to federalism. Assured by these iniquitous preparations, Monroe, without scruple, took the field against Madison. In Connecticut, in October, the circular letter of New York had a reading among other public communications, but "no anti-federalist had hardiness enough to call it up for consideration or to speak one word of its subject." * The legislature of Massachusetts concurred with Hancock, the governor, that an immediate second federal convention might endanger the union. The legislature of Pennsylvania put the question at rest by saying: "The house do not perceive this constitution wanting in any of those fundamental principles which are calculated to ensure the liberties of their country. The happiness of America and the harmony of the union depend upon suffering it to proceed undisturbed in its operation by premature amendments. The house cannot, consistently with their duty to the good people of this state or with their affection. to the citizens of the United States at large, concur with Virginia in their application to congress for a convention of the states." This vote Mifflin, the governor, early in March 1789, communicated to the governor of Virginia, ‡ and the subject was heard of no more. Congress, as early as the second of July 1788, was notified that the constitution had received the approval of nine states; but they wasted two months in wrangling about the permanent seat of the federal government, and at last could agree only on New York as its resting-place. Not till the thirteenth of September was the first Wednesday of the following January appointed for the choice of electors of president in the several states; and the first Wednesday in March, which in that year was the fourth, for commencing proceedings under the constitution. The states, each for itself, appointed the times and places for electing senators and representatives. The interest of the elections centred in New York, Virginia, and South Carolina. In four districts out of the six into which New York was divided the federalists elected their * Trumbull to Washington, 28 October 1788. Letters to Washington, iv., 238. New York Daily Gazette of 17 February 1789. candidates. Having in the state legislature but a bare majority in the senate, while their opponents outnumbered them in the house, each branch made a nomination of senators; but the senate refused to go into a joint ballot. For this there was the excuse that the time for a new election was close at hand. But the senate further refused to meet the house for the choice of electors of president, and this was an act of faction. The star of Hamilton was then in the ascendant, and he controlled the federalists; but only to make his singular incapacity to conduct a party as apparent as his swiftness and power of thought. He excluded the family of the Livingstons from influence. To defeat Clinton's re-election as governor, he stepped into the camp of his opponents, and with Aaron Burr and other anti-federalists selected for their candidate Robert Yates, who had deserted his post in the federal convention, but had since avowed the opinion which was held by every one in the state that the new constitution should be supported. New York at the moment was thoroughly federal, yet Clinton escaped defeat through the attachment of his own county of Ulster and the insignificance of his opponent, while the federalists were left without any state organization. In the new legislature both branches were federal, and, at the behest of Hamilton, against the remonstrances of Morgan Lewis and others, Rufus King, on his transfer of residence from Massachusetts to New York, received the unexampled welcome of an immediate election with Schuyler to the senate. In Virginia, Madison went into the counties that were relied on to defeat him, reasoned with the voters face to face, and easily won the day. Of the ten delegates from the state, seven were federalists, of whom one was from Kentucky. South Carolina elected avowed anti-federalists, except Butler, of the senate, who had conceded many points to bring about the union, and yet very soon took the alarm that "the southern interest was imperilled." * Under the constitution the house of representatives formed a quorum on the first of April 1789. The senate on the sixth chose John Langdon of New Hampshire its president. The * Pierce Butler to Iredell, in Life of Iredell, ii., 264, 265. house of representatives was immediately summoned, and in the presence of the two branches he opened and counted the votes. Every one of the sixty-nine, cast by the ten states which took part in the election, was for Washington. John Adams had thirty-four votes; and as no other obtained more than nine, he was declared to be the vice-president. The house devolved upon the senate the office of communicating the result to those who had been chosen; and proceeded to business. "I foresee contentions," wrote Madison, "first between federal and anti-federal parties, and then between northern and southern parties, which give additional disagreeableness to the prospect." * The events of the next seventy years cast their shadows before. Madison revived the bill which he had presented to congress on the eighteenth of March 1783, for duties on imports, adding to it a discriminating duty on tonnage. For an immediate public revenue, Lawrence of New York proposed a general duty ad valorem. England herself, by restraining and even prohibiting the domestic industry of the Americans so long as they remained in the