Beginning with a celebration by sailors and ship carpenters in Philadelphia on December 12, 1787, several urban communities held constitutional processions to commemorate the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. This first procession featured a horse-drawn, scaled-down model ship with sailors pretending to take soundings, shouting, "Three and twenty fathom--foul bottom" (23 Anti-Federalists had voted against the Constitution at the Pennsylvania state ratification convention that day) and "Six and forty fathom--sound bottom, safe anchorage" (46 Federalists had voted for the Constitution).

Other cities had more elaborate parades that incorporated not only a model ship but also participants from a wide array of social backgrounds and occupations. Boston held its procession in the snow on February 8, 1788, after the state had ratified the Constitution. Its model ship was christened the Federal Constitution, and the celebration featured 4,000-5,000 tradesmen. On May 1, 1788, the people of Baltimore organized a constitutional procession with the ship Federalist and an elaborate order of march dividing the participants by trade. On May 27, 1788, there was a procession in Charleston, South Carolina, centered on a ship also called the Federalist.

The largest processions were held in Philadelphia (for a second time) and New York. Philadelphia Federalists decided to use the Fourth of July to restate their support of the Constitution and marshal the city's artisans and workers in a public spectacle that would outdo everything that had been done previously. As many as 17,000 may have joined the procession--every trade in the city was represented in the parade. As one song (supposedly written by Benjamin Franklin) proclaimed, "Ye merry Mechanics, come join in song, And let the brisk chorus go bounding along; Though some may be poor, and some rich there be, Yet all are contended, and happy, and free." The Philadelphia ship, dubbed the Union, was supposedly an actual barge captured by John Paul Jones. The parade in that city included floats that combined the skills of the artisans with the cause of a stronger federal government. Many floats contained workmen demonstrating their skills actually making products during the parade, and the banner of the Society for the Promotion of Manufactures declared, "May the Union Government Protect the Manufactures of America."

New Yorkers delayed their procession, hoping to wait until after their state had ratified the Constitution. But as July wore on and the debates at the state constitutional convention continued, the New York Federalists decided that a demonstration of mass support might help convince recalcitrant Anti-Federalists to accept the new government. On July 24, 1788, the New Yorkers held a massive procession that followed the pattern set by the other cities. Their model ship--named the Hamilton after the state's leading Federalist, Alexander Hamilton--not only had a crew of 30 sailors and marines but also carried enough cannon to fire a 13-gun salute. During the procession the Hamilton was part of a poignant street theater when it took on a pilot to guide the ship from the "old Constitution" to the "new Constitution" in front of the building that housed the Second Continental Congress. Like the earlier processions, artisans played a prominent part, demonstrating their crafts on floats and marching under banners that combined the interests of their trade with the creation of a stronger national government. The banner of the pewterers--which is currently owned by the New-York Historical Society--included a painting of several tradesman at work making pewter pots, tableware, and mugs under a sign reading "The Federal Plan Most Solid & Secure, Americans Their Freedom Will Ensure, All Arts Shall Flourish in Columbia's Land, and All Her Sons Join as One Social Band." At the end of the parade the participants were served a huge feast in a pavilion designed by Pierre-Charles L'Enfant.

Despite the public display of support for the Constitution in these processions, many people in the United States--indeed, many workers in the cities where the processions took place--opposed the creation of a stronger national government and saw it as a threat to liberty.

Bibliography:

1) Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., "The Federal Procession of 1788," New-York Historical Society Quarterly 46 (1962): 5-39.

2) Paul A. Gilje, "The Common People and the Constitution: Popular Culture in New York City in the Late Eighteenth Century," in New York in the Age of the Constitution, 1775-1800, edited by Paul A. Gilje and William Pencak (Rutherford, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1992), 48-73.

3) Carl Van Doren, The Great Rehearsal: The Story of the Making and Ratifying of the Constitution of the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1948).

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