_Friends and Fellow Citizens_:
There are times and seasons, when _general evils_ spread general
alarm and uneasiness, and yet arise from causes too complicated, and
too little understood by many, to produce an unanimity of opinions
respecting their remedies. Hence it is, that on such occasions, the
conflict of arguments too often excites a conflict of passions, and
introduces a degree of discord and animosity, which, by agitating the
public mind dispose it to precipitation and extravagance. They who on
the ocean have been unexpectedly enveloped with tempests, or suddenly
entangled among rocks and shoals, know the value of that serene,
self-possession and presence of mind, to which in such cases they owed
their preservation; nor will the heroes who have given us victory and
peace, hesitate to acknowledge that we are as much indebted for those
blessings to the calm prevision, and cool intrepidity which planned and
conducted our military measures, as to the glowing animation with which
they were executed.
While reason retains her rule, while men are as ready to receive as to
give advice, and as willing to be convinced themselves, as to convince
others, there are few political evils from which a free and enlightened
people cannot deliver themselves. It is unquestionably true, that the
great body of the people love their country, and wish it prosperity;
and this observation is particularly applicable to the people of a
_free_ country, for they have more and stronger reasons for loving it
than others. It is not therefore to vicious motives that the unhappy
divisions which sometimes prevail among them are to be imputed; the
people at large always mean well, and although they may on certain
oc- [4] casions be misled by the counsels, or injured by the efforts
of the few who expect more advantage from the wreck, than from the
preservation of national prosperity, yet the motives of these few, are
by no means to be confounded with those of the community in general.
That such seeds of discord and danger have been disseminated and begin
to take root in America, as unless eradicated will soon poison our
gardens and our fields, is a truth much to be lamented; and the more
so, as their growth rapidly increases, while we are wasting the season
in honestly but imprudently disputing, not whether they shall be pulled
up, but by whom, in what manner, and with what instruments, the work
shall be done.
When the king of Great Britain, misguided by men who did not merit
his confidence, asserted the unjust claim of binding us in all cases
whatsoever, and prepared to obtain our submission by force, the object
which engrossed our attention, however important, was nevertheless
plain and simple, “What shall we do?” was the question—the people
answered, let us unite our counsels and our arms. They sent Delegates
to Congress, and soldiers to the field. Confiding in the probity
and wisdom of Congress, they received their recommendations as if
they had been laws; and that ready acquiesence in their advice
enabled those patriots to save their country. Then there was little
leisure or disposition for controversy respecting the expediency of
measures—hostile fleets soon filled our ports, and hostile armies
spread desolation on our shores. Union was then considered as the most
essential of human means and we almost worshipped it with as much
fervor, as pagans in distress formerly implored the protection of their
tutelar deities. That union was the child of wisdom—heaven blessed it,
and it wrought out our political salvation.
That glorious war was succeeded by an advantageous peace. When danger
disappeared, ease, tranquility, and a sense of security loosened the
bands of union; and Congress and soldiers and good faith depreciated
with their apparent importance. Recommendations lost their influence,
and requisitions were rendered nugatory, not by their want of
propriety, but by their want of power. The spirit of private gain
expelled the spirit of public good, and men became more intent on the
means of enriching and aggrandizing themselves, than of enriching and
aggrandizing their country. Hence the war-worn veteran, whose re- [5]
ward for toils and wounds existed in written promises, found Congress
without the means, and too many of the States without the disposition,
to do him justice. Hard necessity compelled him, and others under
similar circumstances, to sell their honest claims on the public for a
little bread; and thus unmerited misfortunes and patriotic distresses
became articles of speculation and commerce.
These and many other evils, too well known to require enumeration,
imperceptibly stole in upon us, and acquired an unhappy influence on
our public affairs. But such evils, like the worst of weeds, will
naturally spring up in so rich a soil; and a good Government is as
necessary to subdue the one, as an attentive gardener or husbandman
is to destroy the other—Even the garden of Paradise required to be
dressed, and while men continue to be constantly impelled to error and
to wrong by innumerable circumstances and temptations, so long will
society experience the unceasing necessity of government.
