their appointment
contemplated changes which were to perfect the Articles of Confederation
without destroying the general form of government which they
established. The resolution of Congress of February 21, 1787, which
authorized the Federal Convent