[1054] Ib., 317.
[1055] Elliott, ii, 40.
[1056] Harding, 48. These towns were bitterly opposed to the Constitution. Had they sent delegates, Massachusetts surely would have rejected the Constitution; for even by the aid of the deal hereafter described, there was a very small majority for the Constitution. And if Massachusetts had refused to ratify it, Virginia would, beyond the possibility of a doubt, have rejected it also. (See infra, chaps. X, XI, and XII.) And such action by Massachusetts and Virginia would, with absolute certainty, have doomed the fundamental law by which the Nation to-day exists. Thus it is that the refusal of forty-six Massachusetts towns to send representatives to the State Convention changed the destiny of the Republic.
[1057] Hill to Thatcher, Dec. 12, 1787; Hist. Mag. (2d Series), vi, 259.
[1058] Lee to Thatcher, Jan. 23, 1788; ib., 266-67.
[1059] Ib., 267.
[1060] Ib.
[1061] Bangs to Thatcher, Jan. 1, 1788; Hist. Mag. (2d Series), vi, 260.
[1062] Sewall to Thatcher, Jan. 5, 1788; Hist. Mag. (2d Series), vi, 260-61.
[1063] Savage to Thatcher, Jan. 11, 1788; ib., 264.