"The mass of the people feel the inconvenience of the present government, and ardently wish for such alterations as would remedy them. These must be effected by reason and by agreement, or by force. The convention appears to be the only mean by which to effect them peaceably. If it should not be attended by a proper weight of wisdom and character to carry into execution its propositions, we are to look to events, and to force, for a remedy. Were you not then to attend the convention, slander and malice might suggest that force would be the most agreeable mode of reform to you. When civil commotion rages, no purity of character, no services, however exalted, can afford a secure shield from the shafts of calumny. "On the other hand, the unbounded confidence the people have in your tried patriotism and wisdom, would exceedingly facilitate the adoption of any important alterations that might be proposed by a convention of which you were a member; and (as I before hinted) the president." [Sidenote: Convention at Philadelphia.] At the time and place appointed, the representatives of twelve states convened. In Rhode Island alone a spirit sufficiently hostile to every species of reform was found, to prevent the election of deputies on an occasion so generally deemed momentous. Having unanimously chosen General Washington for their president, the convention proceeded, with closed doors, to discuss the interesting and extensive subject submitted to their consideration. On the great principles which should constitute the basis of their system, not much contrariety of opinion is understood to have prevailed. But on the various and intricate modifications of those principles, an equal degree of harmony was not to be expected. More than once, there was reason to fear that the rich harvest of national felicity, which had been anticipated from the ample stock of worth collected in convention, would all be blasted by the rising of that body without effecting the object for which it was formed. At length the high importance attached to union triumphed over local interests; and, on the 17th of September, that constitution which has been alike the theme of panegyric and invective, was presented to the American public. The instrument with its accompanying resolutions was by the unanimous order of the convention, transmitted to congress in a letter subscribed by the president, in which it was said to be, "the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of their political situation rendered indispensable. [Sidenote: A form of government for the United States is submitted to the respective states, which is ratified by eleven of them.]