United States Constitution. Ratification

An Address or Oration Delivered Before Members of a Society in Huntingdon, before the Society on the 7th of June 1788 on the Subject of the Proposed Constitution. [Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, June 1788]

Manuscri💧pt address, title-page and 21 pages of text (211 x 171 mm), neatly written on six sheets folded, quired, and stitched; dampstained, most severely to title-page, final text leaf torn 🐻at lower fore-edge corner with loss, a couple of leaves loose. Half blue morocco slipcase, chemise.

An evidently unpublished and previously unknown address in support of the ratification of the Federal Constitution, possibly delivered by Benjamin Elliot, Huntingdon County's sole representative at the Pennsylvania ratifying convention in 1787.

At the time this speech was delivered, Pennsylvania had already ratified the Constitution; the Keystone State was the second do so, on 7 December 1787. But June 1788 was a critical time in the ratification process. Only eight states had ratified by the end of May, so the new charter had yet to t🅘ake effect. Support from N💫ew York and Virginia would be vital to the success of the new nation, and the present speech seems more directed to delegates in those states than to the residents of Huntingdon. By the end of June, three more states had ratified: New Hampshire’s acquiescence on 21 June made the Constitution the law of the land, and Virginia and New York both ratified just a few days later, on 25 and 26 June, respectively.

While the author of this address cannot be positively identified, a likely candidate is Benjamin Elliot, who was Huntingdon County’s only representative at Pennsylvania’s ratifying convention, where he voted in favor of adoption. Whoever the author was, he begins his oration on more local matters, arguing for a state capital more centrally located than Philadelphia and defending the rights of the (then) western counties against “the corner” of the state that included P💦hiladelphia. (In 1812, the state capital was moved westward to Harrisburg).

But most of the speech is a passionate endorsement of ratification, aimed particularly at refuting the positions of the Anti-Federalist opponents of the Constitution. The oration also considers the call for a formal Bill of Rights to be part of the Constitution, arguing that “the people will be the Sovereigns of their Rules, and hold all their Rights in their own hands. To own that they hold them at the Mercy of their Serཧvants, would be beneath the Dignity of freemen.” To those calling for an entirely new charter, the author points to the ability of the proposed Constitution to be amended: “if this Constitution should be adopted, an🎃d by experience found defective, there is a Constitutional door opened for amendments, the seeds of Reformation are sown in the work.” He also underlines the precarious position of the Union as defined by the Articles of Confederation: “there is no alternative between the adoption of this Constitution, and anarchy, we are tottering upon the very brink of it at this moment.”

Contemporary manuscripts recording the debate over the ratificat💦ion of the Constitution are very scarce.