CHAPTER I. THE CONSTITUTION IN CONGRESS AND IN VIRGINIA. SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER 1787. On the twentieth of September the letter of the president of the convention to the president of congress, the full text of the proposed constitution, and the order of the convention, were laid before congress, and on the next day appeared in the daily papers of New York. The letter of Washington said: The powers necessary to be vested in "the general government of the union" are too extensive to be delegated to "one body of men." "It is impracticable, in the federal government of these states, to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety of all; it is difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered and those which may be reserved; on the present occasion this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several states as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests. We kept steadily in view the consolidation of our union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. And thus the constitution which we now present is the result of that mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable." The constitution instantly met with opposition from the indefatigable Richard Henry Lee,* supported by Nathan Dane † and all the delegates from New York, of whom Melancthon Carrington to Madison, Sunday, 23 September 1787. * Gilpin, 643, 650; Elliot, 566, 568. Smith was the ablest. Till Madison returned, the delegates from Virginia were equally divided, Grayson opposing the government because it was too feeble, and Lee because it was too strong.* Already the New York faction was actively scattering the seeds of opposition, and Hamilton dauntlessly opposing them in the public papers by arguments for union.† It was only out of the ashes of the confederation that the new constitution could spring into being; and the letter of the convention did indeed invite congress to light its own funeral pyre. On the twenty-sixth it was first contended that congress could not properly give any positive countenance to a measure subversive of the confederation to which they owed their existence. To this it was answered, that in February congress itself had recommended the convention as "the most probable means of establishing a firm national government," and that it was not now more restrained from acceding to the new plan than the convention from proposing it. If the plan was within the powers of the convention, it was within those of congress; if beyond those powers, the necessity which justified the one would justify the other; and the necessity existed if any faith was due to the representations of congress themselves, confirmed by twelve states in the union and by the general voice of the people. Lee next attempted to amend the act of the convention before it should go forth from congress to the people. "Where," said he, "is the contract between the nation and the government? The constitution makes mention only of those who govern, and nowhere speaks of the rights of the people who are governed." He wished to qualify the immense power of the government by a bill of rights, which had always been regarded as the palladium of a free people. The bill of rights was to relate to the rights of conscience, the freedom of the press, the trial by jury in civil cases as well as criminal, the prohibition of standing armies, freedom of elections, the independence of the judges, security against excessive bails, fines, or punishments, against unreasonable searches or seizure of * Carrington to Jefferson, 23 October 1787. Carrington to Madison, 23 September 1787. Minister Otto to Count Montmorin, New York, 23 October 1787. persons, houses, papers, or property; and the right of petition. He further proposed amendments to the constitution; a council of state or privy council, to be joined with the president in the appointment of all officers, so as to prevent the blending of legislative and executive powers; no vice-president; an increase of the number of the representatives; and the requisition of more than a majority to make commercial regulations. The restraint on the power of regulating commerce and navigation would have been fatal to the wealth and prosperity of New York. Nevertheless, the propositions of Lee were supported by Melancthon Smith, who insisted that congress had the undoubted right and the duty to amend the plan of the federal constitution, in which the essential safeguards of liberty had been omitted. To this it was replied that congress had certainly a right of its own to propose amendments, but that these must be addressed to the legislatures of the states, and would require ratification by all the thirteen; but that the act of the federal convention was to be addressed to conventions of the several states, of which any nine might adopt it for themselves. So the first day's debate ended without admitting the proposed amendments to consideration.