mention," wrote Cutler in his journal, "a humorous matter that had
that day taken place in convention, in consequence of his comparing
the snake to America; but the secrecy of the convention matters was
suggested to him, which stopped him."

[Illustration: MANASSEH CUTLER]

This secrecy was felt to be binding perpetually by many of the members.
The secretary of the convention, Major Jackson, who came to Philadelphia
as private secretary to General Washington, kept the official minutes.
This book, by one of the final motions of the convention, was entrusted
to Washington, who had presided so conscientiously over the sessions
that he did not allow himself even the privilege of debating. In 1796,
he deposited it among the public archives. Until the year 1837, these
minutes, with a few letters submitted by some of the seceding delegates
justifying their action, and the gleanings from eighty-odd private
letters written by members of the convention, constituted all public
knowledge of the details of the meeting. But in the year mentioned
above, Madison's papers were purchased by the National Government, and
among them was found a number of little home-made books containing his
priceless "Notes on the Convention." In the introductory pages, Madison
tells how he carried out his determination to preserve a record of the
debates for the benefit of posterity.

"I chose a seat," he says, "in front of the presiding member, with the
other members on my right and left hands. In this favourable position
for hearing all that passed, I noted, in terms legible and in
abbreviations and marks intelligible to myself, what was read from the
Chair or spoken by the members; and, losing not a moment unnecessarily
between the adjournment and re-assembling of the convention, I was