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A RISING SON
On the high back of George Washington’s chair was carved a gilded half-sun. On that memorable afternoon after the signing of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin rose slowly to his feet and, pointing to the half-sun on George Washington’s chair, said: “I have often and often in the course of this session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that… without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”