CHAPTER XV.

FORMATION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.

In May, 1787, the convention met for the revision of the Articles of

Confederation, twelve states being represented by men distinguished by

their talents, character, practical abilities, and public service.

Franklin, who had been among the first to propose a Colonial Union in

1754, was there; Dickinson, as delegate from Delaware; Johnson, of

Connecticut; and Rutledge, of South Carolina, who had been movers in the

Stamp Act Congress of 1765. Besides Benjamin Franklin, there were

present seven who had signed the Declaration of Independence, all tried

men and true; while the revolutionary army was represented by

Washington, Mifflin, Hamilton and Pinckney; eighteen were members at the

same time of the Continental Congress. Altogether this important

convention numbered about fifty delegates. Rhode Island sent no

representative.[62]

On the 29th of May the business of the convention was opened by Randolph

of Virginia, this honour being conceded to Virginia as her due, the idea

of the convention having originated with her. All the business, however,

proceeded with closed doors and an injunction of inviolate secrecy. The

members were not even allowed to take copies of the proceedings. They

had met to revise and amend the Articles of Confederation, instead of

which it was soon deemed advisable to form a new constitution. Long and

arduous debates followed; months went on in discussion and deliberation;

the soundness and wisdom of purely democratic and republican governments

were questioned; committees sat; adjournments took place; causes of

dispute occurred; rival parties contended, federalists and

anti-federalists; slaveholding and free states, difficulties having

arisen even then between the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding

states as regarded representation, and every other interest. But if

doubt and difficulty and discord arose, they were met and overcome. Nor

can any greater argument be advanced in favour of the sound wisdom and

the true patriotism of every party, than that all opposing interests and

all questions of contention were gradually compromised; and spite of

every opposing element, spite of selfish interests, and the jealousies

and rivalries of opposing parties, a rough draft of the proposed

Constitution was prepared by the beginning of August, and forms, in

fact, the present Constitution of the United States. It is simply as

follows, and well worthy to be read and considered.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect

union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for

the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the

blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and

establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I.

SECTION I.

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a congress of

the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house of

representatives.

SECTION II.

I. The house of representatives shall be composed of members, chosen

every second year by the people of the several states, and the

electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for

electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.

II. No person shall be a representative, who shall not have attained

to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the

United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of

that state in which he shall be chosen.

III. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the

several states which may be included within this Union, according to

their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the

whole number of free persons, including those bound to servitude for a

term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all

other persons.[63] The actual enumeration shall be made within three

years after the first meeting of the congress of the United States,

and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they

shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed

one for every 30,000, but each state shall have at least one

representative: and, until such enumeration shall be made, the state

of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts

eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five,

New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one,

Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five,

and Georgia three.

IV. When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the

executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such

vacancies.

V. The house of representatives shall choose their speaker and other

officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

Much was said in the convention on the question of the elective

franchise. Franklin’s argument is worth remembering. He was opposed to

any restriction on the right of suffrage. He said that it was of “great

consequence not to depress the virtue and public spirit of the common

people, of which they had displayed a great deal during the war, and

which contributed principally to the favourable issue of it; and he did

not think that the elected had any right, in any case, to narrow the

privileges of the electors;” and universal suffrage was established. A

member of the house must be twenty-five years of age, and have been for

seven years a citizen of the United States, being an inhabitant, at the

time he is elected, of the State for which he is chosen. No person,

however, holding any civil office under the authority of the United

States, can, at the same time, become a member of congress.

By the constitutional rule of appointment, three-fifths of the slaves in

the Southern States are computed in establishing the appointment of the

representatives of the lower house, which is supposed to be delegated by

the _free_ citizens of the United States. This is considered as a

necessary consequence of the previously existing state of domestic

slavery in that portion of the country.

SECTION III.

I. The senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators

from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years: and

each senator shall have one vote.

II. Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of the

first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three

classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated

at the expiration of the second year; of the second class, at the

expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class, at the

expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every

second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise,

during the recess of the legislature of any state, the executive

thereof may make temporary appointments, until the next meeting of the

legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.

III. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the

age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United

States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that

state for which he shall be chosen.

