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                HISTORY

                 OF THE

     ORIGIN, FORMATION, AND ADOPTION

                 OF THE

    CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES;

                  WITH

     NOTICES OF ITS PRINCIPAL FRAMERS.


                   BY
         GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS.


             IN TWO VOLUMES.

                VOLUME I.


                NEW YORK:
           HARPER AND BROTHERS,
             FRANKLIN SQUARE.
                  1854.




    Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by

    GEORGE T. CURTIS,

    in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
    Massachusetts




    TO

    GEORGE TICKNOR, ESQ.,
    THE HISTORIAN OF SPANISH LITERATURE,


    BY WHOSE ACCURATE SCHOLARSHIP AND CAREFUL CRITICISM
    THESE PAGES HAVE LARGELY PROFITED,

    I DEDICATE THIS WORK,

    IN AFFECTIONATE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF TIES,
    WHICH HAVE BEEN TO ME CONSTANT SOURCES OF HAPPINESS
    THROUGH MY WHOLE LIFE.




PREFACE.


A special history of the origin and establishment of the Constitution of
the United States has not yet found a place in our national literature.

Many years ago, I formed the design of writing such a work, for the
purpose of exhibiting the deep causes which at once rendered the
Convention of 1787 inevitable, and controlled or directed its