The Attack on Fort Wilson
THE Pennsylvania Constitution, framed in 1776 by the radical Whigs, had been under attack from the first by the conservatives. Led by James Wilson and Robert Morris, the Republicans, as they called themselves, made bitter assaults on the "Constitutionalists" and their handiwork. In November, 1778, when the Assembly resolved to "take the sense of the people" of the state on the question of the constitution, the unrelenting agitation of the Republicans seemed at last to have borne fruit. Encouraged by the prospect of replacing the radical constitution with a frame of government more in conformity with their own political theories, Wilson and his, fellows worked assiduously in the early months of 1779 to rally voters to the Republican cause. But the Constitutionalists were once more ahead of them. Word reached Wilson that even the ministers of the gospel in the western counties had been enlisted by the radicals to inveigh against the proposed referendum. Petitions calling on the Assembly to rescind the resolves circulated throughout the state. Thousands of Pennsylvanians, assured by the radicals that the Republicans were Tory aristocrats bent on establishing a "House of Lords" in the State House, added their signatures. Such charges found a ready acceptance among frontier farmers, men with an instinctive suspicion of eastern politics and politicians. As the petitions calling for the abrogation of the November resolve poured in upon the none-too-resolute Assembly, the members of the Republican Society tried to stem the tide with a public statement of their aims and character. Wilson drew up a long letter defending the Republican leaders and attacking in bitter terms the "general weakness, inactivity and confusion" of the existing constitution. The enemies of the constitution had been called a cabal with no motive but avarice and a desire for power, but Wilson assured his readers that "we have, and can have no common interest with one another, but that which we already have with you. We are of different occupa-