IV. The vice-president of the United States shall be president of the

senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

V. The senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president

_pro tempore_, in the absence of the vice-president, or when he shall

exercise the office of president of the United States.

VI. The senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When

sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath, or affirmation. When

the president of the United States is tried, the chief-justice shall

preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of

two-thirds of the members present.

VII. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to

removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office

of honour, trust, or profit under the United States: but the party

convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment,

trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.

SECTION IV.

I. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and

representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature

thereof; but the congress may, at any time, by law make or alter such

regulations, except as to the place of choosing senators.

II. The congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such

meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall,

by law, appoint a different day.

SECTION V.

I. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and

qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall

constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn

from day to day, and may be authorised to compel the attendance of

absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house

may provide.

II. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its

members for disorderly behaviour, and, with the concurrence of

two-thirds, expel a member.

III. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time

to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their

judgment, require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of

either house, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of

those present, be entered on the journals.

IV. Neither house, during the session of congress, shall, without the

consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any

other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting.

SECTION VI.

I. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for

their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury

of the United States. They shall, in all cases except treason, felony,

and breach of peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance

at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and

returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house,

they shall not be questioned in any other place.

II. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he

was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of

the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments

whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person,

holding any office under the United States, shall be a member of

either house during his continuance in office.

SECTION VII.

I. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the house of

representatives; but the senate may propose or concur with amendments,

as on other bills.

II. Every bill which shall have passed the house of representatives

and the senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the

president of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but

if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in

which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at

large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such

reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the

bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other

house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by

two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases

the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the

names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered

on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be

returned by the president within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it

shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like

manner as if he had signed it, unless the congress, by their

adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law.

III. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the

senate and house of representatives may be necessary (except on a

question of adjournment), shall be presented to the president of the

United States; and before the same shall take effect shall be approved

by him; or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds

of the senate and house of representatives, according to the rules and

limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

SECTION VIII.

The congress shall have power—

I. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises; to pay the

debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the

United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform

throughout the United States.

II. To borrow money on the credit of the United States.

III. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several

states, and with the Indian tribes.

IV. To establish a uniform rule of naturalisation, and uniform laws on

the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.

V. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and

fix the standard of weights and measures.

VI. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and

current coin of the United States.

VII. To establish post-offices and post-roads.

VIII. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing,

for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to

their respective writings and discoveries.

IX. To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court.

X. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high

seas, and offences against the law of nations.

XI. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make

rules concerning captures on land or water.

XII. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to

that use shall be for a longer term than two years.

XIII. To provide and maintain a navy.

XIV. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and

naval forces.

XV. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of

the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.

XVI. To provide for organising, arming, and disciplining the militia,

and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service

of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the

appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the

militia, according to the discipline prescribed by congress.

XVII. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over

such district (not exceeding ten miles square), as, may by cession of

particular states, and the acceptance of congress, become the seat of

the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places

purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the

same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,

dock-yards, and other needful buildings:—and

XVIII. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for

carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers

vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or

in any department or office thereof.

SECTION IX.

I. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states

now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by

the congress, prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight,

but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding

ten dollars for each person.

As we have already said, this question of slavery was a fertile apple of

discord in the convention, and even then it threatened to break up the

Union; South Carolina and Georgia insisted on having slavery in the

fullest meaning of the accursed thing, or they would not enter the

Union. They would not only hold slaves, but they would import them; and

hence the Constitution provided for “_the migration of such persons as

any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit_,” prior to

the year 1808, when the importation of slaves was to cease. Until

January, 1808, South Carolina traded to the African coast for the souls

and bodies of men, all the other states having before that time entirely

discontinued it. While we are on the subject of slavery, we must mention

that, when, in the convention, the articles of the proposed Constitution

were being drawn up, one for the mutual delivery of fugitives from

justice came in due course, on which Pierce Butler proposed, and Charles

C. Pinckney, both of South Carolina, seconded, the motion that fugitive

slaves and servants should be included. Wilson of Pennsylvania objected,

and Butler withdrew his motion; but the next day introduced a clause,

substantially the same with that now found in the Constitution, viz.:

“that no person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws

thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or

regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall

be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour is

due.” (See Article IV. Sect. iii.) This being copied from one of the

provisions of the old New England Confederation, passed unobserved.

II. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended,

unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may

require it.

III. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall be passed.

IV. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in

proportion to the census, or enumeration, herein before directed to be

taken.

V. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.

No preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or

revenue, to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall

vessels, bound to or from one state, be obliged to enter, clear, or

pay duties in another.

VI. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of

appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the

receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from

time to time.

VII. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and

no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall,

without the consent of congress, accept of any present, emolument,

office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or

foreign state.

SECTION X.

I. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation,

grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of

credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of

debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing

the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.

II. No state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any imposts

or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely

necessary for executing its inspection laws: and the net produce of

all duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports and exports,

shall be for the use of the treasury of the United State, and all such

laws shall be subject to the revision and control of congress. No

state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any duty of tonnage,

keep troops, or ships of war, in time of peace, enter into any

agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or

engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as

will not admit of delay.

ARTICLE II.

SECTION I.

I. The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United

States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four

years, and, together with the vice-president, chosen for the same

term, be elected as follows:

II. Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature

thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of

senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the

congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding an

office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed

an elector.

III. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by

ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an

inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a

list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for

each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to

the seat of government of the United States, directed to the president

of the senate. The president of the senate shall, in the presence of

the senate and house of representatives, open all the certificates,

and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest

number of votes shall be the president, if such number be a majority

of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than

one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then

the house of representatives shall immediately choose, by ballot, one

of them for president: and if no person have a majority, then from the

five highest on the list, the said house shall, in like manner, choose

the president. But in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken

by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a

quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from

two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be

necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the

president, the person having the greatest number of votes of the

electors shall be the vice-president. But if there should remain two

or more who have equal votes, the senate shall choose from them, by

ballot, the vice-president.

IV. The congress may determine the time for choosing the electors, and

the day on which they shall give their votes: which day shall be the

same throughout the United States.

V. No person, except a natural born citizen or a citizen of the United

States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be

eligible to the office of president, neither shall any person be

eligible to that office, who shall not have attained to the age of

thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the

United States.

VI. In case of the removal of the president from office, or of his

death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of

the said office, the same shall devolve on the vice-president, and the

congress may, by law, provide for the case of removal, death,

resignation, or inability, both of the president and vice-president,

declaring what officer shall then act as president, and such officer

shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a president

shall be elected.

VII. The president shall, at stated times, receive for his services a

compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during

the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not

receive, within that period, any other emolument from the United

States, or any of them.

VIII. Before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall take

the following oath, or affirmation:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the

office of president of the United States, and will, to the best of my

ability, preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United

States.”

SECTION II.

I. The president shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of

the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when

called into the actual service of the United States; he may require

the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the

executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of

their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves

and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of

impeachment.

II. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the

senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present

concur; and he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent

of the senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and

consuls, judges of the supreme court, and all other officers of the

United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided

for, and which shall be established by law. But the congress may, by

law, vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think

proper in the president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads

of departments.

III. The president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may

happen during the recess of the senate, by granting commissions, which

shall expire at the end of their next session.

SECTION III.

He shall, from time to time, give to the congress information of the

state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures

as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary

occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of

disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he

may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall

receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care

that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the

officers of the United States.

SECTION IV.

The president, vice-president, and all civil officers of the United

States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and

conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and

misdemeanors.

ARTICLE III.

SECTION I.

The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme

court, and in such inferior courts as the congress may, from time to

time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and

inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and

shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation

which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

SECTION II.

I. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity,

arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and

treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all

cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to

all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to

which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two

or more states, between a state and citizens of another state, between

citizens of different states, between citizens of the same state

claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state,

or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.

II. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and

consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the supreme

court shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before

mentioned, the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both

as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations,

as the congress shall make.

III. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be

by jury; and such trials shall be held in the state where the said

crime shall have been committed; but when not committed within any

state, the trial shall be at such a place or places as the congress

may, by law, have directed.

SECTION III.

I. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war

against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and

comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the

testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in

open court.

II. The congress shall have power to declare the punishment of

treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood,

or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.

ARTICLE IV.

SECTION I.

Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts,

records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the

congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such

acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect

thereof.

