dence in this very room, his years had rounded the
full period of threescore and ten. Eleven years more had passed, and he
had been spared to see the noble aim of his life accomplished. There was
still, no doubt, a chance of failure, but hope now reigned in the old
man's breast. On the back of the president's quaint black armchair there
was emblazoned a half-sun, brilliant with its gilded rays. As the
meeting was breaking up and Washington arose, Franklin pointed to the
chair, and made it the text for prophecy. "As I have been sitting here
all these weeks," said he, "I have often wondered whether yonder sun is
rising or setting. But now I know that it is a rising sun!"

CHAPTER VII.

CROWNING THE WORK.

[Sidenote: The new Constitution is laid before Congress and submitted
forthwith to the several states for ratification.]

It was on the 17th of September, 1787, that the Federal Convention broke
up. For most of the delegates there was a long and tedious journey home
before they could meet their fellow-citizens and explain what had been
done at Philadelphia during this anxious summer. Not so, however, with
Benjamin Franklin and the Pennsylvania delegation. At eleven o'clock on
the next morning, radiant with delight at seeing one of the most
cherished purposes of his life so nearly accomplished, the venerable
philosopher, attended by his seven colleagues, presented to the
legislature of Pennsylvania a copy of the Federal Constitution, and in a
brief but pithy speech, characterized by his usual homely wisdom, begged
for it their most favourable consideration. His words fell upon willing
ears, for nowhere was the disgust at the prevailing anarchy greater than
in Philadelphia. But still it was not quite in order for the assembly to
act upon the matter until word should come from the Continental
Congress. Since its ignominious flight to Princeton, four years ago,
that migratory body had not honoured Philadelphia with its presence. It
had once flitted as far south as Annapolis, but at length had chosen for
its abiding-place the city of New York, where it was now in session. To
Congress the new Constitution must be submitted before it was in order
for the several states to take action upon it. On the 20th of September
the draft of the Constitution was laid before Congress, accompanied by a
letter from Washington. The forces of the opposition were promptly
mustered. At their head was Richard Henry Lee, who eleven years