ose a case, now. Suppose you had a farm of
50 acres, and your title was disputed, and there was a farm of 5,000
acres joined to you that belonged to a man of learning, and his title
was involved in the same difficulty: would you not be glad to have him
for your friend, rather than to stand alone in the dispute? Well, the
case is the same. These lawyers, these moneyed men, these men of
learning, are all embarked in the same cause with us, and we must all
sink or swim together. Shall we throw the Constitution overboard because
it does not please us all alike? Suppose two or three of you had been at
the pains to break up a piece of rough land and sow it with wheat: would
you let it lie waste because you could not agree what sort of a fence to
make? Would it not be better to put up a fence that did not please every
one's fancy, rather than keep disputing about it until the wild beasts
came in and devoured the crop? Some gentlemen say, Don't be in a hurry;
take time to consider. I say, There is a time to sow and a time to reap.
We sowed our seed when we sent men to the Federal Convention, now is the
time to reap the fruit of our labour; and if we do not do it now, I am
afraid we shall never have another opportunity."

[Sidenote: Attitude of Samuel Adams.]

It may be doubted whether all the eloquence of Fisher Ames could have
stated the case more forcibly than it was put by this plain farmer from
the Berkshire hills. Upon Ames, with King, Parsons, Bowdoin, and Strong,
fell the principal work in defending the Constitution. For the first two
weeks, Samuel Adams scarcely opened his mouth, but listened with anxious
care to everything that was said on either side. The convention was so
evenly divided that there could be no doubt that his single voice would
decide the result. Every one eagerly awaited his opinion. In the debate
on the two years' term of members of Congress, he had asked Caleb
Strong the reason why the Federal Convention had decided upon so long a
term; and when it was explained as a necessary compromise between the
views of so many delegates, he replied, "I am satisfied." "Will Mr.
Adams kindly say that again?" asked one of the members. "I am
satisfied," he repeated; and not another word was said on the subject in
all those weeks. So profound was the faith of this intelligent and
skeptical and independent people in the sound judgment and unswerving
integrity of the Father of the Revolution! As the weeks went by, an