disheartened when he left for New
York, at the end of May. The Convention was chaos, but he could
accomplish nothing more than what he hoped he might have done; the
matter was now best in the hands of Madison and Gouverneur Morris, and
his practice could no longer be neglected.

But although he returned to a mass of work,--for he handled most of the
great cases of the time,--he managed to mingle daily with the crowd at
Fraunces' and the coffee-houses, in order to gauge the public sentiment
regarding the proposed change of government, and to see the leading men
constantly. On the whole, he wrote to Washington, he found that both in
the Jerseys and in New York there was "an astonishing revolution for the
better in the minds of the people."

Washington replied from the depths of his disgust:--

... In a word I almost despair of seeing a favourable issue to the
proceedings of the Convention, and do, therefore, repent having any
agency in the business. The men who oppose a strong and energetic
government are, in my opinion, narrow-minded politicians, or are
under the influence of local views. The apprehension expressed by
them that the _people_ will not accede to the form proposed, is the
_ostensible_, not the real cause of the opposition; but admitting
that _present_ sentiment is as they prognosticate, the question
ought nevertheless to be, is it, or is it not, the best form? If
the former, recommend it, and it will assuredly obtain, maugre
opposition. I am sorry you went away; I wish you were back.

To Washington, who presided over that difficult assemblage with a
superhuman dignity, to Hamilton who breathed his strong soul into it, to
Madison who manipulated it, to Gouverneur Morris, whose sarcastic
eloquent tongue brought it to reason again and again, and whose
accomplished pen gave the Constitution its literary form, belong the
highest honours of the Convention; although the services rendered by
Roger Sherman, Rufus King, James Wilson, R.R. Livingston, and Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney entitle them to far more than polite mention.

When Hamilton signed the Constitution, on the 17th of September, it was
by no means strong enough to suit him, but as it was incomparably better
than the Articles of Confederation, which had carried the country to the
edge of anarchy and ruin, and was regarded by a formidable number of
people and their leaders as so strong as to be a men