condition of colonial dependence, had trained them to consider the establishment of home manufactures as an act of patriotic resistance to tyranny. Fitzsimons of Pennsylvania disproved of a uniform ad valorem duty on all imports. He said: "I have in contemplation to encourage domestic manufactures by protecting duties." Tucker of South Carolina enforced the necessity of great deliberation by calling attention to the antagonistic interests of the eastern, middle, and southern states in the article of tonnage. Boudinot of New Jersey wished glass to be taxed, for there were already several manufactures of it in the country. "We are able," said Hartley of Pennsylvania, "to furnish some domestic manufactures in sufficient quantity to answer the consumption of the whole union, and to work up our stock of materials even for exportation. In these cases I take it to be the policy of free, enlightened nations to give their manufactures that encouragement necessary to perfect them without oppressing the other parts of the community." "We must consider the general interests of the union," said Madison, "as much as the local or state interest. My * Madison, i., 450, 451. general principle is that commerce ought to be free, and labor and industry left at large to find their proper object." But he admitted that "the interests of the states which are ripe for manufactures ought to have attention, as the power of protecting and cherishing them has by the present constitution been taken from the states and its exercise thrown into other hands. Regulations in some of the states have produced establishments which ought not to be allowed to perish from the alteration which has taken place, while some manufactures being once formed can advance toward perfection without any adventitious aid. Some of the propositions may be productive of revenue and some may protect our domestic manufactures, though the latter subject ought not to be too confusedly blended with the former." "I," said Tucker, "am opposed to high duties because they will introduce and establish a system of smuggling, and because they tend to the oppression of citizens and states to promote the benefit of other states and other classes of citi zens. The election to the presidency found Washington prepared with a federal policy, which was the result of long meditation. He was resolved to preserve freedom, never transcending the powers delegated by the constitution; even at the cost of life to uphold the union, a sentiment which in him had a tinge of anxiety from his thorough acquaintance with what Grayson called "the southern genius of America;" to restore the public finances; to establish in the foreign relations of the country a thoroughly American system; and to preserve neutrality in the impending conflicts between nations in Europe. Across the Atlantic Alfieri cried out to him: "Happy are you, who have for the sublime and permanent basis of your glory the love of country demonstrated by deeds." On the fourteenth of April he received the official announcement of his recall to the public service, and was at ten o'clock on the morning of the sixteenth on his way. Though reluctant "in the evening of life to exchange a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties," he bravely said: "Be the voyage long or short, although I may be deserted by all men, integrity and firmness shall never forsake me." * Annals of Congress, i., 291. But for him the country could not have achieved its independence; but for him it could not have formed its union; and but for him it could not have set the federal government in successful motion. His journey to New York was one continued march of triumph. All the way he was met with addresses from the citizens of various towns, from societies, universities, and churches. His neighbors of Alexandria crowded round him with the strongest personal affection, saying: "Farewell, and make a grateful people happy; and may the Being who maketh and unmaketh at his will, restore to us again the best of men and the most beloved fellow-citizen." * To the citizens of Baltimore, Washington said: "I hold it of little moment if the close of my life shall be embittered, provided I shall have been instrumental in securing the liberties and promoting the happiness of the American people." + He assured the society for promoting domestic manufactures in Delaware that "the promotion of domestic manufactures may naturally be expected to flow from an energetic government;" and he promised to give "a decided preference to the produce and fabrics of America." + At Philadelphia, "almost overwhelmed with a sense of the divine munificence," he spoke words of hope: "The most gracious Being, who has hitherto watched over the interests and averted the perils of the United States, will never suffer so fair an inheritance to become a prey to anarchy or despotism." # At Trenton he was met by a party of matrons and their daughters, dressed in white, strewing flowers before him, and singing an ode of welcome to "the mighty chief" who had rescued them from a "mercenary foe." Embarking at Elizabeth Point in a new barge, manned by pilots dressed in white, he cleaved his course swiftly across the bay, between gayly decorated boats, filled with gazers who cheered him with instrumental music, or broke out in songs. As he touched the soil of New York he was welcomed by the two houses of congress, by the governor of the state, by the * Sparks, xii., 139, note. + Sparks, xii., 140, 141. # Sparks, xii., 141. |