History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States Volume II Part 26

But it was not easy for the most intelligent men out of the State to appreciate fully all the causes that exposed the Const.i.tution of the United States to a peculiar hazard in Ma.s.sachusetts, and made it necessary to procure its ratification by a kind of compromise with the opposition for a scheme of amendments. In no State was the spirit of liberty more jealous and exacting. In the midst of the Revolution, and led by the men who had carried on the profound discussions which preceded it,--discussions in which the natural rights of mankind and the civil rights of British subjects were examined and displayed as they had never been before,--the people of Ma.s.sachusetts had framed a State const.i.tution, filled with the most impressive maxims and the most solemn securities with which public liberty has ever been invested. Not content to trust obvious truths to implication, they expressly declared that government is inst.i.tuted for the happiness and welfare of the governed, and they fenced it round not only with the chief restrictions gained by their English ancestors, from Magna Charta down to the Revolution of 1688, but with many safeguards which had not descended to them from Runnymede or Westminster. It may be that an anxious student of politics, examining the early const.i.tution of Ma.s.sachusetts,--happily in its most important features yet unchanged,--would p.r.o.nounce it unnecessarily careful of personal rights and too jealous for the interests of liberty. But no intelligent mind, thoughtful of the welfare of society, can now think that to have been an excess of wisdom which formed a const.i.tution of republican government that has so well withstood the a.s.saults of faction and the levelling tendencies of a levelling age, and has withstood them because, while it carefully guarded the liberties of the people, it secured those liberties by inst.i.tutions which stand as bulwarks between the power of the many and the rights of the few.

It may hereafter become necessary for me to consider what degree of importance justly belongs to the amendments which the State of Ma.s.sachusetts, and to those which other States, so impressively insisted ought to be made to the Const.i.tution of the United States.

Without at present turning farther aside from the narrative of events, I content myself here with observing, that, whether the alleged defects in the Const.i.tution were important or unimportant, a people educated as the people of Ma.s.sachusetts had been would naturally regard some provisions as essential which they did not find in the plan presented to them.

The general aspect of parties in Ma.s.sachusetts, down to the time when the convention met, has been already considered. In the convention itself there was a majority originally opposed to the Const.i.tution; and if a vote had been taken at any time before the proposition for amendments was brought forward, the Const.i.tution would have been rejected. The opposition consisted of a full representation of the various parties and interests already described as existing among the people of the State who were unfriendly to it. One contemporary account gives as many as eighteen or twenty members, who had actually been out in what was called Shays's "army." Whether this enumeration was strictly correct or not, it is well known that the western counties of the State sent a large number of men whose sympathies were with that insurrection, who were friends of paper money and tender laws, and enemies of any system that would promote the security of debts. The members from the province of Maine had their own special objects to pursue. In addition to these were the honest and well-meaning doubters, who had examined the Const.i.tution with care and objected to it from principle. The antic.i.p.ated leader of this miscellaneous host was that celebrated and ardent patriot of the Revolution, Samuel Adams. With all his energy and his iron determination of character, however, he could be cautious when caution was expedient. He had read the Const.i.tution, and all the princ.i.p.al publications respecting it which had then appeared, and down to the time of the meeting of the convention he had maintained a good deal of reserve. But it was known that he disapproved of it.

This remarkable man--often called the American Cato--was far better fitted to rouse and direct the storms of revolution, than to reconstruct the political fabric after revolution had done its work.

He had the pa.s.sionate love of liberty, fertility of resource, and indomitable will, which are most needed in a truly great leader of a popular struggle with arbitrary power. But that struggle over, his usefulness in an emergency like the one in which Ma.s.sachusetts was now placed was limited to the actual necessity for the intervention of an extreme devotion to the maxims and principles of popular freedom. He believed that there was such a necessity, and he acted always as he believed. But his influence, at this time, was by no means commensurate with his power and reputation at a former day, and he appears to have wisely avoided a direct contest with the large body of very able men who supported the Const.i.tution.

