[410] Hamilton, Works, II. 421.
[411] See an account of him, ante, Vol. I. Book III. Chap. XIV.
[412] This was a mistake. On the 12th of September, Messrs. Gerry and Mason moved for a committee to prepare a bill of rights, but the motion was lost by an equal division of the States. Elliot, V. 538.
[413] Mr. McKean, although his residence was at Philadelphia, represented the lower counties of Delaware in Congress from 1774 to 1783. In 1777 he was made Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, being at the same time a member of Congress and President of the State of Delaware.
[414] The Constitution was ratified by a vote of 46 to 23.
[415] This was at a meeting held at Harrisburg, September 3d, 1788.
[416] The opposite parties were so much excited against each other, and the course of New Jersey was viewed with so much interest at Philadelphia among the "Federalists," that a story found currency and belief there, to the effect that Clinton, the Governor of New York, had offered the State of New Jersey, through one of its influential citizens, one half of the impost revenue of New York, if she would reject the Constitution. The preposterous character of such a proposition stamps the rumor with gross improbability. But its circulation evinces the anxiety with which the course of New Jersey was regarded in the neighboring States, and it is certain that the opposition in New York made great efforts to influence it.
[417] The situation of Georgia was brought to the notice of Washington immediately after his first inauguration as President of the United States, in an Address presented to him by the legislature of the State, in which they set forth two prominent subjects on which they looked for protection to "the influence and power of the Union." One of these was the exposure of their frontier to the ravages of the Creek Indians. The other was the escape of their slaves into Florida, whence they had never been able to reclaim them. Both of these matters received the early attention of Washington's administration.
[418] He stated the annual expenditure of the government, including the interest on the foreign debt, at £260,000 (currency), and then showed that, in the three States of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, £160,000 or £180,000 per annum had been raised by impost.
[419] Fragments only of the debates in the convention of Connecticut are known to be preserved. They may be found in the second volume of Elliot's collection.