Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

When the convention proceeded to organize, Robert Morris nominated General Washington to preside, and he was unanimously elected. Standing rules were adopted, one of which was that nothing spoken during the deliberations be printed or otherwise published or made known in any manner without special permission.

The delegates to the convention had been appointed merely with a view to the revision or improvement of the old Articles of Confederation, which still held the States together as a Nation.

Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, in opening the great discussion, laid bare the defects of the Articles of Confederation, and then submitted a series of resolutions embodying the substance of a plan of government, similar to that suggested in letters of Washington, Madison and Jefferson a few months previous.

The plan in question proposed the formation of a general government, constituted as follows: The national legislature to consist of two branches, the members of the first branch to be elected by the people of the several States, and the members of the second branch to be elected by the first branch; a national chief executive to be chosen by the national legislature; and a national judiciary. Provision also was made for the admission of new states into the Union.

Mr. Randolph’s plan had many supporters, but other projects were brought forward, which occasioned angry debates for some days, and but for the timely and healing wisdom of Dr. Franklin, the mentor of the Constitution, might have broken up the body.

The debate closed September 17, and the result of the convention’s labors was the formation of a constitution establishing a national government on the principles that the affairs of the people of the United States were thenceforth to be administered not by a confederacy or mere league of friendship between the Sovereign States, but by a government, distributed into three great departments—legislative, judicial and executive.

The final draft of the Constitution was signed by all members present except Randolph and Mason, of Virginia and Gerry, of Massachusetts. Washington signed first, and as he stood, pen in hand, said: “Should the States reject this excellent Constitution, the probability is that an opportunity will never again be offered to cancel another in peace—the next will be drawn in blood.” The other members solemnly signed the historic document.

The convention, however, was not clothed with legislative power, nor was the Continental Congress, competent to accept or reject it. It was referred to the several States to be the law of the Nation when ratified by nine of the States.

It was not until the summer of 1788 that ratification of the nine States was obtained, beginning with Delaware, December 7, 1787, closely followed by Pennsylvania, five days later, December 12, 1787, some by large and some by very small majorities.

In New York the opposition resulted in serious riots. Of the thirteen original states, Rhode Island was the last to accept the Constitution, which she did in May, 1790.