286 LIFE AXD CORRESPOXDEXCE OF THE [17B9 



ington, President and Deputy of Virginia," leading the illustrious 

 band, — was signed the Constitution of the United States of America. 

 Inviolable remain forever and separated from all common uses the 

 spot thus politically and ecclesiastically consecrated ! * 



The Convention of 1789, as I have mentioned in the text, first 

 met in Christ Church, and sat there during the whole of the origi- 

 nal session, and our General Conventions have usually sat in a 

 church as do almost always our Diocesan Conventions. 



But in the case of the Convention of 1789, on the ist of October, 

 the day before the union was effected, the minutes say : 



The meeting in Christ Cluirch heing found inconvenient to the members in several 

 respects, it was resolved that the Rev. Dr. William Smith and the Hon. Mr. Secretary 

 riopkinson l)e appointed to wait upon his Excellency Thomas Mifflin, Esquire, the 

 President of the State, and request leave for the Convention to hold their meeting in 

 some convenient apartment in the State House. 



At a later hour of the same day the entry is : 



Tlie Rev. Dr. William Smith and Hon. Mr. Hopkinson reported that the President 

 of the State had very politely given permission to the Convention to hold their meet- 

 ings at the State House in the apartments of the General Assembly until they shall be 

 wanted for the public service. 



Adjourned to meet at the State House to-morrow morning. 



* I am quite aware that the Carpenters' Company have, lately, pretended — for it is 

 only within a few years that any such pretension has been made — that the Federal Con- 

 vention of 17S7 sat in their Hall. The pretension is the result of ignorance and as- 

 sumption. The Official Journal of the Federal Convention, Chief Justice Yates's pri- 

 vate minutes, contemporary newspapers, the motion of Dr. Franklin for prayers, June 

 28th, 17S7, and his remarks at the close of the Convention about the rising and the set- 

 ting sun on the back of the Speaker's chair, all show that the Federal Convention was 

 held in the State Hou5e, just as a tablet in that edifice records; and the remarks of Dr. 

 Franklin, on his motion for prayers, when read in the light of contemporary historical 

 facts, show also (as indeed probably do his remarks al)out the rising and the setting sun 

 on the back of the Speaker's chair) the very room; to wit, the Hall of Independence. 

 Equally unfounded is the legend on one of the walls of the Hall that the eloquence of 

 Adams, Haneock and Henry there inspired the patriots of the Revolution. The only 

 Congress that sat in Carpenters' Hall was that of 1774, and Hancock was not in it. 

 And both these pretensions are as void of truth as the one put forth by the orator of the 

 Hall (Mr. Betts) to the Governors of the nine States, assembled there October iSth, 

 1879, on their way to Yorktown, that the Supreme Court of the United States sat there 

 during the time that Philadelphia was the seat of the Federal Government. The min- 

 ute-books of that Court, all preserved at W.ashington, show that the Court sat in the 

 still-existing handsome south room (obviously made for a court-room) in the second 

 story of the City Hall, at the southwest corner of Chestnut and Fifth streets, with one 

 or two exceptions, when it sal in the Stale House or in the Council Chamber. 