It is a pity that the expectations which actuated the authors of the
existing confederation, neither have nor can be realized:—accustomed
to see and admire the glorious spirit which moved all ranks of people
in the most gloomy moments of the war, observing their steadfast
attachment to Union, and the wisdom they so often manifested both in
choosing and confiding in their rulers, those gentlemen were led to
flatter themselves that the people of America only required to know
what ought to be done, to do it. This amiable mistake induced them to
institute a national government in such a manner, as though very fit to
give advice, was yet destitute of power, and so constructed as to be
very unfit to be trusted with it. They seem not to have been sensible
that mere advice is a sad substitute for laws; nor to have recollected
that the advice even of the all-wise and best of Beings, has been always
disregarded by a great majority of all the men that ever lived.
Experience is a severe preceptor, but it teaches useful truths, and
however harsh, is always honest—Be calm and dispassionate, and listen
to what it tells us.
Prior to the revolution we had little occasion to inquire or know much
about national affairs, for although they existed and were managed, yet
they were managed _for_ us, but not _by_ us. Intent on our domestic
concerns, our internal legislative business, our agriculture, and our
buying and selling, we were seldom anxious about what passed or was [6]
doing in foreign Courts. As we had nothing to do with that department
of policy, so the affairs of it were not detailed to us, and we took as
little pains to inform ourselves, as others did to inform us of them.
War, and peace, alliances, and treaties, and commerce, and navigation,
were conducted and regulated without our advice or controul. While
we had liberty and justice, and in security enjoyed the fruits of
our “vine and fig tree,” we were in general too content and too much
occupied, to be at the trouble of investigating the various political
combinations in this department, or to examine and perceive how
exceedingly important they often were to the advancement and protection
of our prosperity. This habit and turn of thinking affords one reason
why so much more care was taken, and so much more wisdom displayed, in
forming our State Governments, than in forming our Federal or national
one.
By the Confederation as it now stands, the direction of general and
national affairs is committed to a single body of men, viz. the
Congress. They may make war, but are not empowered to raise men or
money to carry it on. They may make peace, but without power to
see the terms of it observed—They may form alliances, but without
ability to comply with the stipulations on their part—They may
enter into treaties of commerce, but without power to enforce them
at home or abroad—They may borrow money, but without having the
means of repayment—They may partly regulate commerce, but without
authority to execute their ordinances—They may appoint ministers and
other officers of trust, but without power to try or punish them for
misdemeanors—They may resolve, but cannot execute either with dispatch
or with secrecy—In short, they may consult, and deliberate, and
recommend, and make requisitions, and they who please, may regard them.
From this new and wonderful system of Government, it has come to
pass, that almost every national object of every kind, is at this
day unprovided for; and other nations taking the advantage of its
imbecility, are daily multiplying commercial restraints upon us. Our
fur trade is gone to Canada, and British garrisons keep the keys of
it. Our shipyards have almost ceased to disturb the repose of the
neighborhood by the noise of the axe and hammer; and while foreign
flags fly triumphantly above our highest houses, the American Stars
seldom do more than shed a few feeble rays about the humble masts of
river sloops and coasting schooners. The greater part of our hardy
seamen, are [7] plowing the ocean in foreign pay; and not a few of
our ingenious shipwrights are now building vessels on alien shores.
