Changes

==Constitutional Convention==

==Constitutional Convention==

After the conclusion of the revolutionary war, he was chosen, together with general Hamilton and chancellor Lansing, to represent his native state in the [[Constitutional Convention]] that formed the [[Constitution]] of the United States; and to his labours in that convention we are indebted for the preservation of some of the most important debates that ever distinguished any age or country. He was also a member of the convention subsequently held in his native state, to whom that constitution was submitted for adoption and ratification. His political opinions were open and unreserved. He was opposed to a consolidated national government, and friendly to a confederation of the states, preserving their integrity and equality as such. Although the form of government eventually adopted, was not, in all its parts, agreeable to his views and wishes, still, in all his discussions, and especially in his judicial capacity, he deemed it a sacred duty to inculcate entire submission to, and reverence for, that constitution. In the first charge which he delivered to a grand jury, immediately after its adoption, he used the following language: "the proposed form of government for the union, has at length received the sanction of so many of the states, as to make it the supreme law of the land, and it is not, therefore, any longer a question whether or not its provisions are such as they ought to be, in all their different branches. We, as good citizens, are bound implicitly to obey them, for the united wisdom of America has sanctioned and confirmed the act, and it would be little short of treason against the republic to hesitate in our obedience and respect to the constitution of the United States of America. Let me, therefore, exhort you, gentlemen, not only in your capacity as grand jurors, but in your more durable and equally respectable character as citizens," to preserve inviolate this charter of our national rights and safety; a charter second only in dignity and importance to the declaration of our independence. We have escaped, it is true, by the blessing of divine Providence, from the tyranny of a foreign foe, but let us now be equally watchful in guarding against worse and far more dangerous enemies - domestic broils and intestine divisions."

After the conclusion of the revolutionary war, he was chosen, together with general [[Alexander Hamilton]] and chancellor [[John Lansing, Jr.]], to represent his native state in the [[Constitutional Convention]] that formed the [[Constitution]] of the United States; and to his labours in that convention we are indebted for the preservation of some of the most important debates that ever distinguished any age or country. He was also a member of the convention subsequently held in his native state, to whom that constitution was submitted for adoption and ratification. His political opinions were open and unreserved. He was opposed to a consolidated national government, and friendly to a confederation of the states, preserving their integrity and equality as such. Although the form of government eventually adopted, was not, in all its parts, agreeable to his views and wishes, still, in all his discussions, and especially in his judicial capacity, he deemed it a sacred duty to inculcate entire submission to, and reverence for, that constitution. In the first charge which he delivered to a grand jury, immediately after its adoption, he used the following language: "the proposed form of government for the union, has at length received the sanction of so many of the states, as to make it the supreme law of the land, and it is not, therefore, any longer a question whether or not its provisions are such as they ought to be, in all their different branches. We, as good citizens, are bound implicitly to obey them, for the united wisdom of America has sanctioned and confirmed the act, and it would be little short of treason against the republic to hesitate in our obedience and respect to the constitution of the United States of America. Let me, therefore, exhort you, gentlemen, not only in your capacity as grand jurors, but in your more durable and equally respectable character as citizens," to preserve inviolate this charter of our national rights and safety; a charter second only in dignity and importance to the declaration of our independence. We have escaped, it is true, by the blessing of divine Providence, from the tyranny of a foreign foe, but let us now be equally watchful in guarding against worse and far more dangerous enemies - domestic broils and intestine divisions."

==State Boundaries==

==State Boundaries==