. The life and times of Thomas Smith, 1745-1809, a Pennsylvania member of the Continental congress . er thirty , apparently,^ the old Assembly had met since theyhad granted the Congress the eastern chamber. But theAssembly had adjourned on the 14th of June, and the con-ference of Provincial Committees, which met four dayslater, had chosen to meet a few doors farther down thestreet at the hall of the carpenters union. This latter meet-ing, at the close of their session on the 25th, plainly an-nounced that, because of the sudden and unexpected sepa-ration of the late Assembly, it was c
. The life and times of Thomas Smith, 1745-1809, a Pennsylvania member of the Continental congress . er thirty , apparently,^ the old Assembly had met since theyhad granted the Congress the eastern chamber. But theAssembly had adjourned on the 14th of June, and the con-ference of Provincial Committees, which met four dayslater, had chosen to meet a few doors farther down thestreet at the hall of the carpenters union. This latter meet-ing, at the close of their session on the 25th, plainly an-nounced that, because of the sudden and unexpected sepa-ration of the late Assembly, it was compelled to undertakeprovision for the militia called for by Congress, althoughit did not presume to do more than recommend theplans. Practically, however, it became the government of * One fact which seems to suggest the Assemblys use of thisroom is that on October 21, 1774, they ordered that the Bar ofthe Supreme Court should be removed and a larger one put in itsplace. Whether this was in anticipation of the rooms use by theAssembly in future or not is not known. Votes of Assembly,Vol. VI. 70. -. ^ ik z = o O OJ ^ 5 - £ THE NEW GOVERNMENT 71 Pennsylvania, and, in providing for an election of membersto a Constitutional Convention on Jvily 8, it created a bodythat was to be looked upon at once as that g-overnment. Four days before that election was held the Congresssigned a declaration of independence of all the colonies,an act which was, in one sense, scarcely more than the ex-pression of what had already occurred in the minds of mostof the people. Consequently, when the newly elected dele-gates to the Constitutional Convention began to gather inthe old Supreme Court room, across the hall from theCongress, on the afternoon of July 15, they at once assumedto represent the people of Pennsylvania, and the Congressrecognized the assumption. Dr. Franklin, now an old manof seventy years, stepped across the hall with ColonelTimothy Matlack, as a leader of the Philadelphia delegates
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