The Convention appointed a committee to investigate (ib.); it found that the charge was based on extremely vague rumor. (Harding, 103.) There the matter appears to have been dropped.
More than eighty years afterward, Henry B. Dawson, the editor of the Historical Magazine, a scholar of standing, asserted, personally, in his publication: "It is very well known—indeed, the son and biographer of one of the great leaders of the Constitutionalists in New York has frankly admitted to us—that enough members of the Massachusetts Convention were bought with money from New York to secure the ratification of the new system by Massachusetts." (Hist. Mag. (2d Series), vi, 268, footnote, referring to Savage's letter to Thatcher telling of the charge in the Boston Gazette.)
Professor Harding discredits the whole story. (Harding, 101-05.) It is referred to only as showing the excited and suspicious temper of the times.
[1102] Langdon to Washington, Feb. 28, 1788; Cor. Rev.: Sparks, iv, 212. "At least three fourths of the property, and a large proportion of the abilities in the State are friendly to the proposed system. The opposition here, as has generally been the case, was composed of men who were involved in debt." (Lear to Washington, June 22, 1788; ib., 224-25.)
[1103] Lear to Washington, June 2, 1788; Cor. Rev.: Sparks, iv, 220.
[1104] Langdon to King, Feb. 23, 1788; King, i, 321-22.
[1105] Madison to Pendleton, March 3, 1788 (Writings: Hunt, v, 110), and to Washington, March 3, 1788 (ib., 111); and to Randolph; March 3, 1788 (ib., 113).
[1106] Langdon to King, May 6, 1788; King, i, 328.
[1107] Washington to Lafayette, Feb. 7, 1788; Writings: Ford, xi, 220.
[1108] Marshall, ii, 127.