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II. DEBATE OVER CONSTITUTION
A committee was unanimously chosen to form a ticket for a coun-
cillor and representatives of this county for the ensuing year.
By the unanimous order of the meeting, John Armstrong, chairman.
We can assure the public that the meeting was the most large and
respectable that has been in this place since the Declaration of In-
dependence, and that the greatest unanimity and concord prevailed
amongst the people. This has inspired the true lovers of their country
with the hope that here party spirit is extinct.
1. Pennsylvania Packet, 15 October. The Packet's report was reprinted or sum-
marized eight times in Pennsylvania by the second week in November and re-
printed ten times from New Hampshire to New York by I November. For the
national distribution of a short account of this meeting in the Pennsylvania
Gazette on 10 October, see CC:150-E.
2. Armstrong, a resident of Carlisle, had been a brigadier general in the Con-
tinental Army and had represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress.
3. Magaw, a lawyer, had commanded a battalion during the Revolution and
was prominent in military affairs in Cumberland County. His brother, Samuel,
was vice-provost of the University of Pennsylvania.
4. The reference is to the county's representatives, Robert Whitehill, Thomas
Kennedy, and David Mitchell, who had seceded from the Assembly on 28 Sep-
tember.
Philadelphia Meeting, 6 October
According to advertisement, a very great concourse of people attend-
ed at the State House on Saturday evening, to fix upon a ticket of rep-
resentatives for the ensuing General Assembly.
Mr. [John] Nixon was chosen chairman and Mr. Tench Coxe sec-
retary of the meeting.
Mr. [William?] Jackson having spoken, Mr. [Francis] Gurney
reported from a commitee that had been previously appointed, the
following names, which were separately offered to the consideration
of the citizens present, and approved of, viz.: William Will, Thomas
Fitzsimons, George Clymer, Jacob Hiltzheimer, William Lewis.
On motion of Mr. [John] Donaldson, the citizens of the respective
wards were requested to meet on Monday evening, to appoint proper
persons for making out and circulating a sufficient number of tickets
in favor of the above persons.
[At this point the Herald printed James Wilson's Speech in the
State House Yard, Philadelphia, 6 October, II:A above.]
Doctor [Benjamin] Rush then addressed the meeting in an elegant
and pathetic style describing our present calamitous situation and
enumerating the advantages which would flow from the adoption of
the new system of federal government. The advancement of com-
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