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246 Debaters. Opening of the Convention. [i787 Convention was to meet amidst widespread doubt and distrust without, and signs of discord within. But it was to be the council-seat of great men, and men of experience, filled with solemnity and a high and earnest purpose. Seventy-three delegates in all had been appointed ; eighteen of the number never attended, some of them refusing out of unfriendliness. Forty-two were present at the close of the Convention ; and, of these, thirty-nine signed the Constitution. In order to save constant repe- tition of the names of the States represented by deputies who took part in the debates, these debaters and their States will be named here ; and as the Convention was largely a struggle between the greater States and their allies on the one hand, and the smaller States on the other, the list will be made out accordingly. The greater States. Virginia: Randolph, Madison, Mason. Mas- sachusetts : Gerry, Gorham, King. Pennsylvania : Franklin, Wilson, Gouverneur Morris. Allies (more or less). North Carolina : Williamson, Spaight. South Carolina: Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, General Pinckney, Butler. Georgia: Baldwin. The smaller States. Connecticut: Sherman, Ellsworth, Johnson. New York: Hamilton, Yates, Lansing. New Jersey: Paterson, Brearly. Delaware : Dickinson, Read, Bedford. Maryland (a State more or less divided) : Martin, Mercer. New Hampshire (not present until July 23, too late to take much part in the contest between the great and the small States) : Langdon. Rhode Island declined to take part in the Convention. (iv) THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. The day fixed for opening the Convention was May 14, 1787 ; but it was not until the 25th of the month that a majority of the States appeared. On that day deputies from seven States were present; the Convention was organised accordingly, and Washington was chosen presiding officer. Ultimately twelve States, as the foregoing list shows, were represented. The presence of seven States was fixed upon as necessary for a quorum ; the voting to be as in the Confederation and the Continental Congress. The Convention was to sit, and did sit, in secret; its work was not to be undone or embarrassed by premature criticism. Virginia, which had been the most active in bringing about the Convention, now took the lead in it, and on May 29, through Governor Randolph, one of her deputies, brought forward a series of fifteen resolutions, usually called the Randolph or Virginia resolutions, proposing the working material of a constitution; and they were treated accordingly. The resolutions having been presented and explained, the Convention