BEGINNING AN EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT
In the manner of its formation and adoption the Constitution was the
product of a confederation. In these respects, it was little in advance
of the rejected Articles. Its strength lay in the possibilities of its
administration. But as a document in 1789, it was the product of
federated States. If all the people of the United States could have
assembled and formed a constitution to go into effect immediately, or
even if delegates, chosen by the people of the United States as a
whole, had drawn up such a document, which had been adopted by the
entire people or their delegates in a ratifying body, there would have
been a national sovereignty wholly independent of the States from the
beginning. Such a procedure was impossible--the very best reason why
it was not attempted. A pure democracy is possible only among a small
number of people living in a small State. For a large population and
an extensive territory representative government must be substituted.
If the idea of government in the British colonies in North America had
been national instead of local from the beginning, the States would
have disappeared under the Constitution, or have been kept only for
selecting national representatives, and performing other national
functions. An equipoise between the two could never have been reached.
But fate had ordained otherwise. In a new land, the settlers naturally
gathered into little groups for mutual protection. Collecting about
some harbour or along some navigable waterway in the Northern colonies,
or assembling from the plantations at the centre of the parish in the
Southern colonies, the people instituted local government. Clusters
of these units under home rule formed larger divisions, and, in this
way, union came as an afterthought resulting from contiguity and
intercourse. The States as colonies existed long before the Union.
Individualism was born long before unity in America, and gained a
prestige which aggregation has required nearly a century to overcome.
The ease with which the various States formed their first constitutions
and the ease with which they corrected errors by substituting later
frames, is an additional proof of their early efficiency. No State had
as much difficulty as did the nation in reaching a workable basis. It
is true that the national Congress first suggested State governments
to the chaotic colonies, but they did not authorise them. The colonies
looked to the nation for a uniform suggestion, but neither for sanction
nor permission. Never for a moment did the members of the Continental
Congress assume that they were working independently of their States,
but considered themselves subordinate to the State assemblies. The
States were always the last resort of Confederation days. The story
of the United States is largely taken up with the struggle of the
States to retain their early supremacy when that supremacy was menaced
from time to time by new conditions.
Whatever destiny may have made of the later Union, whatever theories
may now be indulged in concerning the abstract Union the fathers made
in 1789, the concrete Union which was put into effect was the offspring
of the States not only in the thoughts of the people, but it was even
dependent upon them for aid in several particulars necessary for putting
it into operation. Having no electoral machinery, the Union was
compelled to ask the States to choose members of both branches of its
Congress. In electing its chief executive, it was obliged to give the
States sole charge of choosing electors for this purpose. A national
election gradually came into existence because the Union took this
control practically away from the States. The Federal Government was
indebted to State agency for its first capitol, the Federal Hall,
furnished it by the kindness of the City of New York. It had not a
foot of soil independent of the States, State militia furnished the
military escort for its President-elect, and a State governor, Clinton
of New York, with his staff, gave him official welcome to the State
and national capital combined. Even the oath given to the chief
executive, an oath required by the national Constitution, was
administered not by a national official, but by the chancellor of the
State of New York.
An independent national government such as time has given us, and such
as would be formed in the light of the present day, would not leave
the method of choosing its presidential electors to the whims of the
several States. At the time, no other method was possible. The State
machinery was at hand and could be utilised. The national appliances
had not yet been evolved. In some States the size of the precincts
made voting well-nigh impossible. Residents of Luzerne County,
Pennsylvania, must travel several hundred miles to the polls, according
to Timothy Pickering. Although the Assembly of Virginia placed a fine
upon every qualified voter who failed to perform his duty, and although
the Federalists of Maryland offered a roasted ox at one polling-place
to attract voters, it is estimated that not more than one-fourth the
men entitled to vote availed themselves of the privilege. Many had
been so recently enfranchised by the State constitutions that they did
not appreciate the right. Independence having been won, the details
of government failed to maintain civic zeal. In present-day elections,
by contrast, as many as five-sixths of those qualified to vote at
national elections avail themselves of the privilege.
