the Continental Congress, beginning in 1774, and continuing up to 1786, no less than eighteen of those we have particularly pointed out - Washington, Franklin, King, Gerry, Langdon, Sherman, Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, Clymer, Livingston, Dickinson, Read, Mercer, Wythe, Madison, Williamson, Rutledge and Baldwin-sat at different periods. Of these, Franklin, Wythe, Sherman, Read, Gerry, Robert Morris, and Clymer, signed the Declaration of Independence; and so also did Wilson, who is here from Pennsylvania--as able and worthy as any of them, but of whom we had not time to speak particularly. The fact is, there are but twelve of the whole Convention who have not, at some time, sat in the Continental Congress. The army is represented, too, for here are Washington, Mifflin, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Hamilton; so that we may well call this an assembly of our most able, most tried, and most patriotic countrymen.

Regarding the public characters who presided over our affairs during the stormy period of the war, and those on whom is devolved the yet more difficult and even more important duty of creating a system of government for the republic they have conducted to independence, we cannot refrain from a conviction that they were specially called to their high mission by an all wise and all beneficent Providence. The extraordinary intelligence and virtue displayed in the Continental Congress, were recognized by sagacious and dispassionate observers throughout the world; Mirabeau spoke of it as a company of demigods; and William Pitt, the great Earl of Chatham, exclaimed, "I must declare that in all my reading and observation-and it has been my favorite study: I have read Thucydides, and meditated the rise of the master states of the world-for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no body of men can stand before the national Congress of Philadel

phia." Those who were greatest in the revolutionary congresses, with many others, worthy to be associated with them, are in this ever to be remembered convention, assembled to define for centuries, perhaps for ever, the just limits of individual liberty and public sovereignty. They will not fail to erect a monument which shall separate distinctly all the Future from all the Past in human history.

THE YEAR OF SUSPENSE.

I.

THAT august assemblage in Philadelphia to which was confided, in a larger degree than ever to any other body of men, the destinies of nations, had closed its sittings and adjourned; the great thinkers and the great actors of our recent history were at their several homes waiting the decisions of the states, or busy with patriotic passion and all the resources of reason, in advocating the approval and adoption of the constitution. "A nation without a national government is an awful spectacle," wrote Alexander Hamilton; "the establishment of a constitution in time of profound peace, by the voluntary consent of a whole people, is a prodigy, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety."

The constitution was not entirely approved by any, but nearly all were willing to say with the venerable Franklin, "The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good." With the masses, its best recommendation was that it bore the signature of WASHINGTON, of whose transcendent wisdom and justice there was a subtle, indefinable and almost universal appreciation and recognition. The noble Chief shared largely of the common anxiety respecting the fate of the system of government formed by himself and his friends, and felt a truer joy, we may believe, when at length

its triumph was decided, than ever had warmed his heart at any victory in war.

II.

In the winter of 1785, the Continental Congress had adjourned to New York, where all its subsequent sessions were held, until the organization of the constitutional government. Mr. Jefferson had been sent to fill the place of Franklin, at Paris; Mr. Adams was in London; and many of our leading characters, in affairs or in society, were in various parts of Europe, in the public service, or in pursuits of business or pleasure.

John Quincy Adams was now eighteen years of age. He had already commenced his diplomatic career, as Secretary to Mr. Dana, our Minister at St. Petersburg. He had lately returned, to complete his academical education at Harvard College, and before visiting his friends in Boston he sent back to his sister, in London, an account of his first impressions of society and politics in New York. He called on Mr. Jay, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and next on Mr. Theodore Sedgwick, Mr. Rufus King, Mr. Nathan Dane, and other delegates in Congress from Massachusetts. Mr. Gerry, he says, was glad to see him, on account of friendship for his father; and Mr. King was very polite. They went with him to call on the President, Mr. Lee, who inquired with the kindest particularity concerning the ambassador. He also waited on Governor Clinton, and the Spanish minister, Don Diego Gardoqui. The next day President Lee, who met him at a breakfast party at Mr. Gerry's, invited him to take an apartment in his house; he endeavored to excuse himself, as well as he could, but the invitation being renewed at dinner, he consented, rather reluctantly, being doubtful whether his course would be altogether pleasing to his father, whom he regarded as the real object of the attentions

offered to him. The President entertained three times a week, but never invited ladies, because there were none in his own house. His health was not very good. "I believe the duties of his office weary him much," Adams writes; "he is obliged, in this weather, to sit in Congress from eleven in the morning until four in the afternoon, the warmest and most disagreeable part of the day. It was expected that Congress would adjourn during the dog-days, at least, but they have so much business that a recess, however short, would leave them behindhand." A portion of the young statesman's gossip about men and women then most conspicuous in the metropolis, we transcribe from his letters, which are more particular and more entertaining than any other notices of life in New York during that summer.

"At tea, this afternoon, at Mr. Ramsay's," he writes on the twentieth of July, "I met Mr. Gardoqui, and his secretary, Mr. Rawdon, who is soon, if common report says truly, to marry Miss M. His complexion and his looks show sufficiently from what country he is. How happens it that revenge stares through the eyes of every Spaniard? Mr. Gardoqui was very polite, and enquired much after my father, as did also Mr. Van Berckel, the Dutch minister." Mr. Ramsay was the amiable and accomplished histo

rian, and a representative from South Carolina.

On the twenty-third he dined with General Knox, the secretary of war, who lived about four miles out of the city. The Virginia and Massachusetts delegations, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Lady Duer, daughter of Lord Stirling, Miss Sears, Mr. Church, Colonel Wadsworth, and Mr. Osgood, formed the company. "Lady Duer is not young, or handsome,” he handsome," he says; but she would not have been thought old, by a man over eighteen, and she had been, if she was not then, one of the sweetest looking women in the city. "Miss Sears," he continues, "has been ill, and looks pale; but she is very pretty,