Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-16
Eurtttttn Gf1at

/ marks at the opening OF Inc winter
series of meetings of. the society the
other evening when he said that
! there were few in this city and
! the territory round about who rea-
lized what a prominent part Dau-
phin, Cumberland and Franklin
! counties had played in the discus
sions incident to the ratification of
| the Federal Constitution. Tomor-'
row is the anniversary of the day
when the delegates to the conven-
ton which framed it affixed their
signatures, the day when Benjamin
Franklin said that he was convinc-
ed that the sun carved on the back
of the chair of George Washington,
the presiding officer, was "a rising
and not a setting SUM-" Tomorrow
/ throughout the land and especially
! in Pennsylvania there will be cele-
| brations of the anniversary with
| addresses by many of the leading
men on the Constitution, whose
rays, to use the sage's observation,
have been shed all over the world;
remarks upon 1t in the schools and
! colleges and references in the
newspapers. The Constitution is a
wonderful document and it stands
out to-day because of the victor
| ious close of the war to uphold hu-
man freedom, because of the con-
| troverSy over the peace treaty and
because of the amendments which
have recently been submitted to the
States which have been ratified on
| behalf of the Keysone Common
| wealth in our city this year.
Although Pennsylvania was the
second State to ratify the Constitu-
ton it was not done without n
struggle and the opposition to it
1 infanea in WI al nj,
writer called "the highlands of
Pennsylvania" There were opposi-
ton parties in ether States, notably
Rhode Island, but what interests
us is that the object!ng communities
in Pennsylvania were Dauphin, Cum
berland, Franklin, Bedford. Fayette
and other western counties. John
Bach MacMaster, the historian, says
in his work on Pennsylvania and
the Constitution that the opposition
hereabouts was mainly because the
plan of government was different
from that of Pennsylvania to which
the people of the interior counties
were attached because it had been
evolved after n struggle. Another
reason was that the Pennsylvania
delegates to the federal convention
were all Philadelphians. Hampton
L. Carson, former attorney general
and president of the American Bar
Association, gives an interesting
story of the situation in the Key
stone State in his remarkable books
on the Constitution. To many per-
sons the opposition voiced about
here was the result of antagonism
of up State" to Philadelphia in
fiuence. which began before the
Revolution, broke out in the days
which followed Yorktown and which
has been manifested in legislative
halls more than once since.
The Pennsylvania assembly was
in session in Philadelphia when the
constitution was signed and the
story of how the resolution to call
constitutional convention for the
State was forced through on the
last day of the session is dramatic,
thrilling even now when we are ac-
customed to tumultuous closing ses-
sions of the lawmakers. Jacob
Miley and Robert Clark, the Dau-
phln county members, were among
those who stood with James Mccall
mont, of Franklin, in opposition and
how McCalmont and Miley were ar
rested and dragged into the assem-
bly, hall with clothes in tatters, and
forced to make a quorum is history.
This occurred on September 30.
1887, and after McCalmont had
vainly tried to have the convention.
held in Carlisle or Lancaster. show
ing the antagonism to Philadel-
phia, he and his colleagues oppos-
ing the plan Joined in an address
dated September 80 which is a nota-
BILE document and became the foun-
dation for the Harrisburg Confer
Of he e-t, -
federalists and the first State con-
vention ever held in Harrisburg
McCalmont's colleague was Abra-
ham Smith. The Cumberland mem
bers were Robert Whitehirl, an
cestor of several Harrisburg people;
Thomas K en- n @ v and David
Mitchell, names we'll remem hered in
the Cumberland Valley. With them
stood John Whitehill, of Lancaster.
1t is interesting to note that these
men helped make the conference of
1888 in which George Bryan, an of
ficer of the Commonwealth during
the revolution; Albert Gallatin,
then unknown to fame, as MacMas-
ter says, and others became noted
and prepared the way for the firat
amendments to the constitution. l..
is supposed that word of this Har-
rlsburg conference was what in
duced James Madison to write the
amendments. So that when one
speaks of the Constitution tomorrow
he can find that Harrisbure'- was
vitality concerned. in fact, the rally
ing point for men who oppos ed it.
although when adopted it had no
more loyal supporters than the men
| of the Highlands" and the Slsoue-
hanna valley.
The delegates to the convention
called by the acion of September 2S
were elected early in November and
November 21 the convention met in
Philadelphia. On December IL the
constitution was ratified on behalf or
Pennsylvania, a short time after
Delaware. This early action by
Delaware gives it priority among the
| States, says the late Samuel w.
Pennypacker in one of his books.
Pennsylvania sent it's best to this
, convention. In fact. every constitu-
| tional convention in this State has
| been composed of men of the great
est ability, as Governor William c..
| Sproul, who will soon name the
committee to study revision Sof the
| present State document, said the
! other day. The debates of that long
ago State convention of 1887 are
often referred to even in this day
and for years were the source of
| much political argument .