It must also be noted that State qualifications for freemen determined
who should vote in this first national election. In those States where
the people voted, statistics show that only three men out of every
hundred of population could vote in this first presidential election,
where nowadays twenty men have that liberty. In some States, the people
had no voice whatever in choosing the President, because the State
Legislatures decided that they were the proper mediums to choose the
presidential electors. The Constitution left the matter entirely in
their hands. In some States, the people voted for electors in fixed
districts; in other States they voted for a whole electoral ticket.
This system of choosing a President through a set of electors, borrowed
from the method of electing a German emperor, was far removed from
democracy. It showed the distrust which the Constitution-makers felt
in the intelligence and discrimination of the masses. Irregularity
marked the elections generally. Two factions in the New York Legislature
fell into a dispute over the manner in which Senators and electors
should be chosen. It resulted in that State being deprived of
participation in the first election and in the first session of the
Senate. Before the next presidential election, Congress began to make
regulations governing the States in their conduct of this important
matter, an innovation which grew until it culminated in the election
"force laws" of reconstruction days following the Civil War.
"The first Wednesday in March next shall be the time and the present
seat of government the place for commencing proceedings under the said
Constitution." So accustomed had the people grown to delays in public
affairs, that a strict compliance with these provisions of the old
Congress would have been a surprise. The first Wednesday of March,
1789, fell upon the fourth day of the month. At noon of that day, when
the members constituting the two branches of the first Congress under
the Constitution assembled in the rooms arranged for their sessions
in the reconstructed City Hall of New York, there was no quorum in
either House. Since eleven States had adopted the new plan and each
was entitled to two Senators, twelve members of that body would be
necessary to constitute a quorum. But only eight were present. These
sent out one circular letter after another to the delinquent members,
begging their immediate attendance. The condition of the roads at that
season of the year and the inadequate means of transportation can
scarcely be imagined at present. Madison, because of poor roads between
Montpelier and Baltimore, missed the stage and lost two whole days,
as he complained. However, one by one the tardy Senators arrived, and
on April 6th, over a month late, the Senate found itself with a quorum.
Even then there were only two members present from States south of
Pennsylvania. Having read their credentials of election, they proceeded
to elect a presiding officer "for the sole purpose" of opening the
votes cast by the electors for President and Vice-President of the
United States. The latter, according to the new plan of government,
would be their permanent presiding officer. The choice for the temporary
office fell upon Senator Langdon, of New Hampshire, a member of the
convention which had framed the Constitution.
On the 4th day of March, the new House of Representatives had only
thirteen members present. The Constitution required that they should
be chosen by the people in the different States. The State Legislatures
were unable to monopolise the elections as they did the presidential
elections in certain States. Yet the people took little interest in
this first congressional election. Out of 3,200,000 people, probably
not more than one hundred thousand voted. Until some count of the
number of people could be taken to secure a proportionate
representation, the Constitution had set an arbitrary number of
sixty-five, apportioning them among the States by a guess at the
respective populations. Rhode Island and North Carolina not being in
the Union deducted six from this total, making thirty necessary for
a quorum. Day after day, the incomplete House adjourned. New members
arrived at intervals until the first day of April, when a quorum was
had, just four weeks late.
As first formed, the House consisted of the following members: New
Hampshire, 1; Massachusetts, 5; Connecticut, 5; New Jersey, 2;
Pennsylvania, 6; Maryland, 2; Virginia, 8; South Carolina, 1. Other
members arrived from time to time. More or less irregularity had marked
the elections in the various States. A protest soon reached the House
from citizens of New Jersey claiming that the four members from that
State had not been legally elected. The polls had been kept open in
one district for two weeks, until closed by a proclamation from the
governor. From South Carolina came charges against a member that he
had not been a citizen of the United States the required seven years
at the time of his election. Although a native of South Carolina, he
was being educated in Europe during the Revolutionary period and had
returned to the State after the close of the war, but before the
adoption of the national Constitution. Contested elections here find
early precedents. In both cases the House declared the elections valid
and the members entitled to their seats.
