Note 106 — Chapter XIII · THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION

There were some notable absences. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were not there; both were serving their country as diplomatic representatives abroad, the one in France and the other in England. Nor was John Hancock, whose flashing signature first meets the eye among the signers of the Declaration. Neither was Patrick Henry present, for he was strongly opposed to the convention’s being held at all and declined to be a delegate from Virginia.