_Boston Gazette_ declared that the supporters of the
Constitution consisted generally of the noble Order of Cincinnatus,
holders of public securities, bankers, and lawyers: "these with their
train of dependents form the Aristocratick combination." Over against
this should be put the remark of Alexander Hamilton: that the new
Constitution encountered the "opposition of all men much in debt, who
will not wish to see a government established, one object of which is to
restrain the means of cheating creditors." According to John Adams, the
Constitution was "the work of the commercial people in the seaport
towns, of the planters of the slaveholding states, of the officers of
the Revolutionary army, and the property-holders everywhere."

From November to the following July the campaign continued. Delaware,
New Jersey, and Georgia ratified the Constitution unanimously;
Connecticut by a majority of three to one; and Pennsylvania, by a
majority of two to one. But there is reason to believe that these
majorities in the ratifying conventions did not reflect public opinion
accurately. Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina followed
hesitatingly, each proposing amendments to the Constitution. Toward the
end of June the ninth State, New Hampshire, threw in her lot with the
majority; and on the heels of this news came the intelligence that the
Old Dominion had also ratified. The Constitution was now the law of the
land. In the stanch Federal city of Philadelphia, the Fourth of July was
celebrated with great rejoicing, for in the parlance of the time the
sloop Anarchy was ashore on Union Rock, the old scow Confederation had
put to sea, and the good ship Federal Constitution had come into port
bringing a cargo of Public Credit and Prosperity.

[Map: Distribution of Votes in Ratification of the Constitution
The Southern States, 1787-1790 (Based on the map by Dr. O. G. Libby)]

But until New York ratified the Constitution this rejoicing was
premature. Geographically New York was a pivotal State. A union without
this member was not worthy of the name. The task of the Federalists was
here most difficult. Fully two thirds of the convention were at first
opposed to the Constitution. The leadership of the Federalists fell to
Hamilton. Together with James Madison and John Jay, he contributed to
the newspapers a series of essays in advocacy of the Constitution,
which, under the title _The Federalist_, have become a classic in our
politic