[Illustration: HEADING OF THE FIRST LAW PASSED UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.]
Although the delay of nearly a month in securing a quorum in the new
Congress was not alarming, it was most unfortunate. Never had the
National Government come so near abdicating in favour of the State
governments. There had been no sessions of the old Congress for the
past six months, although straggling members appeared from time to
time. There was a national Board of the Treasury wrestling with the
problem of home and foreign creditors, but confronted with an empty
coffer. Jay was acting as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and Knox was
Secretary of War. There was positively no other evidence of "The United
States of America" except an "army" composed of a few soldiers scattered
along the frontier. Jefferson, Minister to France, wished a leave of
absence, which Jay thought reasonable. "But, my dear sir," he said,
"there is no Congress sitting, nor have any of their servants authority
to interfere. As soon as the President shall be in office, I will,
without delay, communicate your letters to him." Madison foresaw
contentions, "first between federal and anti-federal parties, and then
between northern and southern parties, which give an additional
disagreeableness to the prospect." John Adams pronounced the nation
united in nothing save the choice of Washington.
After quorums were secured, new problems confronted this National
Government, feeling its way without precedent. Only eleven States had
come into the new agreement. The North Carolina Convention had adjourned
without action, and Rhode Island had rejected the Constitution by a
popular vote of 2708 to 232. Had a Congress representing eleven States
the right, even if it had the power, to legislate for thirteen sovereign
States? Many felt that important questions like amendments to the
Constitution should be postponed until the United States were united
in fact as well as in name. Even eleven States were insufficiently
represented. Delaware had only one Senator and no Representative at
hand. South Carolina had but one Senator present. The influential State
of New York, the home of Hamilton and Jay, the place of meeting of the
new Congress, was in the throes of a political "dead lock."
There was also no precedent for the workings of two branches of the
National Legislature. Some prophets of evil who recalled the
difficulties in one House of the Continental Congress predicted a
double portion of woe under the new arrangement. It must not be supposed
that a bicameral system was entirely a novelty. The colonies generally
had such a system and, on becoming States, had adopted, with one
exception, that form. It was true, as many recalled, that contests had
frequently arisen between the colonial council and the popular assembly,
especially where the former was appointed by the colonial governor.
It was scarcely to be hoped that all friction could be avoided between
the two branches of the United States Congress. They possessed to a
large extent joint powers, and yet had individual initiative and
control. A further difference might arise from the variation of the
constituency which they represented. The Senate was appointed by and
represented the States in their sovereign capacity, as the House of
Lords represented the pleasure of the British sovereign. The House of
Representatives was dependent upon and represented the direct interests
of the people, as did the Commons under the British Constitution.
The Senate had the advantage of the prestige of the colonial council.
When the day arrived for opening the presidential ballots the Senate
notified the House that it was ready, and the latter obediently mounted
the stairs to the small Senate chamber, where the ballots were counted,
disclosing a unanimous election for George Washington and a majority
for John Adams. The Senate immediately despatched messengers to notify
these men to attend and be inaugurated. This feeling of superiority
on the part of the Senate was not diminished, as its members
contemplated the power of ratifying treaties and confirming appointments
which they shared with the Chief Executive, as well as the long tenure
of office and permanent session with which the body had been endowed.
Because of this executive function, the Senate followed the example
of the Continental Congress, and refused to admit the public to hear
any of its deliberations during the first five sessions. It then yielded
to public opinion and opened its doors when acting in its legislative
capacity, going into secret session only when exercising its executive
powers. To counterbalance these extraordinary functions, the House had
only the exclusive right of originating revenue bills.
