en, who broke into
their lodgings and dragged them off to the state house, where they were
forcibly held down in their seats, growling and muttering curses. This
made a quorum, and a state convention was immediately appointed for the
20th of November. Before these proceedings were concluded, an
express-rider brought the news from New York that Congress had submitted
the Constitution to the judgment of the states.

And now there ensued such a war of pamphlets, broadsides, caricatures,
squibs, and stump-speeches, as had never yet been seen in America. Cato
and Aristides, Cincinnatus and Plain Truth, were out in full force. What
was the matter with the old confederation? asked the Antifederalists.
Had it not conducted a glorious and triumphant war? Had it not set us
free from the oppression of England? That there was some trouble now in
the country could not be denied, but all would be right if people would
only curb their extravagance, wear homespun clothes, and obey the laws.
There was government enough in the country already. This Philadelphia
convention ought to be distrusted. Some of its members, such as John
Dickinson and Robert Morris, had opposed the Declaration of
Independence. Pretty men these, to be offering us a new government! You
might be sure there was a British cloven foot in it somewhere. Their
convention had sat four months with closed doors, as if they were afraid
to let people know what they were about. Nobody could tell what secret
conspiracies against American liberty might not have been hatched in all
that time. One thing was sure: the convention had squabbled. Some
members had gone home in a huff; others had refused to sign a document
fraught with untold evils to the country. And now came James Wilson,
making speeches in behalf of this precious Constitution, and trying to
pull the wool over people's eyes and persuade them to adopt it. Who was
James Wilson, any way? A Scotchman, a countryman of Lord Bute, a born
aristocrat, a snob, a patrician, Jimmy, James de Caledonia. Beware of
any form of government defended by such a man. And as to the other
members of the convention, there was Roger Sherman, who had signed the
articles of confederation, and was now trying to undo his own work. What
confidence could be placed in a man who did not know his own mind any
better than that? Then there were Hamilton and Madison, mere boys; and
Franklin, an old dotard, a man in his second childhood. And as to
Washingto