> The meeting at Philadelphia in 1787 for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, got the name of a Convention (I believe before long that of a Conspiracy would have been more Significant), [and] paid no more regard to their orders and credentials than Caesar when he passed the Rubicon. Under an Injunction of Secrecy they carried on their works of Darkness until the Constitution passed their usurping hands.

–Abraham Yates, as quoted in Staughton Lynd, “Abraham Yates’ History of the Movement for the U.S. Constitution,” *The William and Mary Quarterly* (April 1963): 223–45.