SECTION II.

I. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges

and immunities of citizens in the several states.

II. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other

crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state,

shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he

fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having the

jurisdiction of the crime.

III. No person, held to service or labour in one state under the laws

thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or

regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but

shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or

labour may be due.

SECTION III.

I. New states may be admitted by the congress into this Union, but no

new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any

other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more

states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of

the states concerned, as well as of the congress.

II. The congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful

rules and regulations respecting the territory, or other property,

belonging to the United States; and nothing in this constitution shall

be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of

any particular state.

SECTION IV.

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a

republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against

invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive

(when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence.

ARTICLE V.

The congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it

necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitution, or, on the

application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states,

shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either

case, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of this

constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of

the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the

one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the congress:

Provided, that no amendment, which may be made prior to the year 1808,

shall, in any manner, affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth

section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent,

shall be deprived of its equal suffrages in the senate.

ARTICLE VI.

I. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the

adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United

States under this Constitution, as under the confederation.

II. This Constitution and the laws of the United States, which shall

be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be

made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme

law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby,

anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary

notwithstanding.

III. The senators and representatives before-mentioned, and the

members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and

judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several

states, shall be bound by oath, or affirmation, to support this

Constitution: and no religious test shall ever be required, as a

qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

ARTICLE VII.

The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient

for the establishment of this Constitution, between the states so

ratifying the same.

_Done in convention by the consent of the states present, the

seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand

seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the

United States of America, the twelfth. In witness whereof, we have

hereunto subscribed our names._

_New Hampshire._—John Langdon, Nicholas Gelman.

_Massachusetts._—Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King.

_Connecticut._—William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman.

_New York._—Alexander Hamilton.

_New Jersey._—William Livingston, David Brearley, William Patterson,

Jonathan Dayton.

_Pennsylvania._—Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris,

George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson,

Gouverneur Morris.

_Delaware._—George Read, Gunning Bedford, jun., John Dickenson,

Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom.

_Maryland._—James M‘Henry, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel

Carrol.

_Virginia._—John Blair, James Madison, jun.

_North Carolina._—William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Hugh

Williamson.

_South Carolina._—John Rutledge, Charles C. Pinckney, Charles

Pinckney, Pierce Butler.

_Georgia._—William Few, Abraham Baldwin.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, _President_.

WILLIAM JACKSON, _Secretary_.

Hildreth tells us that, as regards the injunction of secrecy with

respect to the proceedings of the convention, it was never removed. At

the final adjournment the journal was entrusted to the custody of

Washington, by whom it was afterwards deposited in the Department of

State. It was first printed by order of Congress in 1818. Yates, one of

the members, took short notes, which were printed after his death, in

1821. Still more perfect notes by Madison have been recently published.

The first sitting of congress, after a great deal of discussion

respecting the seat of the Federal Government, was settled, on the 13th

of September, 1788, to be at New York. The first Wednesday in the

following January was appointed for the choice of the presidential

electors; the first Wednesday in February for the election of President

and Vice-president; and the first Wednesday in that year, being the 4th

of March, for the first meeting of congress, for the organisation of the

government of the United States under the new constitution.

Washington received the unanimous vote of the electors, and became

President-elect; John Adams, having the next highest number, was

entitled to the office of Vice-president. To these events we shall,

however, return presently; in the meantime other circumstances require

our attention. But in order to give a complete view of the constitution

of the United States, we will in this place present twelve amendments,

which were made at different times; the first ten on the first, the

eleventh on the third, and the twelfth on the eighth sitting of

congress.

AMENDMENTS.

ARTICLE I.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or

prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of

speech, or of the press; or the rights of the people peaceably to

assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

ARTICLE II.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free

state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be

infringed.

ARTICLE III.

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without

the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be

prescribed by law.

ARTICLE IV.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,

and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be

violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,

supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the

place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

ARTICLE V.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous

crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except

in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when

in actual service, in time of war, or public danger; nor shall any

person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of

life or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a

witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or

property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be

taken for public use without just compensation.

ARTICLE VI.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a

speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and

district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district

shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of

the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the

witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining

witnesses in his favour, and to have the assistance of counsel for his

defence.

