History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States Volume I Part 23

CHAPTER IX.

MADISON.

From Hamilton we naturally turn to his a.s.sociate in the Federalist,--James Madison, afterwards fourth President of the United States,--whose faithful and laborious record has preserved to us the debates of the Convention.

Mr. Madison was thirty-six years old when he entered that a.s.sembly. His previous life had fitted him to play a conspicuous and important part in its proceedings. He was born in 1751, of a good family, in Orange County, Virginia, and was educated at Princeton College in New Jersey, where he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1772. He returned to Virginia in the spring of 1773, and commenced the usual studies preparatory to an admission to the bar; but the disputes between the Colonies and the mother country soon drew him into public life. In 1776, he became a member of the State Convention which formed the first Const.i.tution of Virginia. He was afterwards a member of the legislature and of the Council of the State, until he was appointed one of its delegates in Congress, where he took his seat in March, 1780.[405]

From this time to the a.s.sembling of the Federal Convention in 1787, his services to the Union were of the most important character. He entered Congress without a national reputation, but with national views. Indeed, it may be said of him, that he came from his native Commonwealth,--"mother of great men,"--grown to the full proportions of a continental statesman. At the moment when he appeared upon the larger theatre of the national interests, the Articles of Confederation had not been finally ratified by all the States.

Maryland had insisted, as a necessary condition of her accession to the new Confederacy, that the great States should surrender to the Union their immense claims to the unoccupied territories of the West; Virginia had remonstrated against this demand; and the whole scheme of the Confederation had thus been long encountered by an apparently insurmountable obstacle.[406] The generous example of New York, whose Western claims were ceded to the United States in the month preceding Mr. Madison's entry into Congress, had furnished to the advocates of the Union the means for a powerful appeal to both sides of this critical and delicate controversy; but it required great tact, discretion, and address to make that appeal effectual, by inducing Maryland to trust to the influence of this example upon Virginia, and by inducing Virginia to make a cession that would be satisfactory to Maryland. In this high effort of statesmans.h.i.+p--a domestic diplomacy full of difficulties--Mr. Madison took part. He did not prepare the very skilful report which, while it aimed to produce cessions of their territorial claims by the larger States, appealed to Maryland to antic.i.p.ate the result;[407] but the vast concession by which Virginia yielded the Northwestern Territory to the Union was afterwards brought about mainly by his exertions.

In 1782, he united with Hamilton in the celebrated report prepared by the latter upon the refusal of the State of Rhode Island to comply with the recommendations of Congress for a duty on imports.[408]

In 1783, he was named first upon a committee with Ellsworth and Hamilton, to prepare an Address to the States, urging the adoption of the revenue system which has been described in a previous chapter, and the Address was written by him.[409] The great ability and high tone of this paper gave it a striking effect. The object of this plan of revenue was, as we have seen, to fund the national debts, and to make a sufficient provision for their discharge. I have already a.s.signed to it the merit of having preserved the Union from the premature decay that had begun to destroy its vitality;[410] and it may here be added, that the statesman whose pen could produce the comprehensive and powerful appeal by which it was pressed upon the States, was certain to become one of the chief founders of the Const.i.tution of which the plan itself was the forerunner. It settled the fact, that a national unity in dealing with the debts of the Revolution was "necessary to render its fruits a full reward for the blood, the toils, the cares, and the calamities which had purchased them."

Such were Mr. Madison's most important services in the Congress of the Confederation; but they are of course not the whole. A member so able and of such broad and national views must have had a large agency in every important transaction; and accordingly the Journals, during the whole period of his service, bear ample testimony to his activity, his influence, and his zeal.

At the close of the war, he retired to Virginia, and during the three following years was a member of the legislature, still occupied, however, with the interests of the Union. His attention was specially directed to the subject of enlarging the powers of Congress over the foreign trade of the country. It is a striking fact, and a proof of the comprehensive character of Mr. Madison's statesmans.h.i.+p, that Virginia, a State not largely commercial, should have taken so prominent a part in the efforts to give the control of commerce to the general government;--an object which has justly been regarded as the corner-stone of the Const.i.tution. It arose partly from the accident of her geographical position, which made it necessary for her to aim at something like uniformity of regulation with the other States which bordered upon her contiguous waters; but it is also to be attributed to the enlightened liberality and forecast of her great men, who saw in the immediate necessities of their own State the occasion for a measure of general advantage to the country.

