es, and in
some towns there were riots. In Providence the Federalists prepared a
barbecue of oxen roasted whole, but a mob of farmers, led by three
members of the state legislature, attempted to disperse them, and were
with some difficulty pacified. In Albany the Antifederalists publicly
burned the Constitution, whereupon a party of Federalists brought out
another copy of it, and nailed it to the top of a pole, which they
planted defiantly amid the ashes of the fire their opponents had made.
Out of these proceedings there grew a riot, in which knives were drawn,
stones were thrown, and blood was shed.

[Sidenote: The struggle in New York.]

[Sidenote: The "Federalist."]

Such incidents might have served to remind one that the end had not yet
come. The difficulties were not yet surmounted, and the rejoicing was in
some respects premature. It was now settled that the new government was
to go into operation, but how it was going to be able to get along
without the adhesion of New York it was not easy to see. It is true that
New York then ranked only as fifth among the states in population, but
commercially and militarily she was the centre of the Union. She not
only touched at once on the ocean and the lakes, but she separated New
England from the rest of the country. It was rightly felt that the Union
could never be cemented without this central state. So strongly were
people impressed with this feeling that some went so far as to threaten
violence. It was said that if New York did not come into the Union
peacefully and of her own accord, she should be conquered and dragged
in. That she would come in peacefully seemed at first very improbable.
When the state convention assembled at Poughkeepsie, on the 17th of
June, more than two thirds of its members were avowed Antifederalists.
At their head was the governor, George Clinton, hard-headed and
resolute, the bitterest hater of the Constitution that could be found
anywhere in the thirteen states. Foremost among his supporters were
Yates and Lansing, with Melanchthon Smith, a man familiar with political
history, and one of the ablest debaters in the country. On the
Federalist side were such eminent men as Livingston and Jay; but the
herculean task of vanquishing this great hostile majority, and
converting it by sheer dint of argument into a majority on the right
side, fell chiefly upon the shoulders of one man. But for Alexander
Hamilton the decision of New York would unqu