ARTICLE VII.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed

twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no

fact, tried by jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of

the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

ARTICLE VIII.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor

cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

ARTICLE IX.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be

construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

ARTICLE X.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor

prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states

respectively, or to the people.

ARTICLE XI.

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to

extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against

one of the United States, by citizens of another state, or by citizens

or subjects of any foreign state.

ARTICLE XII.

The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by

ballot, for president and vice-president, one of whom, at least, shall

not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall

name, in their ballots, the person voted for as president, and, in

distinct ballots, the person voted for as vice-president; and they

shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as president, and

of all persons voted for as vice-president, and of the number of votes

for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit,

sealed, to the seat of the government of the United States, directed

to the president of the senate. The president of the senate shall, in

the presence of the senate and house of representatives, open all the

certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having

the greatest number of votes for president shall be the president, if

such a number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed;

and if no person have such a majority, then from the persons having

the highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted

for as president, the house of representatives shall choose

immediately, by ballot, the president. But, in choosing the president,

the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state

having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member

or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the

states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the house of

representatives shall not choose a president, whenever the right of

choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next

following, then the vice-president shall act as president, as in the

case of the death or other constitutional disability of the president.

The person having the greatest number of votes as vice-president shall

be the vice-president, if such number be a majority of the whole

number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then

from the two highest numbers on the list, the senate shall choose the

vice-president—a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of

the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall

be necessary to a choice.

But no person, constitutionally ineligible to the office of president,

shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States.

CHAPTER XVI.

EMIGRATION TO THE WEST—WASHINGTON, THE FIRST PRESIDENT.

While the convention at Philadelphia occupied themselves with the new

constitution, the vast territory north of the Ohio River was formed, by

the congress at New York, into a territorial government under the name

of the North-Western Territory. Among other provisions of the government

of this new territory was the carrying out of an important republican

principle which some of the older states had not yet adopted; this was

the equal division of all landed as well as personal property between

the children of persons dying intestate. The fullest religious freedom

was also insured; provision made for schools and for justice and

humanity towards the Indians, and a strong protest entered against

slavery, inasmuch as it was declared that there should be neither

slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than

as punishment of crimes of which the party shall have been duly

convicted.

Seventeen millions of acres on the northern bank of the Ohio were now in

possession of the United States, in consequence of the already mentioned

treaties with the Six Nations. These formerly powerful and warlike

tribes now retained but a small hold upon the lands which had once been

their own. They were beginning, like their more feeble eastern brethren,

to pass away from before the white man. The entire Mohawk nation

emigrated in a body into Canada, and other Indian nations followed their

example.

The pressure of war being removed from the eastern states, their

restless and adventurous sons now went forth to explore and establish

peaceable settlements, with all the amenities of domestic life and

civilisation, in the wilderness. The State of New York located her

disbanded soldiers on the land-bounties which she had promised them,

upon such western lands as she retained after resigning her larger

claims to the Union; Pennsylvania followed this example. Occupation was

thus given to the unemployed, and a source of vast wealth opened to the

impoverished. In July of this same busy year, the Ohio Company was

formed, for the settlement of portions of this great territory, with the

Rev. Manasseh Cutler, Winthrop Sargeant, and other citizens of New

England, at its head.

In September, the Kentuckians, now holding their fourth convention at

Danville, once more applied to congress for admission into the Union;

but though they had now advanced so far as to have a spokesman in

congress, in the person of one of the Virginian delegates, a Kentucky

lawyer, and were possessed of a newspaper, the “Kentucky Gazette,”

printed and published at Lexington, they were again unsuccessful in

their application.