Although our increasing agriculture and industry extend and multiply
our productions, yet they constantly diminish in value; and although
we permit all nations to fill our country with their merchandises,
yet their best markets are shut against us. Is there an English, or
a French, or a Spanish island or port in the West-Indies, to which
an American vessel can carry a cargo of flour for sale? Not one. The
Algerines exclude us from the Mediterranean, and adjacent countries;
and we are neither able to purchase, nor to command the free use of
those seas. Can our little towns or larger cities consume the immense
productions of our fertile country? or will they without trade be able
to pay a good price for the proportion which they do consume? The last
season gave a very unequivocal answer to these questions—What numbers
of fine cattle have returned from this city to the country for want
of buyers? What great quantities of salted and other provisions still
lie useless in the stores? To how much below the former price, is our
corn, and wheat and flour and lumber rapidly falling? Our debts remain
undiminished, and the interest on them accumulating—our credit abroad
is nearly extinguished, and at home unrestored—they who had money have
sent it beyond the reach of our laws, and scarcely any man can borrow
of his neighbor. Nay, does not experience also tell us, that it is as
difficult to pay as to borrow? That even our houses and lands cannot
command money—that law suits and usurious contracts abound—that
our farms sell on executions for less than half their value, and that
distress in various forms, and in various ways, is approaching fast to
the doors of our best citizens.
These things have been gradually coming upon us ever since the
peace—they have been perceived and proclaimed, but the universal
rage and pursuit of private gain conspired with other causes, to
prevent any proper efforts being made to meliorate our condition by
due attention to our national affairs, until the late Convention was
convened for that purpose. From the result of their deliberations, the
States expected to derive much good, and should they be disappointed,
it will probably be not less their misfortune than their fault. That
Convention was in general composed of excellent and tried men—men who
had become conspicuous for their wisdom and public services, and whose
names [8] and characters will be venerated by posterity. Generous and
candid minds cannot perceive without pain, the illiberal manner in
which some have taken the liberty to treat them; nor forbear to impute
it to impure and improper motives, zeal for public good, like zeal for
religion, may sometimes carry men beyond the bounds of reason, but it
is not conceivable, that on this occasion, it should find means so to
inebriate any _candid_ American, as to make him forget what he owed to
truth and to decency, or induce him either to believe or to say, that
the almost unanimous advice of the Convention, proceeded from a wicked
combination and conspiracy against the liberties of their country.
This is not the temper with which we should receive and consider
their recommendations, nor the treatment that would be worthy either
of us or them. Let us continue careful therefore that facts do not
warrant historians to tell future generations, that envy, malice and
uncharitableness pursued our patriotic benefactors to their graves, and
that not even pre-eminence in virtue, nor lives devoted to the public,
could shield them from obloquy and detraction. On the contrary, let
our bosoms always retain a sufficient degree of honest indignation to
disappoint and discourage those who expect our thanks or applause for
calumniating our most faithful and meritorious friends.
The Convention concurred in opinion with the people, that a national
government, _competent to every national object_, was indispensibly
necessary; and it was as plain to them, as it now is to all America,
that the present confederation does not provide for such a government.
These points being agreed, they proceeded to consider how and in what
manner such a government could be formed, as on the one hand, should be
sufficiently energetic to raise us from our prostrate and distressed
situation, and on the other be perfectly consistent with the liberties
of the people of every State. Like men to whom the experience of other
ages and countries had taught wisdom, they not only determined that
it should be erected by, and depend on the people; but remembering
the many instances in which governments vested solely in one man, or
one body of men, had degenerated into tyrannies, they judged it most
prudent that the three great branches of power should be committed to
different hands, and therefore that the executive should be separated
from the legislative, and the judicial from both. Thus far the
propriety of their work is easily seen and understood, and therefore is
thus far _almost_ uni- [9] versally approved—for no one man or thing
under the sun ever yet pleased every body.
The next question was, what particular powers should be given to these
three branches? Here the different views and interests of the different
states, as well as the different abstract opinions of their members on
such points, interposed many difficulties. Here the business became
complicated, and presented a wide field for investigation; too wide for
every eye to take a quick and comprehensive view of it.
It is said that “in a multitude of counsellors there is safety,”
because in the first place, there is greater security for probity; and
in the next, if every member cast in only his mite of information and
argument, their joint stock of both will thereby become greater than
the stock possessed by any one single man out of doors. Gentlemen out
of doors therefore should not be hasty in condemning a system, which
probably rests on more good reasons than they are aware of, especially
when formed under such advantages, and recommended by so many men of
distinguished worth and abilities.
