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Conceived in Liberty Companion · Volume V, chapter 25 · 29 September 1787

A quorum by force

In a tall, plain hall with a raised platform at the far end, a grey-haired man in a torn brown coat lunges toward a side door while townsmen spread their arms to block it, as a thickset man glares from a table.
Philadelphia, September 1787. The Pennsylvania Assembly cannot call a convention to ratify the Constitution without a quorum, so a crowd drags two absent members, James McCalmont and Jacob Miley, from their lodgings into the State House. When McCalmont bolts for the door, the crowd cries “Stop him,” and the men there block his way. Rothbard calls it fraud in the Federalist cause. Chapter 25 of Conceived in Liberty, Volume 5.

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Adapted, with the Mises Institute's permission, from Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty, Volume V: The New Republic, 1784-1791 (Mises Institute), CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

The story, from several sources

This account blends Rothbard’s chapter with the other sources listed below and has not yet been separated into Rothbard’s own account and the fuller story. Read Rothbard’s chapter 25 for his account.

Pennsylvania’s Federalists were in a hurry. On 28 September 1787 George Clymer moved in the Assembly to call a ratifying convention, before the Constitution had even reached the state, and the radicals, beaten 43 to 19, walked out. Without them the House could not make a quorum. On Saturday morning the Speaker sent the sergeant-at-arms and an assistant clerk to fetch the absent members, and they found two of them, James McCalmont of Franklin County and Jacob Miley of Dauphin, at Major Alexander Boyd’s house on Sixth Street, where the opposition lodged. Both refused to come. A crowd of Constitution men broke into the lodgings, collared them and pushed them through the streets to the State House, where they arrived in torn clothes with faces white with rage. The roll was called and the quorum was complete. McCalmont, a militia major in the war and about sixty, asked to be excused and offered the fine in silver. The House said no. He sprang up and made a dash for the door, the crowd shouted “Stop him,” and the men at the door held him in. Rothbard calls it “a monstrous act” that added force to the Federalist habit of fraud (CiL Vol. V, p. 221). The House set the election of convention delegates for the first Tuesday in November, and in December the convention ratified the Constitution by 46 to 23.

Where the record differs from Rothbard

Errata notes. Rothbard’s text and his account above are left as he wrote them. Every erratum.

Conceived in Liberty, pp. 221–222
Rothbard says ‘A Federalist Philadelphia mob’ seized McCalmont and Miley, ‘the radical defectors’, and ‘dragged them into the Assembly to make a compulsory quorum.’
The evidence The Speaker sent the sergeant-at-arms and an assistant clerk first; they found the two at Major Alexander Boyd’s lodgings on Sixth Street, and only when both refused did a crowd of Constitution men break in and push them to the State House. Once there McCalmont offered silver for leave to go, was refused and made a dash for the door, and the men at the door barred his way. McCalmont sat for Franklin County, cut from Cumberland in 1784, not ‘Cumberland’. (McMaster and Stone 1888 via Teaching American History; American Heritage, Feb. 1971; CSAC, University of Wisconsin; all read through fetch summaries.)
Source McMaster and Stone 1888 via Teaching American History; American Heritage, Feb. 1971; CSAC, University of Wisconsin; all read through fetch summaries.
Conceived in Liberty, p. 221
Rothbard says The Assembly called the convention elections for ‘November 2’.
The evidence The Assembly’s resolution of 29 September set the first Tuesday in November, which fell on 6 November 1787; CSAC and the Teaching American History timelines give 6 November (read through search summaries). Rothbard’s text gives the convention’s opening as 21 November, which agrees with the sources that say it opened with a quorum on the 21st; others give 20 November.
Source the sources named in the evidence column

Sources

  1. Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty, Volume V: The New Republic, 1784-1791 (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2019; ed. Patrick Newman), ch. 25, ‘The Battle for Pennsylvania’, pp. 221-230, esp. pp. 221-222 (the haste, the walkout and the mob) and p. 228 (the ratifying vote). CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; adaptation permitted by the Mises Institute, reported by David 2026-10-02. Rothbard
  2. John Bach McMaster and Frederick D. Stone, eds., Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 1787-1788 (Lancaster, 1888), ch. I, via Teaching American History (accessed 2026-10-02, through a fetch summary): M’Calmont and Miley at Major Boyd’s on Sixth Street; broke into their lodgings and dragged them to the State House with clothes torn and faces white with rage; M’Calmont asked to be excused, offered silver, was refused, made for the door; ‘Stop him’; the first Tuesday in November. Secondary source
  3. ‘Business of the Highest Magnitude’, American Heritage 22, no. 2 (February 1971), accessed 2026-10-02 (through a fetch summary): collared and dragged to the State House; thrust onto the floor of the House and escorted to their seats; M’Calmont rose and made a dash for the door; ‘Stop him!’; those about the door barred his way; Speaker Mifflin absented himself for a while. Secondary source
  4. ‘The Controversy Surrounding the Calling of the Pennsylvania Convention’, Center for the Study of the American Constitution, University of Wisconsin (accessed 2026-10-02, through a fetch summary and search results): the sergeant-at-arms and the assistant clerk sent for the absent members; found at Major Boyd’s; a mob broke in; the quorum made; sixteen of nineteen seceders signed the address dated 29 September; the election and convention dates set; the election of 6 November and the convention of 20 November. Secondary source
  5. ‘Assembly Room of Independence Hall’, National Park Service (accessed 2026-10-02, through a fetch summary): the east-side room of the Pennsylvania Assembly; the Speaker’s Rising Sun chair (1779); the room’s 1787 layout and seating not documented. Secondary source
  6. Pennsylvania biographical gazetteer, CSAC, University of Wisconsin (seen in a search summary, 2026-10-02): James McCalmont (1727-1809), born Cumberland County, major in the war, assemblyman for Franklin County 1784-88; Jacob Miley of Dauphin County, a militia officer. Secondary source
  7. Era registry entry new-republic-1784-1791 and place entry assembly-room-state-house-1787 (data/cil/registry/): dress, arms and the chamber; their own sources are listed in their notes. Secondary source