General St. Clair was elected governor of the new territory north-west

of the Ohio, and thither flowed the great tide of emigration from the

New England states, which had hitherto poured into Vermont, New

Hampshire and Maine. All New England was now astir with the movement

westward, and again we have chronicles of migration and early

settlement, as in the days of the Pilgrim Fathers. Quaint and beautiful

are the details which exist of these movements. The plans were drawn in

Boston, and at Providence in Rhode Island, of great cities to be erected

on the banks of rivers flowing as yet through the wilderness; the

intending emigrants met to draw lots for their future homes in these

cities, each “town-lot to be ninety feet front and 180 feet in depth;”

the centre street of the city to be 150 feet wide. As in the old times,

“the Mayflower” set sail with the pioneer settlers; and on the 7th of

April, 1788, General Rufus Putnam, the leader of this party, landed at

the mouth of the Muskinghum, opposite Fort Harmer. Nothing can be

pleasanter than the records of these early Ohio settlements. Captain

Pipes, the chief of the Delawares, with about seventy of his tribe, came

down for the purpose of trading with the garrison of Fort Harmer, shook

hands with the new-comers, and welcomed them cordially to the shores of

the Muskinghum, on the head waters of which river they themselves

resided. The settlers arriving from the stern climate of New England,

where they had left frost and snow, were struck by the contrast

presented by the vegetation of their new home. The pea-vines, say they,

and buffalo-clover, with various other plants, were nearly knee high,

and afforded a rich pasture for their hungry horses. The trees had

commenced putting forth their foliage, the birds warbled a welcome song

from their branches, and all nature smiled at the approach of the

strangers.

On these auspicious shores the settlers immediately commenced felling

trees for their log-houses, and for the clearing of the land; while

General Putnam resided in a tent which they had brought with them. In

five days they had cleared and sown several acres of land. A month later

one of the settlers wrote—“This country for fertility of soil and

pleasantness of situation exceeds all our expectations. The climate is

exceedingly healthy; not a man sick since we have been here. We have

started twenty buffaloes in a drove. Deer as plenty as sheep in other

places. Beaver and other animals abundant. I have known one man to catch

twenty or thirty in one or two nights. Turkeys are innumerable; they

come within a few rods of us in the fields. We have already planted a

field of 150 acres of corn.” In July, another writer says—“The corn has

grown nine inches in twenty-four hours for two or three days past.”

The city, which was laid out according to the great plan already formed,

and including within its area the remains of an ancient fortified town,

somewhat similar to those since discovered in Central America, and which

were here carefully preserved, received the name of Marietta. This name

was an abbreviation of Marie Antoinette, the name of the young queen of

France, and was intended as a mark of respect to that sovereign, in

consequence of the attention and kindness with which she had treated

Franklin when at the court of Louis XVI., and of the interest which she

had taken in the American struggle. The leaders of this settlement were

principally old soldiers, and it was natural in them to remember with

gratitude the kind offices which this young and beautiful woman had

rendered to their cause; nor is their veneration for the classics less

distinguishable. There was the “Capitolium” of the city, and the “Via

Sacra,” while the garrison, with block-houses at the corners, was called

“Campus Martius,” “as if,” says the historian, “in anticipation of the

Indian war, which soon commenced, and continued for five years, during

which time it was strictly a military camp.” Every feature of the infant

colony bore the stamp of sylvan prosperity; the early regulations for

the government were written out and posted on the smooth trunk of a

large beech-tree. The 4th of July, the anniversary of the Declaration of

Independence, was celebrated by “a sumptuous dinner, eaten under a

bowery which stretched along the banks of the Muskinghum.” The table, we

are informed, was supplied with venison, buffalo and roast-pigs, with a

variety of fish. Among the latter was a pike weighing 100 pounds, which

was caught at the mouth of the Muskinghum, by Judge Gilbert Devoll and

his son Gilbert, and the tail of which dragged on the ground when

suspended upon a pole between the shoulders of two tall men. On this

occasion an oration was made by one of the judges, the first political

oration ever made in Ohio.

On the 9th of July, General St. Clair arrived as governor of the colony,

and was received in “the bowery” with Arcadian honours, and the firing

of fourteen guns. So rapid was the progress of this settlement, that

before the end of the summer the city-lots, with their streets and open

public spaces, covered an area extending one mile on the Ohio River, and

one mile and 120 perches on the Muskinghum. A substantial bridge was

built over the creek which falls into the Muskinghum, in the southern

part of the city, called, with their love of classical history, “Tiber

Creek,” and three other bridges were also built over smaller streams. A

road was cut through the forest to the Campus Martius, and the clearing

and planting of land went on vigorously. Again and again wrote the

settlers of the prosperity and plenty which surrounded them; the harvest

was cut in the autumn, and in some cases yielded 104 bushels of ears to

the acre, some of these ears yielding a pint and a half of shelled corn

each. “As for beans, turnips, pumpkins, squashes, cabbages, melons,

cucumbers, etc., they are,” says the exultant writer, “the very finest

in flavour I ever tasted, and the great production is truly surprising.”