Mr. Madison's first effort was, to procure a declaration by the legislature of Virginia of the necessity for a uniform regulation of the commerce of the States by the federal authority. For this purpose, he introduced into the legislature a series of propositions, intended to instruct the delegates of the State in Congress to propose a recommendation to the States to confer upon Congress power to regulate their trade and to collect a revenue from such regulation. This measure, as we have seen, encountered the opposition of those who preferred a temporary to a perpetual and irrevocable grant of such power; and the propositions were so much changed in the Committee of the Whole, that they were no longer acceptable to their original friends. The steps which finally led the legislature of Virginia to recommend a general convention of all the States have been detailed in a previous chapter of this work; but it is due to Mr. Madison's connection with this movement, that they should here be recapitulated with reference to his personal agency in the various transactions.

A conflict of jurisdiction between the two States of Virginia and Maryland over the waters which separated them had, in the spring of 1785, led to the appointment of commissioners on the part of each State, who met at Alexandria in March. These commissioners, of whom Mr. Madison was one, made a visit to General Was.h.i.+ngton at Mount Vernon, and it was there proposed that the two States, whose conflicting regulations, ever since the peace, had produced great inconvenience to their merchants, and had been a constant source of irritation, should be recommended by the commissioners to make a compact for the regulation of their impost and foreign trade. Mr. Madison has left no written claim, that I am aware of, to the authors.h.i.+p of this suggestion, but there exists evidence of his having claimed it in conversation.[411] The recommendation was made by the commissioners, and their report was adopted by both States;--by Virginia unconditionally, and by Maryland with the qualification that the States of Delaware and Pennsylvania should be invited to unite in the plan.

After the commercial propositions introduced by Mr. Madison had lain on the table for some time as a report from the Committee of the Whole, the report of the Alexandria commissioners was received and ratified by the legislature of Virginia. Although the friends of those propositions were gradually increasing, Mr. Madison had no expectation that a majority could be obtained in favor of a grant of commercial powers to Congress for a longer term than twenty-five years. The idea of a general convention of delegates from all the States, which had been for some time familiar to Mr. Madison's mind, then suggested itself to him, and he prepared and caused to be introduced the resolution which led to the meeting that afterwards took place at Annapolis, for the purpose of digesting and reporting the requisite augmentation of the powers of Congress over trade.[412] His resolution, he says, being, on the last day of the session, "the alternative of adjourning without any effort for the crisis in the affairs of the Union, obtained a general vote; less, however, with some of its friends, from a confidence in the success of the experiment, than from a hope that it might prove a step to a more comprehensive and adequate provision for the wants of the Confederacy."[413]

Mr. Madison was appointed one of the commissioners of Virginia to the meeting at Annapolis. There he met Hamilton, who came meditating nothing less than the general revision of the whole system of the Federal Union, and the formation of a new government. Mr. Madison, although less confident than the great statesman of New York as to the measures that ought to be taken, had yet for several years been equally convinced that the perpetuity and efficacy of the existing system could not be confided in. He therefore concurred readily in the report recommending a general convention of all the States; and when that report was received in the legislature of Virginia, he became the author of the celebrated act which pa.s.sed that body on the 4th of December, 1786, and under which the first appointment of delegates to the Convention was made. It was also chiefly through his exertions, combined with the influence of Governor Randolph, that General Was.h.i.+ngton's name was placed at the head of the delegation, and that he was induced to accept the appointment. Mr.

Madison himself was the fourth member of the delegation.

In the Convention, his labors must have been far more arduous than those of any other member of the body. He took a leading part in the debates, speaking upon every important question; and in addition to all the usual duties devolving upon a person of so much ability and influence, he preserved a full and careful record of the discussions with his own hand. Impressed, as he says, with the magnitude of the trust confided to the Convention, and foreseeing the interest that must attach to an authentic exhibition of the objects, the opinions, and the reasonings from which the new system of government was to receive its peculiar structure and organization, he devoted the hours of the night succeeding the session of each day to the preparation of the record with which his name is imperishably a.s.sociated. "Nor was I," he adds, "unaware of the value of such a contribution to the fund of materials for the history of a Const.i.tution on which would be staked the happiness of a people, great even in its infancy, and possibly the cause of liberty throughout the world."[414]

As a statesman, he is to be ranked, by a long interval, after Hamilton; but he was a man of eminent talent, always free from local prejudices, and sincerely studious of the welfare of the whole country. His perception of the principles essential to the continuance of the Union and to the safety and prosperity of the States, was accurate and clear.