The necessary connection of the two Houses was recognised at the very
beginning of the sessions by the appointment of joint committees to
prepare rules for conference on bills upon which the two bodies might
differ; to arrange for the transmission of papers; to dispose of the
papers of the old Congress; to arrange for the inauguration of the
first President; and to provide for the election of chaplains. Many
of these matters common to both were easily adjusted. Two chaplains
of different denominations were to be appointed, one by each House,
and they were to interchange weekly. In this way Congress hoped to
avoid the ever-recurring fear that one sect might be patronised until
it became the established church. But upon the apparently minor point
of the manner of transmitting papers from one body to the other a
difference arose. The joint committee reported to each House an
elaborate method whereby the Senate should send a bill or message to
the House by its secretary. This official was to make an obeisance on
entering the House, and another on delivering the paper to the Speaker,
a third after it had left his hands and a fourth as he left the room.
When the House sent up a bill to the Senate, it was to be carried by
two members, undoubtedly in imitation of the custom of members of the
Commons carrying a bill to the Lords. Precisely as many bows and at
corresponding places were demanded of these two members as the secretary
of the Senate was required to make in the House. All messages except
bills could be carried up by one member, who should make the four
obeisances. As a return courtesy the entire Senate should rise when
two members entered the room, or the President of the Senate only, in
case one member appeared with a message.
This exhaustive ceremonial clearly gave such superior standing to the
Senate that it was rejected by the House. Being recommitted to the
joint committee, they reported a simple substitute whereby any message
should be sent from either House to the other by "such persons as a
sense of propriety in each House may determine to be proper." The
messenger was to be announced at the door and should communicate his
message to the presiding officer. This in turn was rejected by the
form-admiring Senate. Finally the Senate sent notice to the House that
if their members should bring up a bill or message as originally
provided, they would be received as first promised; but if they chose
to send it by another agent he must hand the paper to the secretary
of the Senate, who would deliver it to the President of the Senate.
The House chose a messenger as their agent; the Senate soon followed
the plain example; and thus a simple custom was inaugurated which has
held to the present day.
The wisdom of providing some arrangement for a conference in case of
disagreement between the two Houses was manifest several times in the
first session. Conferences were held on no less than nine of the
ninety-five measures passed. It is impossible, in the absence of
reported debates, to ascertain the attitude of the Senate toward the
other branch. Maclay, the garrulous Senator from Pennsylvania, whose
diary is invaluable during these closed-door sessions, mentions several
instances in which the Senate coerced the House by threatening to hold
up appropriation bills. "It was a trial of skill in the way of
starvation," he declares. The temper of the House when contending for
what it considered its prerogatives can be seen from the debates.
"I am an advocate for supporting the dignity of the House," said a
member from New York, debating a disagreement with the Senate, "and to
me it appears somewhat inconsistent that we should change our sentiments
in order to conform to the amendments of the Senate.... If we are to
follow the Senate in all the alterations they propose, without hearing
reasons to induce a change, our time in deliberation is taken up
unnecessarily."
On a similar occasion, when the tonnage bill was being worked out by
compromise, a member from Delaware hoped that the House would not
recede from its position, "otherwise it might be considered that the
House was under the government of the Senate, and adopted their opinions
without arguments being offered to convince their judgments." A Virginia
member "would rather lose any bill than have the doctrine established
that this House must submit to the Senate; yet, if it was done in this
instance, it would serve as a precedent in future decisions." In this
slow manner, and with frequent irritation, the two branches of the
National Legislature adjusted themselves to each other and formed
precedents which have held for a century. The first measure to pass
both Houses, receive the President's assent, and become a law, defined
the oath which every officer of the National Government was required
by the Constitution to take. It became a law within two months after
quorums were obtained.
The relations of the two branches to the Executive were not so close
and, therefore, more easily adjusted. No little credit is due to the
very cool and conservative man who became the executive head of the
revived nation. Even the journey of the President-elect from his home
to the seat of government had been a continued ovation. It can be
compared only with his progress to Cambridge nearly a score of years
before to take command of the Revolutionary army. In both instances
he was regarded as the deliverer of the country from a great peril.