That body of men would certainly have been, in any a.s.sembly convened for such a purpose, an overmatch in debate for Samuel Adams; for they were the civilians Fisher Ames, Parsons, King, Sedgwick, Gorham, Dana, Gore, Bowdoin, and Sumner, the Revolutionary officers Heath, Lincoln, and Brooks, and several of the most distinguished clergymen in the State. The names of the members who acted on the same side with Mr.

Adams, and were then regarded as leaders of the opposition, have reached posterity in no other connection.[420] But some of the elements of which that opposition was composed could not be controlled by any superiority in debate, and were, therefore, little in need of great powers of discussion or great wisdom in council. So far as their objections related to the powers to be conferred on the general government, or to the structure of the proposed system, they could be answered, and many of them could be, and were, convinced. But with respect to what they considered the defects of the Const.i.tution, theoretical reasoning, however able, could have no influence over men whose minds were made up; and it became, as the reader will see, necessary to make an effort to gain a majority by some course of action which would involve the concession that the proposed system required amendment.

There were great hazards attending this course, in reference to its effect on other States, although it was not impossible to procure by it the ratification of this convention. Notwithstanding all that had detracted from the former high standing of the State,--notwithstanding the easy explanation that might be given of the influence of her late internal disturbances upon her subsequent political affairs,--she was still Ma.s.sachusetts; still she was the eldest of all the States but one,--still she held in the sacred places of her soil the bones of the first martyrs to liberty,--still she was renowned, as she has ever been, for her intelligence,--still she wore a name of more than ordinary consideration among her sisters of the Confederacy. If it should go forth to New York, to Virginia, to the Carolinas, that Ma.s.sachusetts had p.r.o.nounced the Const.i.tution unfit for the acceptance of a free people, or had declared that public liberty could not be preserved under it without the addition of provisions which its framers had not made, the effect might be disastrous beyond all previous calculation. The legislature of New York, in session at the same time with the convention of Ma.s.sachusetts, was much divided on the question of submitting the Const.i.tution to a convention, and it was the opinion of careful observers that the result in either way in the latter State would involve that in the former. In Virginia the elections for their convention were soon to take place. In Pennsylvania the minority were becoming restless under their defeat, and were agitating plans which looked to the obstruction of the government when an attempt should be made to organize it. The convention of South Carolina was not to meet until May, and North Carolina stood in an extremely doubtful position. A great weight of responsibility rested therefore upon the convention of Ma.s.sachusetts.

Its proceedings commenced with a desultory debate upon the several parts of the instrument, which lasted until the 30th of January; the friends of the Const.i.tution having carefully provided, by a vote at the outset, that no separate question should be taken. The discussion of the various objections having been exhausted, Parsons[421] moved that the instrument be a.s.sented to and ratified. One or two general speeches followed this motion, and then Hanc.o.c.k, the President of the convention, descended from the chair, and, with some conciliatory observations, laid before it a proposition for certain amendments.

This step was not taken by him upon his own suggestion merely, although he was doubtless very willing to be the medium of a reconciliation between the contending parties. He was at that time Governor of the State, and had been placed in the chair of the convention, partly in deference to his official station and his personal eminence, and partly because he held a rather neutral position with respect to the Const.i.tution. These circ.u.mstances, as well as his Revolutionary distinction, led the friends of the Const.i.tution to seek his intervention; and his love of popularity and deference made the office of arbitrator exceedingly agreeable to him.

The selection was a wise one, for Hanc.o.c.k had great influence with the cla.s.ses of men composing the opposition, and he could not be suspected of any undue admiration of the system the adoption of which he was to recommend.

