vention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeerth the Yeas of our Lord one thousand soven hundred and Sighly seerer and e of the United States of America the Twelfth Dill S whereg ubscribed our Namps, mning Bedford jun. Dickinson ichard Bassett Sacs Broom mis mitteur Blair - blount No Saight. Williamson Buthipe the Binckay Pinckney Brthi's Few all was over, it is said that many of the members seemed awestruck. Washington sat with head bowed in solemn meditation. The scene was ended by a characteristic bit of homely pleasantry from Franklin. Thirty-three years ago, in the days of George II., before the first mutterings of the Revolution had been heard, and when the French dominion in America was still untouched, before the banishment of the Acadians or the rout of Braddock, while Washington was still surveying lands in the wilderness, while Madison was playing in the nursery and Hamilton was not yet born, Franklin had endeavoured to bring together the thirteen colonies in a federal union. Of the famous Albany plan of 1754, the first complete outline of a federal constitution for America that ever was made, he was the principal if not the sole author. When he signed his name to the Declaration of Independence in this very room, his years had rounded the full period of threescore and ten. Eleven years more had passed, and he had been spared to see the noble aim of his life accomplished. There was still, no doubt, a chance of failure, but hope now reigned in the old man's breast. On the back of the president's quaint black armchair there was emblazoned a half-sun, brilliant with its gilded rays. As the meeting was breaking up and Washington |