III. DEBATE OVER CONSTITUTION

must have smiled the smile of contempt ... against the scurrilous abus-
ers ... They have been killing and beating each other at Albany on the
fourth of July, Fed's. against Antis."3
1. Printed: Charles Hamilton Galleries, Catalog No. 11 (31 January 1966), item 52.
According to the catalog, these excerpts are from a four-page letter. Izard (1771-1826)
was the son of Federalist Ralph Izard, a South Carolina planter, who represented that
state in the U.S. Senate, 1789-95. Before the Revolution, Ralph Izard had married Alice
Delancey of New York, and his son was possibly visiting relatives in New York during the
summer of 1788. Henry Izard eventually became a lawyer and planter who sat in the
South Carolina House of Representatives, 1798-1802, 1821-24, and the South Carolina
Senate, 1805-8.
2. Robert R. Livingston.
3. For the Fourth of July violence in Albany, see RCS:N.Y, 1264-75.
Hudson Weekly Gazette, 8 July 17881
Many people think the adoption of the constitution in Virginia is of
more consequence to this state than its adoption in New-Hampshire,
but this is certainly erroneous, for according to an hon. antifederal
member in the convention at Poughkeepsie, "we are connected both
in interest and affection with the New-England states; we have no ani-
mosity against each other, no interfering territorial claims: our manners
are nearly similar and are daily assimilating, and mutual advantages will
probably prompt to mutual concessions to enable us to form an union
with them."2 This is orthodox doctrine: it decides the whole dispute.
Pope, the famous English poet, who was remarkably crooked and de-
formed very frequently made use of the exclamation, "God mend
me!"3 a man with a lanthorn having conducted him        home one dark
evening demanded half a crown for his trouble. The poet in astonish-
ment exclaimed "half a crown, God mend me!" the man casting an
eye at the distorted figure before him, said, "Mend you indeed; he had
better make a new one." This may serve as a hint to the antis. If the
constitution is so distorted and deformed as they pretend, let them
pursue the idea of the man with the lanthorn, and instead of mending,
make a new one. The people expect this from their favorite delegates,
and such as are not engaged much in talking, it is hoped are now
employed in the business of framing a firm, and energetic plan of
government that will preserve the union.
1. Reprinted: Massachusetts Gazette, 29 July; Pennsylvania Packet, 8 August; Baltimore
Maryland Gazette, 15 August.
2. See the speech of John Lansing, Jr., Convention Debates, 20 June (V, below).
3. Alexander Pope probably borrowed this phrase from Shakespeare's As You Like It,
Act IV, scene 1, line 189. The anecdote that follows was used by James Wilson on 4
December 1787 in a speech to the Pennsylvania Convention. (See RCS:Pa., 484.)

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