He proceeded with characteristic caution. It does not appear, from what is preserved of the remarks with which he presented his amendments, whether he intended they should become a condition precedent to the ratification, or should be adopted as a recommendation subsequent to the a.s.sent of the convention to the Const.i.tution then before it. He brought them forward, he said, to quiet the apprehensions and remove the doubts of gentlemen, relying on their candor to bear him witness that his wishes for a good const.i.tution were sincere. But the form of ratification which he proposed contained a distinct and separate acceptance of the Const.i.tution, and the amendments followed it, with a recommendation that they "be introduced into the said Const.i.tution." Samuel Adams, with much commendation of the Governor's proposition, immediately affected to understand it as recommending conditional amendments, and advocated it in that sense. Other members of the opposition understood it in the opposite sense, and, fearing its effect, insisted that the convention had no power to propose amendments, and that there could be no probability that, if recommended to the attention of the first Congress that might sit under the Const.i.tution, they would ever be adopted. Upon both of these points, the arguments of the other side were sufficient to convince a few of the more candid members of the opposition, and the Const.i.tution was ratified on the 7th of February, by a majority of nineteen votes,[422] the ratification being followed by a recommendation of certain amendments, and an injunction addressed to the representatives of the State in Congress to insist at all times on their being considered and acted upon in the mode provided by the fifth article of the Const.i.tution.

The smallness of the majority in favor of the Const.i.tution was in a great degree compensated by the immediate conduct of those who had opposed it. Many of them, before the final adjournment, expressed their determination, now that it had received the a.s.sent of a majority, to exert all their influence to induce the people to antic.i.p.ate the blessings which its advocates expected from it. They acted in accordance with their professions; and those portions of the people whose sentiments they had represented exhibited generally the same candor and patriotism, and acquiesced at once in the result. This course of the opposition in Ma.s.sachusetts was observed elsewhere, and largely contributed to give to the action of the State, in proposing amendments, a salutary influence in some quarters, which would otherwise have probably failed to attend it.

The amendments proposed by the convention of Ma.s.sachusetts were, as was claimed by those who advocated them, of a general, and not a local character; but they were at the same time highly characteristic of the State. They may be divided into three cla.s.ses. One of them embraced that general declaration which was afterwards incorporated with the amendments to the Const.i.tution, and which expressly reserved to the States or the people the powers not delegated to the United States.

Another cla.s.s of them comprehended certain restraints upon the powers granted to Congress by the Const.i.tution, with respect to elections, direct taxes, the commercial power, the jurisdiction of the courts, and the power to consent to the holding of t.i.tles or offices conferred by foreign sovereigns. The third cla.s.s contemplated the two great provisions of a presentment by a grand jury, for crimes by which an infamous or a capital punishment might be incurred, and trial by jury in civil actions at the common law between citizens of different States.

The people of Boston, although in general strongly in favor of the Const.i.tution, had carefully abstained from every attempt to influence the convention. But now that the ratification was carried, they determined to give to the event all the importance that belonged to it, by public ceremonies and festivities. On the 17th of February, there issued from the gates of Faneuil Hall an imposing procession of five thousand citizens, embracing all the trades of the town and its neighborhood, each with its appropriate decorations, emblems, and mottoes. In the centre of this long pageant, to mark the relation of everything around it to maritime commerce, and the relation of all to the new government, was borne the s.h.i.+p Federal Const.i.tution, with full colors flying, and attended by the merchants, captains, and seamen of the port.[423] On the following day, the rejoicings were terminated by a public banquet, at which each of the States that had then adopted the Const.i.tution was separately toasted, the minorities of Connecticut and Ma.s.sachusetts were warmly praised for their frank and patriotic submission, and strong hopes were expressed of the State of New York.

In this manner the Federalists of Ma.s.sachusetts wisely sought to kindle the enthusiasm of the country, and to conciliate the opinion of the States which were still to act, in favor of the new Const.i.tution.

The influence of their course did not fail in some quarters. In the convention of New Hamps.h.i.+re, which a.s.sembled immediately after that of Ma.s.sachusetts was adjourned, although there was a majority who, either bound by instructions or led by their own opinions, would have rejected the Const.i.tution if required to vote upon it immediately, yet that same majority was composed chiefly of men willing to hear discussion, willing to be convinced, and likely to feel the influence of what had occurred in the leading State of New England. There was a body of Federalists in New Hamps.h.i.+re acting in concert with the leading men of that party in Ma.s.sachusetts. They caused the same form of ratification and the same amendments which had been adopted in the latter State, with some additional ones, to be presented to their own convention.[424] The discussions changed the opinions of many of the members, but it was not deemed expedient to incur the hazard of a vote. The friends of the Const.i.tution found it necessary to consent to an adjournment, in order that the instructed delegates might have an opportunity to lay before their const.i.tuents the information which they had themselves received, and of which the people in the more remote parts of the State were greatly in need. Unfortunately, however, for the course of things in other States, the occurrence of a general election in New Hamps.h.i.+re made it necessary to adjourn the convention until the middle of June. We have seen what was the effect of this proceeding in Virginia, where it was both misunderstood and misrepresented. But it saved the Const.i.tution in New Hamps.h.i.+re.

Six States only, therefore, had adopted the Const.i.tution at the opening of the spring of 1788. The convention of Maryland a.s.sembled at Annapolis on the 21st of April. The convention of South Carolina was to follow in May, and the conventions of Virginia and New York were to meet in June. So critical was the period in which the people of Maryland were to act, that Was.h.i.+ngton considered that a postponement of their decision would cause the final defeat of the Const.i.tution; for if, under the influence of such a postponement, following that of New Hamps.h.i.+re, South Carolina should reject it, its fate would turn on the determination of Virginia.

The people of Maryland appear to have been fully aware of the importance of their course. They not only elected a large majority of delegates known to be in favor of the Const.i.tution, but a majority of the counties instructed their members to ratify it as speedily as possible, and to do no other act. This settled determination not to consider amendments, and not to have the action of the State misinterpreted, or its influence lost, gave great dissatisfaction to the minority. Their efforts to introduce amendments were disposed of quite summarily. The majority would entertain no proposition but the single question of ratification, which was carried by sixty-three votes against eleven, on the 28th of April.

On the first of May, there were public rejoicings and a procession of the trades, in Baltimore, followed by a banquet, a ball, and an illumination. In this procession, the miniature s.h.i.+p "Federalist,"

which was afterwards presented to General Was.h.i.+ngton, and long rode at anchor in the Potomac opposite Mount Vernon, was carried, as the type of commerce and the consummate production of American naval architecture.[425] The next day a packet sailed from the port of Baltimore for Charleston, carrying the news of the ratification by Maryland.[426] In how many days this "coaster" performed her voyage is not known; but it is a recorded, though now forgotten, fact among the events of this period, that on her return to Baltimore, where she arrived on Sat.u.r.day the 31st of May, the same vessel brought back the welcome intelligence, that on the 23d of that month, "at five o'clock in the afternoon," the convention of South Carolina had ratified the Const.i.tution of the United States. A salute of cannon on Federal Hill, in the neighborhood of Baltimore, spread the joyful news far down the waters of the Chesapeake to the sh.o.r.es of Virginia, and bold express riders placed it in Philadelphia before the following Monday evening.

Such was the anxiety with which the friends of the Const.i.tution in the centre of the Union watched the course of events in the remaining States. The accession of South Carolina was naturally regarded as very important. Her delegates in the national Convention had a.s.sumed what might be thought, at home and elsewhere, to be a great responsibility.

They had taken a prominent part in the settlement of the compromises which became necessary between the Northern and the Southern States.

They had consented to a full commercial power, to be exercised by a majority in both houses of Congress; to a power to extinguish the slave-trade in twenty years; and to a power of direct and indirect taxation, exports alone excepted. Would the people of South Carolina consider the provisions made for their peculiar demands as equivalents for what had been surrendered? Would they acquiesce in a system founded in the necessities for local sacrifices, standing as they did at the extremity of the interests involved in the Southern side of the adjustment?

It is not probable that the people of South Carolina, at the time of their adoption of the Const.i.tution, supposed that they had any solid reasons for dissatisfaction with such of its arrangements as in any way concerned the subject of slavery. A good deal was said, _ad captandum_, by the opponents of the Const.i.tution, on these points, but it does not appear to have been said with much effect. No man who has ever been placed by the State of South Carolina in a public position, has been more true to her interests and rights than General Pinckney; and General Pinckney furnished to the people of the State--speaking from his place in the legislature on his return from the national Convention--what he considered, and they received, as a complete answer to all that was addressed to their local fears and prejudices, on these particular topics. When he had shown that, by the universal admission of the country, the Const.i.tution had given to the general government no power to emanc.i.p.ate the slaves within the several States, and that it had secured a right which did not previously exist, of recovering those who might escape into other States; that the slave-trade would remain open for twenty years, a period that would suffice for the supply of all the labor of that kind which the State would require; and that the admission of the blacks into the basis of representation was a concession in favor of the State, of singular importance as well as novelty;--he had disposed of every ground of opposition relating to these points. And so the people of the State manifestly considered.

But there was one part of the arrangements included in the Const.i.tution, on which they appear to have thought that they had more reason to pause; and it is quite important that we should understand both the grounds of their doubt, and the grounds on which they yielded their a.s.sent to this part of the system. South Carolina was then, and was ever likely to be, a great exporting State. Some of her people feared that, if a full power to regulate commerce by the votes of a majority in the two houses of Congress were to be exercised in the pa.s.sage of a navigation act, the Eastern States, in whose behalf they were asked to grant such a power, would not be able to furnish s.h.i.+pping enough to export the products of the planting States. This apprehension arose entirely from a want of information; which some of the friends of the Const.i.tution supplied, while it was under discussion. They showed that, if all the exported products of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia were obliged to be carried in American bottoms, the Eastern States were then able to furnish more than s.h.i.+pping enough for the purpose; and that this s.h.i.+pping must also compete with that of the Middle States. Still it remained true, that the grant of the commercial power would enable a majority in Congress to exclude foreign vessels from the carrying trade of the United States, and so far to enhance the freights on the products of South Carolina. What then were the motives which appear to have led the convention of that State to agree to this concession of the commercial power?

It is evident from the discussions which took place in the legislature, and which had great influence in the subsequent convention, that the attention of the people of South Carolina was not confined to the particular terms and arrangements of the compromises which took place in the formation of the Const.i.tution. They looked to the propriety, expediency, and justice of a general power to regulate commerce, apart from the compromise in which it was involved. They admitted the commercial distresses of the Northern States; they saw the policy of increasing the maritime strength of those States, in order to encourage the growth of a navy; and they considered it neither prudent, nor fit, to give the vessels of all foreign nations a right to enter American ports at pleasure, in peace and in war, and whatever might be the commercial legislation of those nations towards the United States. For these reasons, a large majority of the people of South Carolina were willing to make so much sacrifice, be it more or less, as was involved in the surrender to a majority in Congress of the power to regulate commerce.[427]

Still, the Const.i.tution was not ratified without a good deal of opposition on the part of a considerable minority. As the convention drew towards the close of its proceedings, an effort was made to carry an adjournment to the following autumn, in order to gain time for the antic.i.p.ated rejection of the Const.i.tution by Virginia. This motion probably stimulated the convention to act more decisively than they might otherwise have done, for it touched the pride of the State in the wrong direction. After a spirited discussion it was rejected by a majority of forty-six votes, and the Const.i.tution was thereupon ratified by a majority of seventy-six. Several amendments were then adopted, to be presented to Congress for consideration, three of which were substantially the same with three of those proposed by Ma.s.sachusetts.[428]

On the 27th of May, there was a great procession of the trades, in Charleston, in honor of the accession of the State, in which the s.h.i.+p Federalist, drawn by eight white horses, was a conspicuous object, as it had been in the processions of other cities.

FOOTNOTES:

[411] See an account of him, _ante_, Vol. I. Book III. Chap. XIV.

[412] This was a mistake. On the 12th of September, Messrs. Gerry and Mason moved for a committee to prepare a bill of rights, but the motion was lost by an equal division of the States. Elliot, V. 538.

[413] Mr. McKean, although his residence was at Philadelphia, represented the lower counties of Delaware in Congress from 1774 to 1783. In 1777 he was made Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, being at the same time a member of Congress and President of the State of Delaware.

[414] The Const.i.tution was ratified by a vote of 46 to 23.

[415] This was at a meeting held at Harrisburg, September 3d, 1788.

[416] The opposite parties were so much excited against each other, and the course of New Jersey was viewed with so much interest at Philadelphia among the "Federalists," that a story found currency and belief there, to the effect that Clinton, the Governor of New York, had offered the State of New Jersey, through one of its influential citizens, one half of the impost revenue of New York, if she would reject the Const.i.tution. The preposterous character of such a proposition stamps the rumor with gross improbability. But its circulation evinces the anxiety with which the course of New Jersey was regarded in the neighboring States, and it is certain that the opposition in New York made great efforts to influence it.

[417] The situation of Georgia was brought to the notice of Was.h.i.+ngton immediately after his first inauguration as President of the United States, in an Address presented to him by the legislature of the State, in which they set forth two prominent subjects on which they looked for protection to "the influence and power of the Union." One of these was the exposure of their frontier to the ravages of the Creek Indians. The other was the escape of their slaves into Florida, whence they had never been able to reclaim them. Both of these matters received the early attention of Was.h.i.+ngton's administration.

[418] He stated the annual expenditure of the government, including the interest on the foreign debt, at 260,000 (currency), and then showed that, in the three States of Ma.s.sachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, 160,000 or 180,000 per annum had been raised by impost.

[419] Fragments only of the debates in the convention of Connecticut are known to be preserved. They may be found in the second volume of Elliot's collection.

[420] Three of them, Widgery, Thompson, and Nason, were from Maine; there was a Dr. Taylor from the county of Worcester, and a Mr. Bishop from the county of Bristol. These gentlemen carried on the greater part of the discussion against the Const.i.tution.

[421] Theophilus Parsons, afterwards the celebrated Chief Justice of Ma.s.sachusetts.

[422] Yeas, 187; nays, 168.

[423] This was the first of a series of similar pageants, which took place in the other princ.i.p.al cities of the Union, in honor of the ratification of the Const.i.tution.

[424] The form of ratification and the amendments introduced by Hanc.o.c.k into the convention of Ma.s.sachusetts were drawn by Theophilus Parsons. They were probably communicated to General Sullivan, the President of the New Hamps.h.i.+re convention, by his brother, James Sullivan, an eminent lawyer of Boston, afterwards Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts. The reader should compare the Ma.s.sachusetts amendments with those of the other States whose action followed that of Ma.s.sachusetts, for the purpose of seeing the influence which they exerted. (All the amendments may be found in the Journals of the Old Congress, Vol. XIII., Appendix.) See also _post_, Chap. III., as to the effect of the course of Ma.s.sachusetts on the mind of Jefferson.

[425] This little vessel sailed from Baltimore on the 1st of June, and arrived at Mount Vernon, "completely rigged and highly ornamented," on the 8th. It was a fine specimen of the then state of the mechanic arts. See an account of it in Was.h.i.+ngton's Works, IX. 375, 376.

[426] There was then no land communication between the two places, that could have carried intelligence in less than a month. A letter written by General Pinckney to General Was.h.i.+ngton on the 24th of May, announcing the result in South Carolina, was more than four weeks on its way to Mount Vernon. (Was.h.i.+ngton's Works, IX. 389.) General Was.h.i.+ngton had received the same news by way of Baltimore soon after its arrival there.

[427] See the course of argument of Edward Rutledge, General Pinckney, Robert Barnwell, Commodore Gillon, and others, as given in Elliot, IV.

253-316.

[428] See the Amendments, Journals of the Old Congress, Vol. XIII., Appendix.

CHAPTER III

RATIFICATIONS OF NEW HAMPs.h.i.+RE, VIRGINIA, AND NEW YORK, WITH PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.

South Carolina was the eighth State that had ratified the Const.i.tution, and one other only was required for its inauguration. In this posture of affairs the month of May in the year 1788 was closed.