general tendency of civilized government is now strongly in favor of
attaching the process of deliberation upon financial measures to the
period of their administrative incubation, and of shortening the period of
formal legislative consideration.

One of the tasks of Congress in its first session was to draught
amendments to the Constitution. The reasons for such action were stated by
Madison to be a desire to propitiate those who desired a bill of rights,
and an effort to secure acceptance of the Constitution in Rhode Island and
North Carolina. Promises had been made, in the course of the struggle for
adoption, that this matter would be taken up, and there was a general
willingness to proceed with it. Under the leadership of Madison, the House
adopted seventeen amendments, which were reduced by the Senate to twelve.
Of these, ten were eventually ratified and formed what is commonly known
as the Bill of Rights.

Apart from this matter, the session, which lasted until September 29, was
almost wholly occupied with measures to organize the new government. To
understand the significance of the action taken, it should be remembered
that the passions excited by the struggle over the new Constitution were
still turbulent. Fisher Ames of Massachusetts, a member without previous
national experience, who watched the proceedings with keen observation,
early noticed the presence of a group of objectors whose motives he
regarded as partly factious and partly temperamental. Writing to a friend
about the character of the House, he remarked: "Three sorts of people are
often troublesome: the anti-federals, who alone are weak and some of them
well disposed; the dupes of local prejudices, who fear eastern influence,
monopolies, and navigation acts; and lastly the violent republicans, as
they think fit to style themselves, who are new lights in politics, who
are more solicitous to establish, or rather to expatiate upon, some