government, in opposition to which all their passions were enlisted.

{1788}

At length, the conventions of eleven states[40] assented to and
ratified the constitution; and the preparatory measures were taken for
bringing it into operation.

[Footnote 40: North Carolina and Rhode Island did not at
first accept the constitution, and New York was apparently
dragged into it by a repugnance to being excluded from the
confederacy. By the convention of that state a circular
letter was addressed to the several states in the union
inviting them to unite in calling a general convention to
revise the constitution. Its friends seem to have been
persuaded that this measure, if successful, would
effectually destroy the edifice they had erected with so
much labour, before an experience of its advantages could
dissipate the prejudices which had been excited against it.
"You will have seen," said one of its most effective
advocates, "the circular letter from the convention of this
state. It has a most pernicious tendency. If an early
general convention can not be parried, it is seriously to be
feared that the system which has resisted so many direct
attacks, may be at length successfully undermined by its
enemies. It is now perhaps to be wished that Rhode Island
may not accede until this new crisis of danger be over; some
think it would be better if even New York had held out until
the operation of the government could have dissipated the
fears which artifice had created, and the attempts resulting
from those fears and artifices."]

From the moment the public was possessed of this new arrangement of
their political system, the attention of all was directed to General
Washington as the first President of the United States. He alone was
believed to fill so pre-eminent a station in the public opinion, that
he might be placed at the head of the nation without exciting envy;
and he alone possessed the confidence of the people in so unlimited a
degree that under his auspices, the friends of the government might
hope to see it introduced with a degree of firmness which would enable
it to resist the open assaults, and secret plots of its numerous
adversaries. By all who knew him, fears were entertained that his
preference for private life would prevail over the wishes of the
public; and, soon after the adoption of the const