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Gilman of New Hampshire) wrote to a relative at home, the day after the conclusion had been reached; but it shows also that a wise spirit pervaded the body, and that they acted well on the whole, for the future good of the great nation that was to grow up, their differences of opinion modifying their mutual action in such a manner that the true mean was attained. The government was not so much centralized as to deprive the States of their proper rights, nor was the amount of authority committed to it so small as to make it present a weak front to the world that was anxiously watching its beginnings. Lord Brougham in his "Political Philosophy," said that the wonderful machinery of the United States government "is the very greatest refinement in social policy to which any state of circumstances has ever given rise, or to which any age has ever given birth."

As the close of the war did not bring peace, so the presentation of a constitution to the nation did not result in concord, for the parties that had been developed in the Convention were but indications of the differences of opinion that were now expressed upon the grand document itself. The country was immediately divided into two parties, the Federalists, who counted among them Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the anti-Federalists, called also Democrats and Republicans, among whom were men like Luther Martin, of Maryland, who declared that he was willing to reduce himself to indigence if he could prevail upon the country to "reject those chains which are forged for it," and Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, who hinted at civil war, besides Jefferson, Randolph, Henry and Mason, of Virginia.

Mr. Martin objected that a Republican form of government was suited to small countries; that delegates could not be induced to travel hundreds of miles to attend Congress, and that a central government would not be able to perform its functions properly in distant portions of a country so extensive as America. He said too, that under the form proposed, if one of the States were to take the sword against the national government, the State and every citizen acting under its authority, would be "guilty of an act of treason," while the same difficulty would arise if the citizens were to obey the general government in opposition to a State law. It was the fifteenth of September when the agreement was reached, and two days later, the Constitution, having been in the meantime properly engrossed, received the signatures of the President, George Washington, and the Secretary, William Jackson, the members signing as soon as convenient.

With as great promptness as was possible in the days when there were no telegraphs nor railways, and few post roads,* the Constitution was communicated to the people, and discussion of its terms began with much earnestness. Among the most powerful

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*As late as 1790 there were but seventy-five post-offices in the United States. In 1710 a line of posts was established from Piscataqua to Philadelphia, letters being conveyed (a portion of the way at least) as often as there were enough lodged to pay the expense." Franklin was Postmaster-general from 1753 to 1774, and he boasted that he made the office pay a revenue to the Crown. In 1775 the Provincial Congress established a line of posts from Falmouth (Portland) to Savannah, but the delivery of letters was mainly along the seaboard. In 1790 mails were carried but three times a week between New York and Boston in summer, and twice in winter. Five mails a week were carried each way between New York and Philadelphia.

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influences brought to bear upon the question was a series of papers published by Hamilton, Madison and Jay, addressed at first to the citizens of New York (and at first signed by "A Citizen," of that State), and then to the citizens of the whole United States. At the same time John Dickinson, a native of Maryland, and representative of Pennsylvania, who had written his Farmer's Letters a score of years before, now took up the pen again, and under the signature 'Fabius," called upon the people to rally for a constitutional government.

Wise sentiments prevalied, and early in December the State of Delaware by its Convention, unanimously recorded its voice in favor of the Constitution, and in a little more than half a year the requisite number of nine States had ratified the agreement, and the Constitution became the fundamental law of the land. Virginia and New York followed in June and July, 1788, and North Carolina and Rhode Island, in 1789, and 1790. When two States remained to give consent to the Constitution, Congress appointed the first Wednesday in January, 1789, for the first general election, and a month later the electors met and chose George Washington President, and John Adams Vice-President. The fourth of March was the day for the final organization of the Government by the assembling of Congress and the inauguration of the President, but there was so little interest in the matter that it was the last day of April before that ceremony could be proceeded with, the Representatives not coming together with promptness in sufficient numbers to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business until April sixth, though

there was a quorum of the House on the thirtieth of March.

Mr. Gladstone has given expression to the opinion of thinking men in saying of the Constitution that it

appears to him to be "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," and Washington, speaking when he had in immediate view the difficulties that surrounded the

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Convention, and the variety of interests that had to be accommodated, said that it appeared to him. "little short of a miracle that the delegates from so many States, different from each other in manners, circumstances and prejudices," should have united in forming a system of government so little liable to objection, and providing so many checks and barriers to the introduction of tyranny.

When we consider the history of the nation since the days of Washington, we are filled with admiration of the wisdom and forethought exhibited by the fathers of the Republic, especially as we bring back to memory the story of privation and suffering of the years just before the transaction, and remember that it was not the work of a nation in its strength, but of a people worn out by a prolonged struggle with a power vastly its superior, suffering under a disorganized currency, groaning beneath a load of public and private debts,* and united on scarcely any one of the many topics that it was obliged to discuss throughout the transaction. United when threatened by danger, the people were rent by sectional jealousies when no longer obliged to support each other against a common foe, they still had sufficient self-control to perform this great transaction in a manner that has held the admiration of the nations ever since.

*"Things in 1787," says Mr. Breck in his "Recollections," "were in a declining condition in every part of the United States, and poor Boston, the population of which was reduced to eighteen thousand, lost this year by fire several hundred houses in the south part of the town. Lafayette, accidently hearing of this calamity in Paris, wrote to my father to draw on him for three hundred pounds sterling, and distribute the amount among those who stood in need of aid."