Page 404

COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION
"'Their forms were all, the brightest thoughts can frame,
Their minds were all the fondest wish can claim;
Whate'er is great, or good, or soft, or fair,
Refin'd, or lovely, fix'd its mansion there.'"
2. On 13 August about 500 residents of the Half-Moon District met in Waterford
where they held a procession of the occupations, and militia. After the procession moved
through the town, it "arrived upon a plain on the west side of the town" and the
marchers feasted under "a beautiful bower, erected for the purpose." After the marchers
ate and toasted, they again formed a procession and marched through the town. "The
whole was conducted with the greatest regularity; and the utmost harmony, decency and
decorum, prevailed throughout the day" (Lansingburgh Federal Herald, 25 August).
3. James Thomson's "Autumn," originally published in 1730 reads:
... A native grace
Sat fair-proportion'd on her polish'd limbs,
Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of dress; for loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is when unadorn'd adorn'd the most."
See The Seasons ... (London, 1814), lines 201-6.
Massachusetts Centinel, 27 August1
Of NORTH-CAROLINA.
We have yet hopes, that the information given the Post-Master, at
Richmond, that the Convention of North-Carolina had REJECTED the
new Constitution, was not authentick2-as several accounts from      that
quarter have been received, none of which confirm it-nor the account
that the question for previous amendments, or conditional ratification had
been carried: On the contrary, by last night's Mail we received the
following from a friend at New-York,
dated Aug. 21, 1788.
"The report of the rejection of the Constitution by North Carolina,
is not yet confirmed; and a gentleman who left Wilmington the 1st
inst. says, it cannot be true: He saw letters from members of the Con-
vention, at Hillsborough, dated but three days before, which informed,
that they had gone through the business of the contested elections,
and just entered on the Constitution, which was to be debated by
paragraphs."
Gov. Johnson was chosen President of the North-Carolina Conven-
tion, the first day it met.
1. Reprints in whole or in part by 4 September (9): N.H. (2), Mass. (6), Conn. (1).
2. See Pennsylvania Gazette, 13 August, note 4 (above).
Winchester Virginia Gazette, 27 August'
Governor Sevier, has regained his influence in a great degree, and
has lately put himself at the head of federalists, and menaces the state
of North Carolina, for putting themselves out of the union, by rejecting
the new Constitution.
404