held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business,
and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to
officiate in that service."

It may surprise my audience to know the sequel. The resolution was voted
down, partly on the ground that if it became known to the public that
the convention had finally resorted to prayers it might cause undue
alarm, but also because the convention was by that time so low in funds
that, as one of the members said, it did not have enough money to pay a
clergyman his fees for the service. I suspect that their controlling
reason was their indisposition to break their self-imposed rule of
secrecy by contact with the outer world until their work was completed.
Perhaps they thought that "God helps those who help themselves."

On July 16 the compromise was finally adopted of recognizing the claims
of the larger States to proportionate representation in the House of
Representatives, and recognizing the claims of the smaller States by
according to them equal representation in the Senate. This great result
was not effected without the first break in the convention, for the
delegates from New York left in disgust and never returned, with the
exception of Hamilton, who occasionally attended subsequent sessions.
Such was the great concession that was made to secure the Constitution;
and the only respect in which the Constitution to-day cannot be amended
is that by express provision the equality of representation in the
Senate shall never be disturbed. Thus it is that to-day some States,
which have less population than some of the wards in the city of New
York, have as many votes in the Senate as the great State of New York.
It is unquestionably a palpable negation of majority rule, for as no
measure can become a law without the concurrence of the Senate--now
numbering ninety-six Senators--a combination of the little States, whoso