BOOK IV.
FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.
CHAPTER I.
Preliminary Considerations.—Organization of the Convention.—Position of the States.—Rule of Investigation.
After long wanderings through the struggles, the errors, and the disappointments of the earlier years of our constitutional history, I now come to consider that memorable assembly to which they ultimately led, in order to describe the character of an era that offered the promise of a more vigorous nationality, and presented the alternative of final dissolution. How the people of the United States were enabled to seize the happy choice of one of these results, and to escape the disasters of the other, is to be learned by examining the mode in which the Constitution of the United States was framed.