ABSTRACT
The divisions in Philadelphia were as much procedural as sectional, or possibly intellection was forced upon the delegates by the fierce clash of sectional interests and then procedural ideas assumed an importance of their own. For every push in the direction of majorities, there had come an equal push in the opposite direction – toward complexity and confounding that same rule of numbers. Dickinson and friends had had their victories. The intellectual door had swung both ways in Philadelphia, but at this interesting hinge-moment, in the aftermath of the convention, it was about to swing with full force against the procedural ideas of older republics.