The difficulties before mentioned occupied the Convention a long time
and it was not without mutual concessions that they were at last
surmounted. These concessions serve to explain to us the reason why
some parts of the system please in some states, which displease in
others; and why many of the objections which have been made to it,
are so contradictory and inconsistent with one another. It does great
credit to the temper and talents of the Convention, that they were able
so to reconcile the different views and interests of the different
States, and the clashing opinions of their members as to unite with
such singular and almost perfect unanimity in any plan whatever, on a
subject so intricate and perplexed. It shews that it must have been
thoroughly discussed and understood; and probably if the community
at large had the same lights and reasons before them, they would, if
equally candid and uninfluenced, be equally unanimous.
It would be arduous, and indeed impossible, to comprise within the
limits of this address, a full discussion of every part of the plan.
Such a task would require a volume, and few men have leisure or
inclination to read volumes on any subject. The objections made to
it are almost without number, and many of them without reason—some
of them are real and honest, and others merely ostensible. There are
friends to [10] Union and a national Government who have serious
doubts, who wish to be informed, and to be convinced; and there are
others who, neither wishing for union, nor any national Government at
all, will oppose and object to any plan that can be contrived.
We are told, among other strange things, that the liberty of the
press is left insecure by the proposed Constitution, and yet that
Constitution says neither more nor less about it, than the Constitution
of the State of New York does. We are told that it deprives us of trial
by jury, whereas the fact is, that it expressly secures it in certain
cases, and takes it away in none—it is absurd to construe the silence
of this, or of our own constitution, relative to a great number of
our rights, into a total extinction of them—silence and blank paper
neither grant nor take away anything. Complaints are also made that
the proposed constitution is not accompanied by a bill of rights;
and yet they who would make these complaints, know and are content
that no bill of rights accompanied the Constitution of this State. In
days and countries, where Monarchs and their subjects were frequently
disputing about prerogative and privileges, the latter often found it
necessary, as it were to run out the line between them, and oblige the
former to admit by solemn acts, called bills of rights, that certain
enumerated rights belonged to the people, and were not comprehended in
the royal prerogative. But thank God we have no such disputes—we have
no Monarchs to contend with, or demand admission from—the proposed
Government is to be the government of the people—all its officers are
to be their officers, and to exercise no rights but such as the people
commit to them. The Constitution only serves to point out that part
of the people’s business, which they think proper by it to refer to
the management of the persons therein designated—those persons are to
receive that business to manage, not for themselves and as their own,
but as agents and overseers for the people to whom they are constantly
responsible, and by whom only they are to be appointed.
But the design of this address is not to investigate the merits of
the plan, nor of the objections to it. They who seriously contemplate
the present state of our affairs will be convinced that other
considerations of at least equal importance demand their attention. Let
it be admitted that this plan, like everything else devised by man, has
its imperfections: That it does not please every body is certain and
there is little [11] reason to expect one that will. It is a question
of great moment to you, whether the probability of your being able
seasonably to obtain a better, is such as to render it prudent and
advisable to reject this, and run the risque. Candidly to consider this
question is the design of this address.
As the importance of this question must be obvious to every man,
whatever his private opinions respecting it may be, it becomes us all
to treat it in that calm and temperate manner, which a subject so
deeply interesting to the future welfare of our country and prosperity
requires. Let us therefore as much as possible repress and compose
that irritation in our minds, which to warm disputes about it may
have excited. Let us endeavour to forget that this or that man, is on
this or that side; and that we ourselves, perhaps without sufficient
reflection, have classed ourselves with one or the other party. Let
us remember that this is not a matter to be regarded as a matter that
only touches our local parties, but as one so great, so general, and so
extensive in its future consequences to America, that for our deciding
upon it according to the best of our unbiassed judgment, we must be
highly responsible both here and hereafter.
The question now before us now naturally leads to _three_ enquiries: