As 卡托, 凯撒, 布鲁特斯 和 部百流 他们在纽约的报纸上就宪法问题展开了激烈的辩论, partisans in Pennsylvania were relentless in their own efforts to influence public opinion before the formal ratification debate would get under way at their state ratification convention.
The Anti-federalist effort to prevent the General Assembly from scheduling election of delegates 和 the convention itself had failed. Boycotting the Assembly’s final session of the year to prevent a quorum collapsed on September 29 when several of its “seceding members” were brought to the chamber by physical force. Despite their attempt to hold off until the next legislative election any consideration by the Assembly of preparations for a state ratifying convention, the Assembly set November 6 for a special election to choose convention delegates. It also called for the convention to convene at the State House on Tuesday, November 20. The number of delegates was set to equal the number of members in the Assembly.
Opponents of the Constitution were disappointed a second time when they suffered a setback in the legislative elections held in early October. 被许多人认为是公众对宪法意见的第一次考验, 选举的结果是联邦党人增加了他们的多数, including the election’s two top vote-getters - Thomas Fitzsimons 和 George Clymer, both delegates to the Constitutional Convention 和 decidedly pro-Constitution.
11月6日的选举被证明是又一次挫折. For a second time in a month, Pennsylvanians elected men who supported the Constitution. 投票率异常低. 联邦党人的投票率接近平均水平，但反联邦党人的投票率却急剧下降. 不幸的是, around midnight a mob attacked leaders of the Anti-Federalists at Boyd’s boardinghouse, 这是他们聚会中许多人最喜欢的住宿地点, 在逃跑前扔石头砸门. 尽管大会批准了300美元的奖金, 没有人被捕, 费城的任何报纸都没有报道这一事件.
批准大会于11月20日召开, 到达的代表人数不足，达不到法定人数. 到第二天, sixty of sixty-nine delegates were in attendance 和 elected as its president 弗雷德里克·奥古斯都·穆伦伯格, a Lutheran minister who had served in the Continental Congress 和 as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly. 大会还任命主席团成员并批准会议规则, including an order that “the doors of the Convention be left open during the session.”
Dr. 本杰明冲, one of Philadelphia’s most respected citizens 和 signer of the Declaration of Independence, 建议每次会议以开场祈祷开始. Similar to the response given to Benjamin Franklin’s motion for prayer during the Constitutional Convention, 代表们拒绝了布什的提议, citing religious diversity throughout Pennsylvania 和 the precedent set at the Constitutional Convention against daily invocations.
11月24日, the Constitution was read to the convention along with the transmittal letter from Congress. 托马斯·麦基恩, the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania 和 signer of the Declaration of Independence, moved that Pennsylvania “assent to 和 ratify the Constitution agreed to on the 17th of September last by the Convention of the United States of America.” The motion was the appropriate procedural mode of putting the question to the convention 和 to initiate debate.
詹姆斯·威尔逊立刻站了起来. As one of Pennsylvania’s eight delegates to the Constitutional Convention 和 among its most active participants, he brought to the state convention a deeper underst和ing than any other member of the ratification convention.. 在制宪会议上, 只有莫里斯先生比威尔逊讲话更频繁, 和 Wilson will play an important role in the national debate over the Constitution as well as the debate in his own state.
Wilson began by referring to his status as member of the Constitutional Convention. “As I am the only member of that body who has the honor to be also a member of this,他开始说, “it may be expected that I should prepare the way for the deliberations of this assembly…by tracing the general principles which they have adopted.” He emphasized the difficulty of devising a “good system of government” among “thirteen governments mutually independent” 和 so different in “their soil, 他们的气候, 他们的作品, 他们的尺寸, 以及它们的数量.“然而, 他补充说, “美国公民, 尽管在其他方面有所不同, are well known to agree in one strongly marked feature of their character - a warm 和 keen sense of freedom 和 independence.” That sense was “heightened by the glorious result of their late struggle against all the efforts of one of the most powerful nations of Europe.“那种敏锐的感觉, 以及他们的“高亢精神”,他接着说, 会导致他们支持“最好的政府体制”吗, 促进他们的自由和幸福.”
与, Wilson launched into a long 和 elaborate defense of the theories underlying the Constitution, 呼吁哲学家和古代和现代共和国的例子, 假定美国“可以采用四种不同体系中的任何一种”.” They may consolidate into one government; act as separate 和 unconnected states; form two or more confederacies; or unite in one federal republic. 简要评价每种形式的效果, 威尔逊颂扬联邦制的好处, at the same time submitting that “it is hopeless 和 impractical to form a constitution which, 在每个地方, 会被每个公民接受吗, 甚至是每个政府, in the United States; 和 that all which can be expected is, 形成这样的结构, 总的来说, 是可能得到的最好的吗.