* The next day Lee, seconded by Smith, offered a resolution that congress had no power whatever to assist † in creating a "new confederacy of nine" states; and therefore he would do no more than, as a mark of respect, forward the acts of the convention to the executives of every state to be laid before their respective legislatures. On the instant Abraham Clarke of New Jersey, seconded by Nathaniel Mitchell of Delaware, proposed to add: "In order to be by them submitted to conventions of delegates to be chosen agreeably to the said resolutions of the convention." On the question, Georgia and the two Carolinas voted unanimously against Lee; so did Delaware and the only member from Maryland, with Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire. Virginia, on the return of Madison, joined them by the inflexible majority of Madison, Carrington, and Henry Lee, * Madison to Washington, New York, 30 September 1787; R. H. Lee to Samuel Adams, New York, 5 October 1787; Life of R. H. Lee, ii., 74, 76. + Gilpin, 643; Elliot, 566. against Grayson and Richard Henry Lee. All the states except New York were for the motion; and all except New York and Virginia were unanimously so. The majority in congress was impatient to express its approval of the acts of the convention in still stronger language; Carrington of Virginia, therefore, seconded by Bingham of Pennsylvania, proposed that it be recommended to the legislatures of the several states to cause conventions to be held as speedily as may be, to the end that the same may be adopted, ratified, and confirmed.* In this stage of the business congress adjourned. The friends of the new constitution desired to send it to the states by the unanimous vote of congress. The members from New York would not consent to any language that implied approval. To win their vote the resolution of congress must be neutral. On the other hand, the idea of unanimity required the effacement of every motion adverse to the reference of the constitution. Accordingly, congress, when it next assembled, expunged from its journal the proposed amendments of Richard Henry Lee, and the vote of the preceding day; † and having obliterated every record of opposition, it resolved on the twenty-eighth unanimously, eleven states being present, Maryland having one delegate, Rhode Island alone being altogether unrepresented, that the said report, with the resolutions and letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several legislatures, in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in each state by the people thereof in conformity to the resolves of the convention. ‡ Baffled within the convention, Richard Henry Lee appealed to the world through the press in a series of "Letters from the Federal Farmer," of which thousands of copies were scattered through the central states. He acknowledged the necessity of reforming the government, but claimed to discern a strong tendency to aristocracy in every part of the proposed constitution, which he slighted as the work of visionary young men, bent on changing the thirteen distinct independent republics under a federal head into one consolidated government. He way *MS. Journals of Congress in State Department. + MS. Journals of Congress. Journals of Congress, iv., 782. A # Letters from the Federal Farmer, 8. A Letters from the Federal Farmer, 6. laid Gerry when bound for home, and assisted him in preparing an official letter to explain his refusal to sign the constitution. He addressed himself to Samuel Adams, the "dear friend with whom he had long toiled in the vineyard of lib. erty," submitting to his wisdom and patriotism the objections to the new constitution which he had proposed in congress in the form of amendments, but disingenuously substituting other words for his remonstrance against vesting congress with power to regulate commerce. He extended his intrigues to Pennsylvania and Delaware, hoping to delay their decisions. "I am waiting with anxiety for the echo from Virginia, but with very faint hopes of its corresponding with my wishes," wrote Madison from New York city to Washington.* The party in power in New York was passionately opposed to the constitution; but already day had begun to scatter the dusk of earliest morning. In the first moment after his return to Mount Vernon, Washington sent a copy of the constitution to Patrick Henry,† to Harrison, and to Nelson, each of whom had been governor of Virginia. In a propitiatory letter he appealed to their experience of the difficulties which had ever arisen in attempts to reconcile the interests and local prejudices of the several states. "I wish," he continued, "the constitution which is offered had been more perfect; but it is the best that could be obtained at this time, and a door is opened for amendments hereafter. The political concerns of this country are suspended by a thread. The convention has been looked up to by the reflecting part of the community with a solicitude which is hardly to be conceived; and if nothing had been agreed on by that body, anarchy would soon have ensued, the seeds being deeply sown in every soil." A visitor at Mount Vernon, just after this letter was sent out, writes of Washington: "He is in perfect health, and looks almost as well as he did twenty years ago. I never in my life saw him so keen for anything as he is for the adoption of the new form of government." Throughout the whole country he * Madison to Washington. Gilpin, 646; Elliot, 567. Washington to Henry, 24 September 1787. Sparks, ix., 265. |