His studies had made him familiar with the examples of ancient and modern liberty, and he had carefully reflected upon the nature of the government necessary to be established. He was one of the few persons who carried into the Convention a conviction that an amendment of the Articles of Confederation would not answer the exigencies of the time.

He regarded an individual independence of the States as irreconcilable with an aggregate sovereignty of the whole, but admitted that a consolidation of the States into a simple republic was both impracticable and inexpedient. He sought, therefore, for some middle ground, which would at once support a due supremacy of the national authority, and leave the local authorities in force for their subordinate objects.

For this purpose, he conceived that a system of representation which would operate without the intervention of the States was indispensable; that the national government should be armed with a positive and complete authority in all cases where a uniformity of measures was necessary, as in matters of trade, and that it should have a negative upon the legislative acts of the States, as the crown of England had before the Revolution. He thought, also, that the national supremacy should be extended to the judiciary, and foresaw the necessity for national tribunals, in cases in which foreigners and citizens of different States might be concerned, and also for the exercise of the admiralty jurisdiction. He considered two branches of the legislature, with distinct origins, as indispensable; recognized the necessity for a national executive, and favored a council of revision of the laws, in which should be included the great ministerial officers of the government. He saw also, that, to give the new system its proper energy, it would be necessary to have it ratified by the authority of the people, and not merely by that of the legislatures.[415]

Such was the outline of the project which he had formed before the a.s.sembling of the Convention. How far his views were modified by the discussions in which he took part will be seen hereafter. As a speaker in a deliberative a.s.sembly, the successive schools in which he had been trained had given him a habit of self-possession which placed all his resources at his command. "Never wandering from his subject," says Mr.

Jefferson, "into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely, in language pure, cla.s.sical, and copious, soothing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, he rose to the eminent station which he held in the great national Convention of 1787; and in that of Virginia which followed, he sustained the new Const.i.tution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logic of George Mason and the fervid declamation of Mr. Henry. With these consummate powers were united a pure and spotless virtue, which no calumny has ever attempted to sully."[416]

Mr. Madison's greatest service in the national Convention consisted in the answers which he made to the objections of a want of power in that a.s.sembly to frame and propose a new const.i.tution, and his paper on this subject in the Federalist is one of the ablest in the series.

As this work is confined to the period which terminated with the adoption of the Const.i.tution, it is not necessary to examine those points on which the two princ.i.p.al writers of the Federalist became separated from each other, when the administration of the government led to the formation of the first parties known in our political history.

These topics it may become my duty to discuss hereafter, should I pursue the const.i.tutional history of the country through the administration of Was.h.i.+ngton. At present, it may be recorded of both, that, upon almost all the great questions that arose before the Const.i.tution was finally adopted, the single purpose of establis.h.i.+ng a system as efficient as the theory of a purely republican government would admit, was the object of their efforts; and that, although they may have differed with regard to the details and methods through which this object was to be reached, the purpose at which they both aimed places them in the same rank at the head of those founders of our government, towards whom the grat.i.tude of the succeeding generations of America must be for ever directed.[417]

FOOTNOTES:

[405] Article "Madison" in the Penny Encyclopaedia, written for that work by Professor George Tucker of the University of Virginia.

[406] Ante, pp. 131-141.

[407] It was drawn by James Duane of New York.

[408] Ante, pp. 174, 206-208.

[409] Ante, pp. 177-179.

[410] Ante, pp. 176, 186, 188.