The district of Marietta was called Washington county.

Emigration and colonisation was now the order of the day. It supplied

the want of employment and excitement caused by the cessation of the

war, and was a healthy outlet for the energies of the people. Among

other emigrants who went out to the western settlements of New York was

Daniel Shays, who had been included in a bill just passed of general

pardon and indemnity for all concerned in the late insurrection. Shays

lived to be very old, supported in his latter days by his pension as a

revolutionary soldier. In October, John Symmes, one of the judges of

Marietta, purchased a large tract of land between the great and little

Miami rivers, and in the following month the first settlement within

that purchase, and the second within Ohio, was commenced at Columbia at

the mouth of the little Miami, five miles above the site of the present

Cincinnati. All went on prosperously; towns were laid out, forests

cleared, roads opened, mills and bridges built, and population flocked

in. Nor was this alone the case on the Ohio. Within twelve months, more

than 10,000 emigrants passed through Marietta on their way to Kentucky

and other parts of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The West, the “great

West,” the boast of the American, was putting forth its vast attractions

and luring tens of thousands even then.

At the close of 1787, it was doubtful what would be the fate of the

Federal Constitution in the States. It was received with distrust and

jealousy by a great body of the people, who feared that the extensive

powers given by the new Constitution to the federal government would

place them under oppressions as grievous as those of the mother-country,

which they had just shaken off. On the other hand, it was supported by

the wealthy portion of the community, by the public creditors and

merchants, the former of whom saw in it their only chance of payment,

while the latter hoped everything from the extension and regulation of

commerce. In the midst of this doubt and uncertainty, an able series of

articles appeared in a New York paper, written by Hamilton, Madison and

Jay, advocating the new constitution, and these so completely meeting

all objections, helped greatly to settle the question.

Delaware was the first state to adopt the Constitution, on December 7th;

five days later Pennsylvania followed the example; and soon after New

Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut. Massachusetts weighed and deliberated,

with able men on either side, the friends of the Union looking anxiously

on, well knowing that on the decision of that important state would

depend the decision of others; and at length, on February 7th, the new

Constitution was ratified by her, the majority in its favour being

nineteen. Maryland gave in her adhesion in April, South Carolina in May,

and in June New Hampshire. The Constitution was earnestly advocated and

opposed by the different parties in the conventions of Virginia and New

York, but both ratified it, the one in June, the other in July.

Eleven states had now adopted the Constitution, and though North

Carolina still hesitated, and Rhode Island obstinately held no

convention, measures were immediately taken for the organisation of the

new government. As was to be expected, Washington received at the

appointed time the unanimous vote of the electors, and became

president-elect; the next highest number of votes was for John Adams,

who was in consequence entitled to the office of vice-president; and

senators and representatives under the new Constitution were chosen also

in the eleven ratifying states.

The 4th of March was the day appointed for the new government to

commence operations, but so many impediments occurred that it was not

until the 30th of April that this took place. Some of the causes of this

delay are curious. By the help of several public-spirited citizens of

New York, who advanced the necessary funds, the old City Hall was

prepared for the occasion. The important day was ushered in by the

firing of cannon and the ringing of bells. But after all, the building

was not ready, and more than that, eight senators only and thirteen

representatives made their appearance, not enough to form a quorum in

either house. The fact was, that most of the members, many of them from

great distances, having to travel to New York on horseback, had found,

at that early season of the year, the roads in many places impassable by

floods, especially where rivers had to be forded. On the last day but

one of March, thirty members, sufficient to form a quorum, being

present, business commenced. The vice-president Adams arrived in New

York, escorted by a troop of horse, on April 21st, and Washington, as

president, proceeded from Mount Vernon in Virginia, to New York, in a

sort of triumphal progress, the people everywhere eager to testify their

affection and esteem, and on the 29th of April landed at New York,

having crossed over from New Jersey in a barge fitted up for the

occasion, and rowed by thirteen pilots in white uniforms.

