The Constituent Convention, often called Federal, better called National, assembled at Philadelphia in May, 1787. It was a memorable body, whose deliberations have made an epoch in the history of government. Jefferson and John Adams were at the time abroad in the foreign service of the country, Samuel Adams was in service at home in Massachusetts, and Jay in New York; but Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Gouverneur Morris, George Mason, Wilson, Ellsworth, and Sherman appeared among its members. Washington, by their unanimous voice, became President; and, according to the rules of the Convention, on adjournment, every member stood in his place until the President had passed him. Here is a glimpse of that august body which Art may yet picture. Who would not be glad to look upon Franklin, Hamilton, and Madison standing in their places while Washington passed? * * * * * On the first day after the adoption of the rules, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, opened the great business. He began by announcing that the “Confederation” produced no security against foreign invasion; that the “Federal Government” could not suppress quarrels or rebellion; that the “Federal Government” could not defend itself against encroachments from the States; and then, insisting that the remedy must be found in “the republican principle,” concluded with a series of propositions for a National Government, with a “National” Legislature in two branches, a “National” Executive, and a “National” Judiciary, the whole crowned by the guaranty of a republican government in each State. This series of propositions was followed the next day by a simple statement in the form of a resolution, where, after setting forth the insufficiency of “a union of the States merely Federal,” or of “treaties among the States as individual sovereignties,” it was declared “that _a National Government ought to be established_, consisting of a supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary.” Better words could not have been chosen to express the prevailing aspiration for national life. After ample debate, the resolution in this form was adopted. At a later stage, in seeming deference to mistaken sensibilities, the word “National” gave place to the term “the government of the United States”; but this term equally denoted National Unity, although it did not use the words. The whole clause afterwards found a noble substitute in the Preamble to the Constitution, which is the annunciation of a National Government proceeding directly from the People, like the Declaration of Independence itself.