this city," and at the expense of the Convention. A lively discussion
followed. Some favored the motion because its object was to provide the
people with information concerning the Convention, others because
they had already promised papers to their constituents. But Mr. Grant
thought that it was both useless and corrupt. The delegates had come to
the Convention with economy on their lips and therefore should resist
such "useless expenditures." The motion was lost.

On the third day standing committees were announced on the following
subjects: (1) Bill of Rights; (2) Executive Department; (3) Legislative
Department; (4) Judicial Department; (5) Suffrage and Citizenship; (6)
Education and School Lands; (7) Incorporations; (8) State Boundaries;
(9) County Organization; (10) Internal Improvements; and (11) State
Debts. The Convention was now in condition to take up the great task of
drafting a code of fundamental law. On Thursday--the fourth
day--the real work of the Convention began with a report from the
Committee on State Boundaries.

Of the seventy-two members who labored in the Convention and signed the
Constitution there were twenty-one Whigs and fifty-one Democrats.
Twenty-six of the delegates were born in the South, twenty-three in the
Middle States, ten in the New England States, ten in the States of the
Old Northwest, one in Germany, one in Scotland, and one in Ireland. Of
those born in the United States thirteen were from Pennsylvania, eleven
from Virginia, nine from New York, eight from Kentucky, eight from Ohio,
six from North Carolina, six from Vermont, and one each from
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey,
Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois. The oldest member was sixty-six, the
youngest twenty-seven; while the average age of all was about forty
years. As to occupation or profession, there were forty-six farmers,
nine lawyers, five physicians, three merchants, two mechanics, two
miners, two mill-wrights, one printer, one miller, and one civil
engineer.

The Convention lost no time in procrastinating delays. Committees were
prompt in making reports. Parliamentary wranglings were infrequent.
There was no filibustering. The discussions were, as a rule, neither
long, wordy, nor tiresome. Indeed, the proceedings were throughout
conducted in a business-like manner. The Democrats were determined to
frame a Constitution in accordance with what they were pleased to
call "the true principles o