Grand Federal Procession
Philadelphia 1788

• Representing INDEPENDENCE: John Nixon, esq. on horseback, carried a white flag bearing the staff and cap of liberty with these words, "FOURTH OF JULY, 1776," in large gold letters.
  
• Representing CONVENTION OF THE STATES: The honourable Peter Muhlenburg, esq. on horseback, carried a blue flag, with the words "SEVENTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER, 1787," in silver letters.
  
• Representing FRENCH ALLIANCE: Thomas Fitzsimons, esq. on horseback, carried a flag of white silk, bearing three fleurs de lys, and thirteen stars in union over the words "SIXTH OF FEBRUARY, 1778," in gold characters. The horse on which he rode was the same on which count Rochambeau rode at the siege of Yorktown.
  
• Representing DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE: George Clymer, esq. on horseback, carried a pennant adorned with olive and laurel with the words "Third of September, 1783," in gold letters.
  
• Colonel John Shee, on horseback, carried a blue flag, bearing an olive and laurel wreath over the words, "WASHINGTON, the friend of his country," in silver letters.

Three hours long and a mile-and-a-half in length, the Grand Federal Procession was an ambitious act of political street theater, scripted by federalist supporters of the newly ratified U.S. Constitution and performed in the streets of Philadelphia on the Fourth of July 1788. From its commencement at Third and South Streets to its conclusion on Bush Hill north of the city center, the procession involved an estimated 22,000 Philadelphians: 5,000 men in the parade, with a vastly more diverse crowd of 17,000 men, women, and children watching from streets and windows, fences and roofs. Organized by rank and occupation, the marchers were roughly divided between federalist gentlemen (bankers, merchants, members of the Marine and Manufacturing Associations) and thousands of artisan-mechanics who, as the city’s producing class, were central to the ideology of federalism.

The Order of March
The procession opened by linking federalism with colonial settlement, as twelve “axe-men” in costume clearing the road for “civilization” and for the parade itself. Federalist gentlemen followed, with silk flags marking key dates (1776, 1783, 1787) recalling the nation’s historical birth in war, accompanied by nine corps of infantry and cavalry demonstrating the police power of city troops. Then, the “Constitution” rolled into view in the form of an American eagle, thirteen feet high, pulled by six horses, with a replica of the text signed in gold by “the people.” Next came the “grand federal edifice,” or “new roof.” A neoclassical temple, thirty-six feet in height and supported by thirteen columns, it epitomized the federalist ideal of an elevated center raised by and over “the people.”