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Nathan Dane. was followed for the most part by the con spicuously able Essex bar, in which he was a leader. At least one anecdote survives to certify to his ingenuity as a trial lawyer. He had to defend a man charged with the then capital crime of setting a dwelling-house on fire in the night-time. He saved his client from death by producing a calculation from President Willard of Harvard, which showed

that the morning twi light had begun to break a few minutes within the utmost limit of the time to which the prosecu tion could confine the commission of the act. He was in the Massachusetts Legis lature at thirty, and continued there for three years, when he was sent to the Con gress of the old Con federation, in the same delegation with John Hancock, Nathaniel Gorham, Theodore Sedgwick, and Rufus King, all but one of whom were consider ably older than he; NATHAN King was three years younger. The General Court kept him in Congress until the Con federation had practically come to an end, and was about to be followed by the gov ernment of the Constitution. It was during this period, therefore, and at the age of thirty-four, when he framed the immortal statute that was to serve as a constitution for the Northwest. The stand he took with reference to the formation of the Federal Constitution has misled the historian McMaster into calling him " the most bitter and acrimonious anti-Federalist " in Con gress. The fact is that he was always a 71

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Federalist; even his record on yeas and nays shows that he had invariably held to the idea of national unity and supremacy, and his connection with the Federal move ment was perfectly consistent with this record. The facts were these : The first strong im pulse toward the present form of government sprang from the needs of trade, one of which was that the States should recognize each other's right to share freely and equitably in such common facilities of commerceas the use of navigable streams. To bring this about, commissioners from some of the States met at Annapolis late in the summer of 1786. There were only a dozen of them, and they came from only fiveStates. Theycould not of themselves do anything decisive, and so they adjourned af ter signing a report in which they suggested the concurrence of the • I respective States in the appointment of DANE. commissioners to meet in the following May at Philadelphia, there to consider the state of the country, devise such further provisions as may seem " necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal gov ernment adequate to the exigencies of the Union," and report such an act for that purpose to Congress as, " when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State, will effectually provide for the same." They sent copies of this to Congress and to the different ex ecutives; and some of the States, without waiting for any congressional action, pro