[411] In preparing the note to page 342 (ante), I refrained from attributing to General Was.h.i.+ngton the suggestion of the enlarged plan recommended by the Alexandria commissioners, although it was concerted at his house, because there is no evidence, beyond that fact, of his having proposed this enlargement of the plan. Since that note was printed, I have learned in a direct manner, that Mr. Madison had stated to the Hon. Edward Coles, formerly his private secretary and afterwards Governor of Illinois, that he (Mr. Madison) first suggested it. In a.s.signing, therefore, to the different individuals who took a prominent part in the measures which led to the formation of the Const.i.tution, the various suggestions which had an important influence upon the course of events,--a curious and interesting inquiry,--I consider that to Mr.

Madison belongs the credit of having originated that series of Virginia measures which brought about the meeting of commissioners of all the States at Annapolis, for the purpose of enlarging the powers of Congress over commerce; while Hamilton is to be considered the author of the plan in which the Convention at Annapolis was merged, for an entire revision of the federal system and the formation of a new const.i.tution.

[412] The resolve was introduced by Mr. Tyler, father of the Ex-President, a person of much influence in the legislature, and who had never been in Congress. Although prepared by Mr. Madison, it was not offered by him, for the reason that a great jealousy was felt against those who had been in the federal councils, and because he was known to wish for an enlargement of the powers of Congress. See Madison's Introduction to the Debates in the Convention, Elliot, V. 113.

[413] Ibid., p. 114.

[414] Introduction to the Debates, Elliot, V. 121.

[415] Letter to Edmund Randolph, dated New York, April 8, 1787.

[416] Jefferson's Autobiography. Works, I. 41, edition of 1853.

[417] The following extract from an autograph letter of Mr. Madison, hitherto unpublished, which lies before me, written after the adoption of the Const.i.tution, shows very clearly that he concurred with Hamilton in the opinion that the strongest government consistent with the republican form was necessary in the situation of this country. The letter is dated at Philadelphia, December 10, 1788, and is addressed to Philip Mazzei, at Paris.

"Your book, as I prophesied, sells nowhere but in Virginia; a very few copies only have been called for, either in New York or in this city.

The language in which it is written will account for it. In order to attract notice, I translated the panegyric in the French Mercure, and had it made part of the advertis.e.m.e.nt. I did not translate the comment on the Federal Const.i.tution, as you wished, because I could not spare the time, as well as because I did not approve the tendency of it. Some of your remarks prove that Horace's '_Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt_' does not hold without exception. In Europe, the abuses of power continually before your eyes have given a bias to your political reflections, which you did not feel in equal degree when you left America, and which you would feel less of, if you had remained in America. Philosophers on the old continent, in their zeal against tyranny would rush into anarchy; as the horrors of superst.i.tion drive them into atheism. Here, perhaps, the inconveniences of relaxed government have reconciled too many to the opposite extreme. If your plan of a single legislature, as in Pennsylvania, &c., were adopted, I sincerely believe that it would prove the most deadly blow ever given to republicanism. Were I an enemy to that form, I would preach the very doctrines which are preached by the enemies to the government proposed for the United States. Many of our best citizens are disgusted with the injustice, instability, and folly which characterize the American administrations. The number has for some time been rapidly increasing.

Were the evils to be much longer protracted, the disgust would seize citizens of every description.

"It is of infinite importance to the cause of liberty to ascertain the degree of it which will consist with the purposes of society. An error on one side may be as fatal as on the other. Hitherto, the error in the United States has lain in the excess.

"All the States, except North Carolina and Rhode Island, have ratified the proposed Const.i.tution. Seven of them have appointed their Senators, of whom those of Virginia, R. H. Lee and Colonel Grayson, alone are among the opponents of the system. The appointments of Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia will pretty certainly be of the same stamp with the majority. The House of Representatives is yet to be chosen, everywhere except in Pennsylvania. From the partial returns received, the election will wear a federal aspect unless the event in one or two particular counties should contradict every calculation. If the eight members from this State be on the side of the Const.i.tution, it will in a manner secure the majority in that branch of the Congress also. The object of the anti-Federalists is, to bring about another general convention, which would either agree on nothing, as would be agreeable to some, and throw every thing into confusion, or expunge from the Const.i.tution parts which are held by its friends to be essential to it.

The latter party are willing to gratify their opponents with every supplemental provision for general rights, but insist that this can be better done in the mode provided for amendments.

"I remain, with great sincerity, your friend and servant,

"JAS. MADISON, JR."

CHAPTER X.

FRANKLIN.