Raynor HCA 2013-01
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/10/2013
Newspaper, Complete and authentic issue of “The Pennsylvania Journal, and The Weekly Advertiser," 4pp., Philadelphia, June 16, 1787. The first column of the third page is devoted to the Constitutional Convention being held in Philadelphia. Deliberations had begun in Philadelphia's Independence Hall on May 25th when there were enough delegates from the requisite number of States to form a quorum. Listed in the paper in "an exact list of the members of the Convention" are 52 names headed by "His Excellency George Washington" and "His Excellency Benjamin Franklin, now President of Pennsylvania." On February 21, 1787, the Second Continental Congress had "Resolved that in the opinion of Congress it is expedient that on the second Monday in May next a Convention of delegates who shall have been appointed by the several States be held at Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union." In the next column is a report of the views of British political writer Joseph Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, "respecting the benefits which might accrue to America from its Independence, and seems to entertain a contemptable opinion of them...as to the future grandure of America, says he and its being a rising Empire, under one head, whether republican, or monarchical, it is one of the idealist, and most visionary notions, that was ever conceived, even by writers of romance. For there is nothing in the genius of the people, the situation of their country, or the nature of their different climates, which tends to countenance such a supposition...Moreover, when the intersections and divisions of their country, by the great bays of the sea, and by vast rivers, lakes, and ridges of mountains; ---and above all, when those immense inland regions, beyond the back settlements, which are still unexplored, are taken into the account, they form the highest probability that the Americans never can be united into one compact empire, under any species of Government whatever. Their fate seems to be ---a disunited people, 'till the end of time..."
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