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A. PROCEEDINGS/18 SEPT.
dignity to the government of the United States. [Pennsylvania Gazette,
19 September]1
On motion of Mr. Findley, Colonel Piper and Dr. Moore were
appointed to introduce the delegates to the Federal Convention, at the
time appointed for receiving their report.
Precisely at 11 o'clock, Colonel Piper and Dr. Moore introduced
His Excellency Dr. Franklin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, James
Wilson, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersol, and Governeur Morris,
esquires, the delegates to the Federal Convention, when His Excellency
addressed himself to the Speaker to the following effect: "Sir, we
have now the honor to present to this House the plan of government
for the United States, which has been determined upon by the Federal
Convention. We sincerely hope and believe that the result of the labors
of that honorable body will tend to promote the happiness and pros-
perity of this commonwealth in particular, and of the United States in
general."
Mr. Fitzsimons then stated the propriety of the report being read
by a member of the delegation and proposed the Speaker for that
purpose, who accordingly read it to the House.
[The Constitution and the accompanying documents appear at
this point.]
As soon as the Speaker had concluded, Dr. Franklin rose and
delivered a letter from the delegates to the House, which being read,
consisted of a recommendation to the legislature, "that a law should
be immediately passed vesting in the new Congress a tract of land of
ten miles square, by which that body might be induced to fix the
seat of federal government in this state-an event that must be highly
advantageous to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
The delegates having withdrawn, on motion of Mr. Findley, the
House adjourned, till tomorrow    morning at half past 9 o'clock.
[Pennsylvania Herald, 20 September]2
1. Reprinted: Pennsylvania Mercury, 21 September. For other accounts, see
Mfm:Pa. 52. By 16 October several accounts of this day's events were reprinted
sixteen times from Maine to Maryland.
2. This account was reprinted with slight variations in the Pennsylvania Packet,
21 September. Only the portion concerning a cession of land was reprinted in the
Pennsylvania Mercury, 21 September and Lancaster Zeitung, 26 September. By
22 October the House proceedings, particularly those concerning the cession of
land, were reprinted twenty times from Maine to South Carolina.
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