like Martin, of Maryland, "I would reduce myself to indigence and poverty, . if on those terms only I could procure my country to reject those chains which are forged for it." The words imply the chief cause of the opposition excited throughout the nation. It was thought that the Constitution was too strong, that it exalted the powers of the government too high, and depressed the rights of the states and the people too low. This was the opinion of the anti-federalists - a name borne rather than assumed by those who had constituted, or by those who succeeded to, the federal party in the Convention. On the other side stood the federalists, the national party of the Convention, with their adherents throughout the country. But the names, like most party names, rather obscured than explained the relations of those to whom they were attached. The federalists were no advocates of a simple league between the states. Nor were the anti-federalists the opponents of such a league, but, on the contrary, its supporters. They opposed, not the union, but what they called the subjection of the states, proposed by the Constitution.

Constitu

One who acted for the Constitution at the time, tional and who wrote of it in after years, Jeremy Belwritings. knap, then a clergyman of Boston, tells a story illustrating the changing tempers of the period.

A man has a new pair of small-clothes brought home to him. "It is too small here, says he, and wants to be let out; it is too big here, and wants to be taken in. I am afraid there will be a hole there, and you must put on a patch; this button is not strong enough—you must set on another." But, taking his wife's advice, he tried on the garment, and found himself satisfied. The constitutional writings, as they may be called, of the twelvemonth succeeding the Convention, were far in advance of any preceding productions of America. The greatness of the cause called forth new powers of

mind, nay, new powers of heart. Washington's letters upon the subject overflow with emotions such as his calm demeanor had seldom betrayed before. Under the signature of Publius, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay united in the composition of the Federalist. It was a succession of essays, some profound in argument, others thrilling in appeal, and all devoted to setting forth the principles and foretelling the operations of the Constitution. Under the signature of Fabius, John Dickinson the same whose Farmer's Letters had pleaded for liberty twenty years before now pleaded for constitutional government. It was not merely the Constitution that was thus rendered clear and precious. The subject was as wide as the rights of man.

Adoption

by the states.

So strong and so wise exertion was not in vain. State after state, beginning with Delaware, (December 7, 1787,) assented to the Constitution, some by large, some by exceedingly small majorities. In most of the bodies by which the ratification was declared, a series of amendments was framed and passed. North Carolina assented only on condition of her amendments being adopted. In one of the state Conventions, New York, the recommendation of another general Convention was pressed upon the nation. New York was the scene of more decided demonstrations. The list of what can be called riots throughout the country, at the time, begins and ends with a collision between two bands of the rival parties, at Albany, and the destruction of the type in an anti-federalist newspaper establishment at New York, (July 4-27, 1788.) The project of a second Convention found favor in Pennsylvania. It was then taken up by the assembly of Virginia, but after the Convention of that state had accepted the Constitution. In seeing these states arrayed in greater or less strength against the Constitution, one is struck by their

being large states, to which the Constitution was supposed to be particularly acceptable. The other of the largest states, Massachusetts, had but a bare majority to give in favor of the Constitution. On the other hand, several of the small states were now the most earnest supporters of federalist principles. The causes of this revolution were chiefly local. But, actuated by different motives, the large states, or rather the parties in the large states, opposing the unconditional adoption of the Constitution, were unable to combine with any effect. The generous impulses and the united exertions of their opponents carried the day. Only North Carolina and Rhode Island stood aloof, and the former but partially, when Congress performed the last act preliminary to the establishment of the Constitution, by appointing days for the requisite elections and for the organization of the new government, (September 13, 1788.) Thus was completed the most extraordinary transaction of which merely human history bears transac record. A nation enfeebled, dismembered, and tion. dispirited, broken by the losses of war, by the dis

Character

of the

sensions of peace, incapacitated for its duties to its own citizens or to foreign powers, suddenly bestirred itself and prepared to create a government. It chose its representatives without conflicts or even commotions. They came together, at first only to disagree, to threaten, and to fail. But against the spells of individual selfishness and sectional passion, the inspiration of the national cause proved potent. The representatives of the nation consented to the measures on which the common honor and the common safety depended. Then the nation itself broke out in clamors. Still there was no violence, or next to none. No sort of contention arose between state and state. Each had its own differences, its own hesitations; but when each had decided for itself, it joined the rest and proclaimed the Constitution.

Sympathy for

Literature

of the revolu

tion and

The work thus achieved was not merely for the nation that achieved it. In the midst of their

mankind. doubts and their dangers, a few generous spirits, if no more, gathered fresh courage by looking beyond the limits of their country. Let Washington speak for them. "I conceive," says he, "under an energetic general government, such regulations might be made, and such measures taken, as would render this country the asylum of pacific and industrious characters from all parts of Europe,” — “a kind of asylum," as he says in another place, “for mankind." It was not, therefore, for America alone that her sons believed themselves to have labored, but for the world. It has already appeared that the writings of the soldiers and the statesmen of the period were, in many instances, as important as their actions. There the Con- were other writers, who stood conspicuous, solely or stitution. almost solely, on account of their literary exertions. Such was Thomas Paine, an Englishman, whose pamphlet of Common Sense (1776) had so great an effect that its author, though then but a few months in the country, pretended afterwards to have started the revolution. His later pamphlets, issued during the war under the name of the Crisis, were of equal power. Amongst the American authors were John Trumbull, of Connecticut, whose poem of McFingal (begun 1774) was a satire at once upon his countrymen and upon their foes; Francis Hopkinson, of Philadelphia, who, after various productions in prose and in rhyme relating to the war, came to the aid of the Constitution in an allegory entitled the New Roof; and Philip Freneau, of New York, whose verses upon the battles of the revolution were amongst the most popular and the most artistic compositions of the times. The influence of such a literature may be conceived. It spread the stirring spirit of the camp and of the council around the fireside and

within the closet, kindling sympathy, arousing action, and thus contributing largely to the national redemption.

The mu

Nor should we forget, in this connection, the insic of Bil- fluence of the first of our composers, William Billings. lings, a Bostonian. Such was his enthusiasm at once for his art and for his country, that, though almost uneducated as a musician, he moved many a spirit by his ardent strains. His melodies were heard on the march and on the battle field as well as in the choir; such as his Independence and his Columbia may be called psalms of the revolution and of the Constitution.