The map facing this page shows that the Federalist towns were the financial centres of the time in Connecticut. The representatives of the “shaded” towns in the state convention voted against the Constitution; those from the partially “shaded” towns were divided; and those from the plain white towns voted for the Constitution.[[648]] Each black dot represents a holder of one 6 per cent assumed debt bond.[[649]] It is apparent at a glance that there must have been some relation between security holding and the “sentiments,” to use Madison’s term,[[650]] of the respective proprietors. Hartford alone had almost as many security holders as all of the Anti-Federalist towns combined. It would be interesting to have a map showing the distribution of all other forms of wealth as well as the assumed debt.

What a more searching study would produce were we able to carry the contest back into the town meetings that chose the delegates cannot be conjectured. But the local evidence—even that which was recorded—has largely disappeared or would require years of search to unearth. Moreover, the tax system in Connecticut at the time was not such as to yield the data most needed for such an inquiry, for “loans to the state and the United States were exempt from assessment.”[[651]] Whether this grew out of a public policy or the fact that the chief politicians of the day were large holders of securities—evidenced by the records in the Treasury Department at Washington—is also a matter for conjecture. No documents, no history.

Nevertheless, as in Massachusetts, the public securities formed a dynamic element in the movement for ratification. One hundred and twenty-eight members of the Connecticut convention voted in favor of the new system. Of these men at least sixty-five held public paper in some amount (ranging from a few dollars to tens of thousands) previous to or about the time of the adoption of the Constitution. They are given here in alphabetical order with the names of the towns which they represented.

Nehemiah Beardsley, New Fairfield

Philip B. Bradley, Ridgefield

Hezekiah Brainerd, Haddam

Daniel Brinsmade, Washington

Gideon Buckingham, Milford

Thaddeus Burr, Fairfield

Charles Burrall, Canaan