REFUSALS TO SIGN.

593

cient security for the rights and interests of the people, and, late as was the moment for admitting amendments, he thought this of so much consequence that it should be adopted. The change was unanimously made.1

Randolph announced that he could not sign, and Gerry gave many reasons for withholding his name. Hamilton earnestly urged all to sign, and Blount, who, it was known, disapproved of some propositions, relieved the anxiety of many members by assuring the House that in the form proposed he should sign without scruple. Ingersoll, whose opinions had great weight, explained the legal consequence of signing, as neither an attestation of fact or a pledge that the signers would support the Constitution, but merely a recognition of what, all things considered, was the most eligible. Franklin's motion, incorporating the ambiguous form of signature, which Morris had submitted was carried almost unanimously. Butler and General Pinckney voted against it, not because they opposed the Constitution but because they disfavored so equivocal a form.

Washington first affixed his name as President of the Convention and delegate from Virginia. The twelve States then came forward, in their geographical order, beginning with New Hampshire, the order in which they had voted all through the session, and thirty-eight more delegates signed their names. Pennsylvania and Delaware were the only States all of whose delegates, who had been chosen to the Convention signed. The signatures were attested by William Jackson, the Secretary, who, on that day, in accordance with his instructions, handed over

1 By erasure and interlineation, see Constitution, Article I, Section 2, Clause 3. The changes are indicated in the facsimile reprint of the Constitution inserted in Carson's One Hundreth Anniversary of the Framing of the Constitution, Vol. I. The word "forty" was erased from the engrossed copy and “thirty" put in its place, as is duly attested on the original parchment.

594

THE RECORDS OF THE CONVENTION.

to Washington, the journals and papers of the Convention, but not until he had assiduously followed out a suggestion made by King, that the papers that were not deposited in the custody of the President, should be destroyed; for if these were in any way made public, it was feared that they who wished to prevent the adoption of the plan would make bad use of them. Before leaving the hall in the State House in which the work had been done, Jackson carefully collected the copies of resolutions, the notes, the questions, the letters, the briefs, the remarks and scraps of paper which he gathered from the floor and from his own table and burned them. Fourteen members refused to sign.1 Hamilton signed for New York, although this State since the retirement of Yates and Lansing had not been represented so that it could vote.2

As the delegates came forward and affixed their names, and especially as those from the South filed to the Secretary's table, Franklin, beaming with hope and happiness, pointed to a figure carved on the back of Washington's chair, and whispered to a few members near him, that painters had often found it difficult to distinguish a rising

1 Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry and Caleb Strong; Connecticut, Oliver Ellsworth; New Jersey, William C. Houston, who retired from the convention on account of illness; Maryland, John Francis Mercer and Luther Martin; Virginia, Edmund Randolph, George Mason and George Wythe (absent the last day, it is said, on account of sickness in his family) and James McClurg; North Carolina, Alexander Martin and William R. Davie; Georgia, William Pierce and William Housetown.

2 Following the signatures and on the fifth sheet of the parchment is written the resolution of the Convention respecting the submission of the Constitution to Congress and subsequently by Congress to the States. The resolution is preceded by this heading: In Convention, Monday, September 17, 1787, present the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut (Mr. Hamilton from New York), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

PUBLICATION OF THE

CONSTITUTION.

595

from a setting sun. Often, he said, in the course of the session and the vicissitudes of his hopes and fears as to its issue, he had looked at the figure without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting, but now at last he had the happiness to know that it was a rising and not a setting sun.1

On the following morning, Major Jackson set out for New York to lay before Congress the Constitution, the resolution of the Convention and the accompanying circular letter, but before he had been three hours on his journey, the Constitution was read to the legislature of Pennsylvania, which had been holding its session in the hall immediately above that in which the Convention had met. It appeared in the Philadelphia morning papers, the Gazetteer, the Packet and the Journal.2 Two days later it was laid before Congress, and, on the twenty-first, was published in the New York papers. The long and arduous work of the Convention was now done and the Constitution was sent forth to the country.

3

1 The piety of posterity has preserved this chair and also some other pieces of furniture used at the time, which may still be seen in the State House in which the Constitution was made. 2 September 18 and 19, 1787.

8 The enrolled Constitution thus signed consisted of five sheets of parchment neatly and legibly written; the handwriting is unknown. There are three verbal interlineations and one erasure made in conformity with the last amendment. The instrument has no title and the seven Articles, though numbered, have none. The sections, but not the clauses are also numbered. The original is preserved in a fireproof safe in the Department of State in Washington and is in the care of the Librarian and Keeper of the Rolls. The text of the Constitution reprinted from the original is given among the foot notes in Vol. III, Bk. VI, Ch. VI of the present work. A "vest pocket" edition of the Constitution, a reprint of the original with index and bibliography, is published by Eldredge & Bro., Philadelphia.