CHRONICLES OF THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

The experiment of a people governing themselves wisely had never been crowned with permanent success in any age of the world up to the time the American colonies dissolved their connexion with Great Britain. We should like to bestow on the individual actors in our revolutionary struggle, both in the council and in the field, the meed of praise so justly due; but the limits of an article like the present forbid. We have taken some pains to condense a variety of matter which will explain itself, without any extended comment or observation from us.

Our purpose is to show by tables the number of delegates in general convention at three noted periods in our history, viz: when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776; when the articles of confederation were entered into, 1778, and when the federal Constitution was formed in 1787:

Ten deputies did not attend the convention in 1787, among whom was PATRICK HENRY. Sixteen others who attended did not sign the Constitution; most if not all of them having returned home in despair, or from some cause which they explained to their constituents. Hence, several very interesting letters, throwing light on the proceedings of the convention, collected by Mr. ELLIOTT.

As belonging to the times we also subjoin a table showing the number of delegates in each of the State conventions called to ratify the Constitution, and the length of time they were in session, from which it may be inferred that the subject was maturely examined, even if no record had been preserved like that in Elliott's Debates:

As printed in Elliott's Debates, the Constitution does not exceed five hundred lines, as submitted to the State conventions. Most of these bodies, however, proposed amendments and bills of rights which, if adopted, would have made it ten times as lengthy. Even the little State of Rhode Island contributed two hundred and fifty lines as an appendix to the federal Constitution! Many of the States ratified with such caution, and such a multitude of liberty phrases as, at first view, to render it doubtful whether the compact was absolute or conditional.

It was natural that men going into new political relations with each other should guard their rights with vigilance. The convention at Philadelphia was occupied from 25th May until 17th September, 1787, a period of one hundred and thirteen days, in framing the Constitution. So far as disclosed in their journals, the State conventions had an aggregate of fourteen hundred and twelve delegates from counties, and sat from thirteen to one hundred and twenty-seven days, making eleven hundred and twenty-two printed pages of their proceedings, to discuss and settle the meaning of the seventeen pages of the Constitution. It may well be supposed that argument, in all its breadth and ingenuity, distinguished the occasion. Even the great PATRICK HENRY had his fears, and expressed them with an eloquence which none but himself could equal.

The State of North Carolina was so dissatisfied that she felt of Congress to know if she could squeeze into the Constitution about three hundred lines, in the shape of amendments and a declaration of rights, before she would commit herself to the new government. Here is the proof:

"STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.-In convention, August 1, 1788. "Resolved, That a declaration of rights asserting and securing from encroachments the great principles of civil and religious liberty, and the unalienable rights of the people, together with amendments to the most ambiguous and exceptionable parts of the said constitution of government, ought to be laid before Congress, and the convention of the States that shall or may be called for the purpose of amending the said constitution, for their consideration, previous to the ratification of the constitution aforesaid, on the part of the State of North Carolina.

"By order: J. HUNT, Secretary."

"SAM. JOHNSTON.

Obtaining no comfort, however, the good old State responded the next year, as follows:

"STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.-In convention.

"Whereas the general convention which met in Philadelphia, in pursuance of a recommendation of Congress, did recommend to the citizens of the United States a constitution or form of government in the following words, namely: "We the people," &c.

[Here follows the constitution of the United States, verbatim.]

"Resolved, That this convention, in behalf of the freemen, citizens, and inhabitants of the State of North Carolina, do adopt and ratify the said constitution and form of government.

"Done in convention this twenty-first day of November, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

"SAMUEL JOHNSTON President of the Convention.

"J. HUNT, JAMES TAYLOR, Secretaries.

While copying from this source we add the credentials. of a deputy to act in behalf of the State. Similar commissions were issued by the other States to all their deputies to the federal convention:

"THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.

"To the Hon. Richard Dobbs Spaight, Esq., greeting:

"Whereas our general assembly, in their late session, holden at Fayetteville, by adjournment, in the month of January last, did, by joint ballot of the senate and house of commons, elect Richard Caswell, Alexander Martin, William Richardson Davie, Richard Dobbs Spaight, and Willie Jones, esqs., deputies to attend a convention of delegates from the several United States of America, proposed to be held in the city of Philadelphia in May next, for the purpose of revising the federal Constitution.

