The sessions had,
for the most part, representatives from eleven States only, Rhode
Island having failed to send delegates. Her refusal was caused by a
conviction that the convention would recommend taking away from the
States the power to issue money and to collect duties. Her fears proved
true.
Outside the closed doors of the convention the public clamoured,
declaring Star-Chamber sessions an insult to the American people. All
kinds of rumours prevailed concerning the probable action of the
convention. Some newspapers declared that three republics, an eastern,
a middle, and a southern, had been agreed upon, under the conviction
that so numerous a people and so large a territory could not be
incorporated under one government. Still others passed the news that
the plan of the royal electorate of Poland had been adopted, and the
second son of George III., Bishop of Osnaburgh, had been chosen king
of the United States. An unofficial denial of this rumour appeared in
a Philadelphia paper. "We never once thought of a king," it said.
"Benny the Roofer" appeared in the prints in ridicule of Benjamin
Franklin, who, it was said, was endeavouring to construct a roof over
the entire United States.
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