Possessed of probably the largest fortune in America, he could not be
accused, as were many of his compatriots, of mercenary motives in his
public actions. His freedom from personal ambition and selfish motive
having been tested in the tempting days of the war, he could be relied
upon by the people not to betray them in their extremity by any
assumption of powers. Reputed to be a man of great self-control, almost
cold-blooded in his self-guardedness, having dwelt far removed from
the partisan strife pertaining naturally to populous centres, he would
be careful in forming opinions, conservative in actions, and unlikely
to yield to the influence of faction or partisanship. A moral man for
that day, but neither a propagandist nor a zealot, he was unlikely to
favour any sect or establishment of religion--a danger against which
every possible precaution had been taken.
Even while the electors were being chosen and were holding their
meetings in the several States, it was understood that Washington would
undoubtedly be the choice for the first President. Indeed, before the
Constitution had been fully formed, Hamilton and others were naming
him. In the State conventions which considered the new form, speakers
did not hesitate to predict his election. The assurance that the dreaded
power would be first entrusted to his hands to form precedents persuaded
many to try the change. John Adams, recently returned from representing
his Government in Great Britain, and finding himself chosen to the
second place, was said to be unable to comprehend how Washington's
military experience had fitted him for this civic duty. Yet it was
simply the first of many instances in which the gratitude of the people,
backed by innate hero-worship, has singled out a war hero for the
highest civic honours. Hence it came about that the very unanimity of
election, for which all had hoped, defeated the purpose of the framers
of the Constitution to have an unbiassed selection made by the
presidential electors. This, or a like cause, has thwarted the purpose
in every succeeding election of a President.
[Illustration: FEDERAL HALL, NEW YORK CITY. Upon the balcony between
the pillars of the second story Washington was inaugurated President,
April 30, 1789. Congress sat in this building in 1789 and 1790.]
Considering the descent of the American people at that time, it is not
surprising that the inauguration of the first President was copied
largely from the inauguration of a British sovereign. Our fathers were
not attempting to experiment with novelties of government, but to adapt
tried methods to their needs. The trappings of royalty to be seen in
an ancient kingdom were replaced in this Republic by a military display,
significant of the means by which its birthright had been won. The
royal procession from Buckingham Palace to the Abbey was reproduced
in miniature in the escort of the President from the Osgood House, his
temporary residence, to the Government chambers. The religious and
civic rites observed at Westminster Abbey were here separated, the
religious service being held at St. Paul's Chapel and the civic in the
little recess or gallery between two pillars which had been made by
the architect in transforming the New York City Hall into the National
Federal Hall. The oath was taken upon a copy of the Bible by both
monarch and President. The shouts from the crowd in front of the Federal
Hall in Wall Street which followed Chancellor Livingston's cry of "Long
live George Washington, President of the United States!" were no less
sincere, although coming from fewer throats, than the cries of "Long
live the King!" and "God save the King!" which proclaimed the homage
of British subjects to their monarch. The cannon in old Fort George,
down near the Battery, could greet a President as lustily as those in
the Tower proclaimed a king.
But every departure from royal custom was in the direction of simplicity
of detail. Instead of being surrounded by nobles and courtiers, the
President was attended by the committees on inauguration from the
Senate and House, by Vice-President Adams, Governor Clinton, and others.
The coronation feast in the palace was republicanised into a dinner
at the residence of Governor Clinton. The rich robes of the sovereign,
to make which the resources of an empire were drawn upon, were
transformed into a suit of ordinary clothing made entirely in America.
Instead of being seated in an ancient chair endowed with kingly legend,
the American President stood during the short ceremony. Instead of
being administered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the oath was given
to him by the Chancellor of the State of New York. The fair and
festivities which commonly ended the first day of a new monarch were
changed into an illumination of the city of New York and a display of
fireworks.