"We do therefore, by these presents, nominate, commissionate, and appoint you, the said Richard Dobbs Spaight, one of the deputies for and in behalf of us, to meet with our other deputies at Philadelphia, on the first day of May next, and with them, or any two of them, to confer with such deputies as may have been or shall be appointed by the other States for the purposes aforesaid; to hold, exercise, and enjoy the said appointment, with all powers, authorities, and emoluments to the sanie incident and belonging, or in anywise appertaining, you conforming in every instance to the act of our said assembly under which you are appointed.

"Witness, Richard Caswell, esq., our governor, captain general and commander-in-chief, under his hand and our great seal, at Kinsten, the 14th day of April, in the eleventh year of our independence, A. D. 1787.

"RICHARD CASWELL.

As a matter of curiosity, rather than of any solid importance, we give in parallel columns a passage from the Meck

lenburg declaration of independence, adopted at Charlotte, North Carolina, May 20, 1775, and the concluding sentence of the declaration at Philadelphia, July 4, 1776:

*Dr. Brevard, 1775.

"To the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor."

Mr. Jefferson, 1776.

"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

This similarity of phrase led to a charge of plagiarism against Mr. Jefferson, to support which a pamphlet was circulated, without seriously injuring the sage of Monticello, who, even if he had seen the Charlotte declaration, was at liberty to use the same expressions, because nothing else would answer as well. In no other point do the two declarations resemble, except in spirit, which was common to all patriots of that day.

It is melancholy to reflect on the tragical death of Governor SPAIGHT. He was killed in a duel with the Hon. JOHN STANLY, in 1802, at the fourth exchange of shots. Mr. STANLY was a gifted, bold, and eloquent man-was a representative in Congress from North Carolina in 1801 and in 1809. He was stricken with paralysis in debate, while speaker of the house of commons, in 1827, and lingered in a helpless condition until his death, August 3, 1833. The Hon. EDWARD STANLY is one of his sons.

One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (the Hon. BUTTON GWINNETT, of Georgia) also perished in the same manner, under his own challenge to General LACHLAN MCINTOSH, May 27, 1777.

While on this painful subject, the loss of public benefactors by the code of honor, (as it is with doubtful propriety called,) we cannot pass over the noblest victim of them all. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, the bosom friend of WASHINGTON, the only signer of the federal Constitution from the State of New York, fell in single combat with AARON BURR, July 11, 1804, "on the same spot where, a short time previously, his eldest son had been killed in a duel."†

Although we make no attempt to mention all or even any considerable number of the great men of the revolution, yet we consider it eminently due, as a double honor to their memories, to state the fact, that FRANKLIN, R. MORRIS, CLYMER, WILSON, SHERMAN, and READ, attached their signatures to the Declaration in 1776, and to the Constitution of the

* Wheeler's History of North Carolina, vol. 1, page 69.

† American Encyclopedia, vol. 6, page 153.

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United States in 1787. Great and felicitous as these names appear, the heart saddens at the fate of ROBERT MORRIS. He was the great financier of the revolution, possessed immense wealth, and often borrowed money on his own individual credit for the use of Congress, when a pledge of the public faith was insufficient. In value his services ranked next to those of General WASHINGTON, for while one commanded in the field the other fed and clothed the army. MORRIS was offered the Treasury Department in 1789, which he declined, and being requested by General WASHINGTON to name a suitable man for the office, he recommended HAMILTON.

Writing from Paris, in 1782, Dr. FRANKLIN* said to Mr. MORRIS:

"Your conduct, activity, and address, as financier and provider for the exigencies of the State, is much admired and praised here, its good consequences being so evident, particularly with regard to the rising credit of our country and

the value of bills.

After a long career of prosperity and triumphs for the public good, the illustrious patriot, ROBERT MORRIS, suffered reverses of fortune in his old age from land speculations, and died in penury, May 8, 1806, in his seventy-third year.

We pass to another topic, to which we shall mainly confine our remarks. As a basis we annex the following table, showing the appointment of representatives in Congress from each State under different enumerations: