Great numbers in Pennsylvania are not satisfied with their constitution, apprehending that it possesses too great a proportion of democracy; and that the state is not sufficiently guarded against either the evils which may result from the prevalency of a democratic party, or the dangerous influence of demagogues. Mr. Samuel Adams has been thought, or known to have concerned himself so unduly in the business, as to have provoked some drop distant hints of an assassination. While the constitution was forming, a motion was made to add a second assembly to the legislative body, under the name of a senate or council. It was urged by several members, some for the affirmative, and some for the negative. Before the question was put, the opinion of the president, Dr. Franklin, was requested. He rose and said, that “Two assemblies appeared to him like a practice he had somewhere seen, of certain waggoners, who, when about descending a steep hill, with a heavy load, if they had four cattle, took off one pair from before, and chaining them to the hinder part of the waggon, drove them up hill; while the pair before, and the weight of the load, overbalancing the strength of those behind, drew them slowly and moderately down the hill.” The simile drew the generality of the convention into an opinion, that the doctor was for a single assembly, and it wrought accordingly. Some imagine however, that the answer was designedly that of a Delphic oracle, to be taken either way, as inclination might dictate the interpretation. “The real force of the simile was certainly misunderstood; if there is any similitude or any argument in it, it is clearly in favor of two assemblies. The weight of the load itself would roll the waggon on the oxen, and the cattle on one another, in one scene of destruction, if the forces were not divided and a balance formed; whereas by checking one power by another (as was the wish of those who were for a second assembly) all descend the hill in safety, and avoid the danger.”[33]