The ceremonies between the new President and the Congress bore an even
closer resemblance to those accustomed to be seen at a coronation or
upon the opening of a session of Parliament. The inauguration speech
of the monarch took the shape of an inaugural address by the President,
which confessed a lack of personal assurance and a reliance upon a
Higher Power, called attention to the benefits of government, and
begged the co-operation of all concerned in it. The speech from the
throne at the opening of Parliament became a message to Congress at
the opening of each session. Like the king's speech, it was divided
into a general address to both Houses, and a special message to each.
The attention of the House of Representatives was called to various
financial matters, as the English monarch had been compelled to do
since the stormy Stuart period.
Early in Washington's administration the Senate showed conclusively,
by refusing to hear the Secretary of War explain an Indian treaty,
that the Cabinet was not to have the British privilege of initiating
legislation. Washington was compelled, consequently, to recommend to
each branch of Congress in his opening address such matters as he
thought demanded legislation. It is the only form of influencing
Congress which has ever been given to the President, barring patronage.
On these State occasions, when opening Congress, Washington was
accustomed to ride down to the Federal Hall in the coach provided for
him by Congress, with four instead of the two white horses usually
driven, and outriders in advance as well as the two secretaries who
rode habitually on horseback behind the coach. As was the custom in
Parliament, a committee was appointed in each branch of Congress to
draft a reply to the President's address. In due time this was carried
by the Senators in solemn procession, headed by Vice-President Adams,
to Washington's residence, where it was handed to him. The more
democratic House of Representatives contented itself with presenting
its reply to the President in a vacant room in the Federal building.
To each of these replies Washington was accustomed to make a
counter-reply, thanking the members for their courtesy and promising
his continued efforts to secure the objects they suggested.
These forms and ceremonials, although copied originally from Britain,
had been used in the inauguration of colonial governors and in the
opening of colonial assemblies. They furnish a further proof that the
American nation has been a thing of growth, an imitation of existing
conditions until such time as originality could be developed or
imitations transformed to meet the new conditions. Local forms furnished
the models. They would be changed only as national ideals were
developed. The fact that most of these European ceremonials were lopped
off within twelve years shows how rapidly originality was developed.
During the first session Congress took up "the principal officer in
each of the executive departments," as authorised by the Constitution.
It was understood that these would be about the same as had been
developed during the preceding years, viz., Foreign Affairs, Treasury,
and War. It was not foreseen that they would become in time a "Cabinet."
To these three departments Congress added a fourth, Justice, for which
an attorney-general was appointed. He was considered a head of an
executive department and ranked with the other three among the
President's advisers.
The wisdom of the framers of the Constitution in simply arranging
outlines instead of filling in details was nowhere better shown than
in the provisions for the national judiciary. Congress was bound only
to establish "one superior court" and could add such inferior courts
as necessity might demand from time to time. So essential was a national
judiciary felt to be, that during the pressing business of the first
session the United States was divided for this purpose into thirteen
judicial districts, conforming generally to the eleven States in the
Union, each to have a district court held by a Federal judge. These
districts were then grouped into an eastern, a middle, and a southern
circuit, in accord with the geographical grouping of the States. In
these two circuit courts were to be held each year by one or more
district judges and one or more justices of the Supreme Court. The
latter, the final tribunal of appeal from these inferior courts, was
to consist of a chief justice and five associate justices. Necessary
officers, such as marshals and clerks, were given to these courts,
rules were formulated for their procedure, and an act was passed at
the next session defining crimes against the United States. A resident
of any State was by these acts made the subject of a new sovereign,--the
United States of America,--liable to be punished for treason committed
not against his State, but against the nation; to be prosecuted for
piracy on the seas; for counterfeiting money, altering records,
committing perjury in the Federal courts, resisting a national official,
or offering violence to a foreign representative.
The United States could now command some respect from the individual.
