ABSTRACT
The several geographical areas, the political factions, and the economic interests represented in the Philadelphia Convention may be set forth and analyzed in three ways. The first is to scrutinize all the delegates elected. The second is to examine the property holdings and means of gaining a livelihood of the fifty-five men who shared in the writing of the Constitution. The third is to look at their votes and conduct in the Convention itself to ascertain whether men of similar economic backgrounds tended to act together. This chapter summarizes the political and geographical characteristics of the delegations selected to represent the several states in the Convention, both those who served and those who declined to do so. Two delegates were elected to the Convention from New Hampshire who declined to attend: John Pickering of Portsmouth, a member of the Langdon faction; and Benjamin West of Charleston, who belonged to the Sullivan faction.
