Page 894

VI. DEBATE OVER CONSTITUTION
County, Pa., held many local and state posts in the county. He was a delegate to Congress,
1779-82, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-91. Wynkoop was
also a delegate to the Pennsylvania Convention, where he voted to ratify the Constitution
on 12 December 1787. Beatty (1757-1831), a Bucks County physician, was Wynkoop's
son-in-law. He served as a doctor during the Revolution and after the war was a member
of the Society of the Cincinnati.
2. The motto appeared on six dollar bills issued by the Continental Congress from
1775 to 1778.
3. On 24 May Elbridge Gerry moved to add several sections to the funding bill for the
purpose of assuming the state debts. The House debated Gerry's proposed sections but
did not incorporate them into the bill (DHFFC, V, 733-34, 874n-76n; XIII, 1377-92,
passim).
4. Representative Thomas FitzSimons of Pennsylvania.
Providence United States Chronicle, 27 May 1790
The CONVENTION, elected by the Freemen of this State, for the
Purpose of "investigating and DECIDING" on the Constitution of the
United States, is now in Session at Newport.
A Gentleman from New-York informs, that the Bill which was pub-
lished in our last as being before the Senate of the United States, had
passed that House with some Amendments-the Sum to be required
of this State is 33,000 Dollars, to be paid in August.-It was to be taken
up in the House of Representatives on Friday last.'
1. See "Congress Considers a Bill to Prohibit Commerce with Rhode Island," 28 April-
1 June (above).
Providence Gazette, 29 May 1790
Extract of a Letter from a Member of Congress, to a
Gentleman in this Town, dated New-York, May 18.
"It has been very difficult to persuade Congress or the Public to
believe that your Majority intend to stand out. It is a jest, to pretend
to single Independence. What then can be their Object? The Minority
cannot expect to dictate a Form of Government to the Majority. A real
or affected Dislike of the Constitution has not appeared to me a suf-
ficient Reason for refusing to adopt it. Absolute Independence, if your
People could support it, would be a bitter Curse to them. To maintain
it, even a short Time, against the other States, would require such Ex-
ertions as would exhaust and distress them more than their Contribu-
tions to the Union perhaps for a Century-and, after all, a Breath
would destroy it; for if they could support it, by foreign Aid, it would
be ten Times worse. In that Case, the Work of Ruin would be sooner
accomplished, as both Friends and Foes would work at it. It is a strange
894