The Union would also assume a new dignity from being a judge instead
of an arbiter between the States. No more would such long-continued
warfare as the territorial dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania
bring the Republic into ill-repute. This new judicial power extended
to "controversies between citizens of different States." Never again
would the cumbersome machinery of Federal commissioners to hear disputed
claims to territory be called into service--a kind of Platonic
lot-casting phantasy--because the new national judiciary system covered
"controversies between two or more States." What powerful possibilities
were given to the new Central Government in the provision that the
Supreme Court should have "appellate jurisdiction from the courts of
the several States in the cases hereinafter specially provided for."
It would be found as futile to restrict the cases in which the national
court should have an appeal from the State courts as to attempt to
reserve all the powers to the States not expressly granted to the
Union. In the haste necessarily attendant upon suddenly putting the
provisions of the new government into effect, no one had the leisure
if any possessed the foresight to consider the limits to which the
Federal courts might extend its authority in the light of
interpretation. Even Jefferson later confessed that this member of the
Federal Government was at first considered as the most harmless and
helpless of all its organs.
[Illustration: THE PRESIDENTIAL MANSION, FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK
CITY 1789.]
The beginnings of the national judiciary were so modest that no one
could have taken alarm. The day that he signed the judiciary bill,
Washington nominated John Jay, of New York, to be chief justice of the
court, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, to be attorney-general, and John
Rutledge, of South Carolina, James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, William
Gushing, of Massachusetts, Robert H. Harrison, of Maryland, and John
Blair, of Virginia, to be associate justices.
State distribution of patronage was not such a criterion as in later
appointments; yet the department of Justice represented all parts of
the country. Considered from a sectional point, there seemed at the
time little likelihood that the court would prove hostile to Southern
individualism, since it contained, counting the attorney-general, four
Southern men and three Northern men. District judges, attorneys, and
marshals for the eleven judicial districts were appointed at the same
time. A joint resolution of Congress asked the States to give their
jailers power to receive and hold United States prisoners.
"Many of your old acquaintances and friends," wrote Washington to
Lafayette, "are concerned with me in the administration of this
government. By having Mr. Jefferson at the head of the department of
state, Mr. Jay of the judiciary, Hamilton of the treasury, and Knox that
of war, I feel myself supported by able coadjutors, who harmonise
extremely well together."
Randolph, the Attorney-General, had never come in contact with Lafayette
and consequently was not mentioned by Washington. This list of the
chief administrators of the new Government must have reassured
Lafayette, as well as other friends of the experiment, who wished to
see it given a fair trial. They feared that the first administration
might be given over to its enemies, who would be inclined to decrease
rather than to strengthen its powers. Before the elections, General
Lincoln had confessed to his former companion in arms, General
Washington, his apprehension lest "the Anti-Federalists would try to
get into office men unfriendly to the Constitution and so break it
down, or men who would change many of its provisions at an early date."
The attitude of the President and of most of his Cabinet, it was well
known, was in favour of an efficient central power. John Adams, the
Vice-President, had long been an advocate of a stronger frame, and now
made good his words by casting the deciding vote in twenty ties in the
Senate, every time in favour of centralised authority where there was
any doubt involved. By one of these close votes authority was given
the President to remove an official without the necessary consent of
the Senate. The Constitution was silent on this point, and its decision
favourable to the Executive greatly increased the prerogatives of that
office.
This summer of 1789 was a time of anxiety for the friends of the new
Government. They could scarcely hope that the new machinery had no
flaw. At any moment an unforeseen defect might bring the whole to a
standstill. Friction fatal to continued happiness might arise between
the different departments of the General Government or between it and
the component States. The people of some section might refuse to be
bound by the General Government. During the heat of debate in the South
Carolina Convention, a delegate had defiantly declared that his people
would not take part in the new Government, if adopted, if not compelled
to do so by force; unless a standing army which the new autocrat would
possess should ram it down their throats with the points of bayonets,
like the Turkish Janizaries enforcing despotic laws. As time went on
and none of these calamities happened, a general confidence took
possession of the people. At last they had come into a time of general
agreement which would allow the experiment of self-government a fair
test. Two States remained out of the Union, but time was expected to
bring them in.