CHAP Convention in Philadelphia, to revise the Articles of Con

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1787.

federation.

On the 14th of May, the members of the Convention met in the State House, in Philadelphia, in the same hall where the Declaration of Independence was made. Washington, who, since the war, had lived in retirement at Mount Vernon, appeared as a delegate. He was unanimously chosen President of the Convention.

The Convention resolved to sit with closed doors; not even a transcript of their minutes was permitted to be made public. The articles of the old confederation, found to be very defective, were thrown aside, and the Convention addressed itself to framing an independent constitution.

There were present about fifty delegates, representatives from eleven different States, all of whom had the confidence of their fellow-citizens, and were distinguished for their intellectual and moral worth and experience in public affairs. Some had been members of the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, some of the Continental Congress in 1774, and some were also among the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Conspicuous was the venerable Dr. Franklin, now in his eightieth year, who, thirty years before, at a convention at Albany, had proposed a plan of union for the colonies.

The various disturbances in different parts of the land had shaken the faith of many in the power of the multitude to govern themselves. Said Elbridge Gerry, in the Convention: "All the evils we experience flow from an excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are under the dupes of pretended patriots; they are daily misled into the most baleful measures of opinions."

It was necessary to have a central government, which could give security to all the States, and at the same time not conflict in its powers with their rights.

It was found very difficult to arrange satisfactorily the

THE CONSTITUTION COMPLETED.

521

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representation in the two branches of the proposed govern- CHAP ment. The smaller States were alarmed, lest their rights would be infringed upon by the overwhelming majority of 1787. members coming from the larger ones. This difficulty was removed by constituting the Senate, in which the States were represented equally without reference to their population; each being entitled to two members, while in the House of Representatives the States were to be represented in proportion to their population.

After four months of labor, during which every article was thoroughly discussed, the Constitution was finished and signed by all the members present, with the exception of three; Gerry, of Massachusetts, George Mason and Edmund Randolph, of Virginia. This result was not obtained without much discussion; at one time, so adverse were opinions that it was apprehended the Convention would dissolve, leaving its work unfinished. It was then that Franklin proposed they should choose a chaplain to open their sessions by prayer. Said he: "I have lived a long time; and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it possible that an empire can rise without his aid ?"

The Convention presented the Constitution thus framed to Congress, and that body submitted it to the people of the States for their approval or rejection.

It was a document of compromises; probably not a member of the Convention was perfectly satisfied with it. There were three prominent compromises; the first, the equal representation in the Senate, a concession to the smaller States; the second, that in the enumeration of the inhabitants three-fifths of the slaves were to be included in determining the ratio of representation in the lower house of Congress; a concession to the slaveholders;

XXXVIII.

CHAP and the third, permission, till 1808, to the States of Georgia and South Carolina, to receive slaves imported 1787. from Africa, as the delegates from those two States refused to sign the Constitution except on that condition. The great desire to secure the moral power of a unanimous vote of the members of the Convention in favor of their own work, alone obtained this concession.

13.

In less than a year after the Constitution was submitted to the people, it was adopted by all the States, except North Carolina and Rhode Island, and by them in less than two years.

This ratification of the Constitution was not brought about without a struggle. The subject was discussed in conventions and in the legislatures, and in the newspapers. The States were for a time unwilling to resign any of their sovereignty to a Federal or Central government.

Many elaborate essays, collectively known as the Federalist, were written by Alexander Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, in favor of its adoption. These essays had an immense influence upon the leading minds of the country; and these in turn greatly influenced the popular will.

It shows the practical wisdom of those who framed the Constitution, that in the application of its principles for almost three quarters of a century, it has been found necessary to charge or modify only very few of its articles.

While the Convention which framed the Constitution was in session in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress in July New York passed a bill "for the government of the Territory north-west of the Ohio." That region had been ceded to the United States by the States of Massachusetts, Connec ticut, New York and Virginia. In this bill were introduced provisions securing the exercise of religious freedom, and for the encouragement of schools, and also the proviso that "there shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude

ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATIONS.

in said territory, otherwise than in punishment for crime." CHAP The region south of the Ohio was to be afterward regulated. Three years before Thomas Jefferson had intro- 1784. duced a bill, and urged its passage with all his influence, to exclude slavery not only from the territory then held by the United States, but from all which should thereafter be ceded to Congress by the respective States. This bill failed by only a few votes.

The people, though thus engaged in moulding their political institutions, did not neglect to conform their systems of ecclesiastical government to the new order of things. The Revolution had changed the relation of the religious denominations to the State. In New England, Congregationalism was the established religion, and every citizen was required to aid in the support of some church. In all the southern colonies the Episcopal Church was equally favored, and partially so in New York and New Jersey. Only in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware, were all the Protestant sects on an equality, as to their religious rights.

The Episcopal Church was more disorganized than any other. It had hitherto been attached to the diocese of the Bishop of London, but now that authority was not recognized.

As yet there was no American bishop, and no means to obtain the consecration of any clergyman to that office, except by English bishops. Accordingly the Reverend Samuel Seabury, of Connecticut, at the request of the Episcopalians of that State, visited England to obtain ordination as a bishop. But the English bishops were prevented by law of Parliament from raising any one to that dignity, who did not take the oaths of allegiance, and acknowledge the King as head of the Church. Seabury then applied to the non-juring bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, by whom he was ordained. Some Episco

XXXVIII.

CHAP. palians, however, were not satisfied with an ordination at the hands of the Scottish bishops.

1787.

1788.

A convention of delegates, from several States, met and formed a constitution for the "Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America." After some revision this constitution was adopted by conventions in the separate States. Titles were changed in order to conform to republicanism; such as "Lord Bishop," and all such as were "descriptive of temporal power and precedency." The Liturgy for the same reason was modified. A friendly letter was addressed to the English bishops, requesting at their hands ordination of American bishops. An Act of Parliament gave the desired authority, and William White, of Philadelphia, Samuel Provost, of New York, and James Madison, of Virginia, were thus ordained. Soon after these ordinations, a General Convention ratified the constitution, and the organization of the Episcopal Church in the United States was complete.

About this time came Thomas Coke, as superintendent or bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He had been an able laborer with Wesley, by whom he was ordained to that office. This sect spread very rapidly, especially in the south; in that section of the country were a great many vacant parishes, which belonged to the Episcopal Church, numbers of whose clergymen left the country during the troubles of the Revolution. At this time the denomination did not number more than ninety preachers, and fifteen thousand members.

The institutions of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches required no change to adapt them to the new order of things.

The Presbyterians took measures to organize their Church government on a national basis. Four Synods were formed out of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. A General Assembly, composed of delegates from