arrangement which might embolden the monarchists to make a man President for a ten or fifteen years’ term or for life.  This could not fail to encourage those who wished for the equivalent of an hereditary prince.  The Convention soon made it evident that they would have none but a short term, and they chose, finally, four years.  There was a debate over the question of his election; should he be chosen directly by the legislature, or by electors?  The strong men—­Mason, Rutledge, Roger Sherman, and Strong—­favored the former; stronger men—­Washington, Madison, Gerry, and Gouverneur Morris—­favored the latter, and it prevailed.  Nevertheless, the Electoral College thus created soon became, and has remained, as useless as a vermiform appendix.

Towards the end of the summer the Convention had completed its first draft of the Constitution; then they handed their work over to a Committee for Style and Arrangement, composed of W.S.  Johnson of North Carolina, Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Madison, and King.  Then, on September 17th, the Constitution of the United States was formally published.  This document, done “by the Unanimous Consent of the States present,” was sent to the Governor or Legislature of each State with the understanding that its ratification by nine States would be required before it was proclaimed the law of the land.

In his diary for Monday, the seventeenth of September, 1787, Washington makes this entry: 

Met in Convention, when the Constitution received the unanimous consent of 11 States and Colo.  Hamilton’s from New York [the only delegate from thence in Convention], and was subscribed to by every member present, except Governor Randolph and Colo.  Mason from Virginia, & Mr. Gerry from Massachusetts.

The business being thus closed, the members adjourned to the City Tavern, dined together, and took a cordial leave of each other.  After which I returned to my lodgings, did some business with, and received the papers from the Secretary of the Convention, and retired to meditate on the momentous wk. which had been executed, after not less than five, for a large part of the time six and sometimes 7 hours sitting every day, [except] Sundays & the ten days adjournment to give a Comee. [Committee] opportunity & time to arrange the business for more than four months.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Ford, XI, 155.]

One likes to think of Washington presiding over that Convention for more than four months, seeing one suggestion after another brought forward and debated until finally disposed of, he saying little except to enforce the rules of parliamentary debate.  No doubt his asides (and part of his conversation) frankly gave his opinion as to each measure, because he never disguised his thoughts and he seems to have voted when the ballots were taken—­a practice unusual to modern presiding officers except in case of a tie.  His summing-up of the Constitution, which he wrote on the day after the adjournment in a hurried letter to Lafayette, is given briefly in these lines: