d the
issue seemed still dubious, the workingmen of Boston, shipwrights and
brass-founders and other mechanics, decided to express their opinion in
a way that they knew Samuel Adams would heed. They held a meeting at the
Green Dragon tavern, passed resolutions in favour of the Constitution,
and appointed a committee, with Paul Revere at its head, to make known
these resolutions to the great popular leader. When Adams had read the
paper, he asked of Paul Revere, "How many mechanics were at the Green
Dragon when these resolutions passed?" "More, sir, than the Green Dragon
could hold." "And where were the rest, Mr. Revere?" "In the streets,
sir." "And how many were in the streets?" "More, sir, than there are
stars in the sky."

[Sidenote: Washington's fruitful suggestion.]

Between Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson there were several points of
resemblance, the chief of which was an intense faith in the sound common
sense of the mass of the people. This faith was one of the strongest
attributes of both these great men. It has usually been supposed that
it was this incident of the meeting at the Green Dragon that determined
Adams's final attitude in the state convention. Unquestionably, such a
demonstration must have had great weight with him. But at the same time
the affair was taking such a turn as would have decided him, even
without the aid of this famous mass-meeting. The long delay in the
decision of the Massachusetts convention had carried the excitement to
fever heat throughout the country. Not only were people from New
Hampshire and New York and naughty Rhode Island waiting anxiously about
Boston to catch every crumb of news they could get, but intrigues were
going on, as far south as Virginia, to influence the result. On the 21st
of January the "Boston Gazette" came out with a warning, headed by
enormous capitals with three exclamation-points: "_Bribery and
Corruption!!!_ The most diabolical plan is on foot to corrupt the
members of the convention who oppose the adoption of the new
Constitution. Large sums of money have been brought from a neighbouring
state for that purpose, contributed by the wealthy. If so, is it not
probable there may be collections for the same accursed purpose nearer
home?" No adequate investigation ever determined whether this charge was
true or not. We may hope that it was ill-founded; but our general
knowledge of human nature must compel us to admit that there was
probably a grain of tru