The splendid result of that failure, was "Done in
Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present."* Twelve
States were present - Rhode Island apparently having had no
representative on the occasion - on the 17th of September, 1787, and
in the twelfth year of the Independence of the United States.
* It must not, however, be supposed that by this "doing in
convention," the Constitution became an accepted fact. It simply
amounted to the adoption of a proposal of the Constitution. The
Constitution itself was formally adopted by the people in
conventions held in their separate State capitals. It was agreed to
by the people in 1788, and came into operation in 1789.
I call the result splendid, seeing that under this Constitution so
written a nation has existed for three-quarters of a century, and
has grown in numbers, power, and wealth till it has made itself the
political equal of the other greatest nations of the earth. And it
cannot be said that it has so grown in spite of the Constitution, or
by ignoring the Constitution. Hitherto the laws there laid down for
the national guidance have been found adequate for the great purpose
assigned to them, and have done all that which the framers of them
hoped that they might effect.