But even now the new Federal Hall was not ready, and Washington took the

oath of office, after Divine service had been performed in all the

churches, in a balcony fronting the street where the assembled populace

could witness the ceremony. The oath was administered by Livingston,

Chancellor of New York, who, on its conclusion, exclaimed aloud, “Long

live George Washington, President of the United States!” and the

multitude answered with enthusiastic shouts.

The inaugural address of Washington was short, and remarkable for its

deep tone of gratitude to the Divine Ruler, who had permitted the

affairs of America to take a favourable issue; for its pure and elevated

sentiment of political wisdom, and of devotion to that beloved country

in whose service he had already laboured so faithfully. “The foundation

of the national policy,” he remarked, “should be laid in the pure

principles of private morality; no truth being more thoroughly

established than that there exists an indissoluble union between virtue

and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of

an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public

prosperity and happiness.” He considered “the success of the republican

form of government as an experiment entrusted to the American people,”

and assured them, “that the propitious smiles of Heaven could never be

looked for if the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself

had ordained, were disregarded.”

His disinterested patriotism was proved by the fact that now, as on the

former occasion when he held the office of commander-in-chief, he

desired no other compensation for his services than the reimbursement of

his expenses.

It was early attempted in the senate to introduce styles and titles of

office, and to address the president as “His Highness,” but this was

resolutely opposed; nevertheless a committee was appointed to consider

the subject, and in the meantime the question was decided by the house

of representatives, the supporters of republican simplicity. They

addressed Washington, in their reply to his opening address, merely as

“the President of the United States.”

Washington on his part, though a strenuous advocate of republican

simplicity, found it necessary to sustain the dignity of his office by a

form of etiquette which was considerably censured at the time, but which

has ever since continued to regulate the presidential household. He laid

it down as a rule to return no visits. Certain days were appointed for

levees; nor were any invitations to dinner given, excepting to foreign

ministers, officers of the government, and strangers of distinction. The

arrangement of the ceremonial at levees and other public occasions was

entrusted to Humphries, who had formerly been aide-de-camp to

Washington, and later, secretary of legation at Paris, and who was

supposed to know a good deal on the punctilios of court life. Trifling

matters of ceremonial introduced by Humphries, as the placing the

president and his wife on elevated seats at public balls, and requiring

the dancers to acknowledge their presence by bows and curtseys, led to

trouble in after years, as marks of the monarchical tendencies of the

federal party.[64] For the rest the greatest simplicity prevailed; there

was neither ostentation nor reserve, and the guests of the first man in

the Union were entertained with as much ease, and received as kind a

welcome, as though he had still been only “Farmer Washington.” On the

Sundays, however, no visits were received. He regularly attended church

in the morning, and in the afternoon retired to his private apartment.

The evening was spent with his family, when sometimes an intimate friend

might call, but promiscuous company was not permitted.[65]

The first objects of congress were to establish a revenue for the

support of government, and the supply of the exhausted treasury; to

organise the executive departments; to establish a judiciary; and to

amend the constitution. In order to provide a revenue, duties were

imposed on the tonnage of vessels, and on foreign goods imported into

the states, among which were ardent spirits. As regarded spirituous

liquors, the attention of the public was just turned to this subject by

a tract on the great evils attending their use, lately published by Dr.

Rush. It was the commencement of the temperance movement, and at the

great Federal Festival, held at Philadelphia to celebrate the adoption

of the new Constitution, ardent spirits had been excluded, American beer

and cider being the only liquors used.

Three executive departments were established to aid the president in the

affairs of government—the departments of Foreign Affairs, of the

Treasury, and of War. Thomas Jefferson was appointed to the first,

Alexander Hamilton to the second, and General Knox to the third, which

he had long held, the small navy being also placed under his care. These

offices were under the control of the president, and the power of

removing them was, after much discussion, placed also in his hands.

The national judiciary now established consisted of a Supreme Court,

having one chief-justice and several associate judges, as well as

circuit and district courts possessing jurisdiction as specified in the

Constitution. Washington declared that “the due administration of

justice was the firmest pillar of good government, and that the

selection of the fittest characters to expound the laws and dispense

justice was an invariable object of his anxious concern.” He selected,

therefore, the fittest men he knew for those important appointments; and

John Jay became chief-justice, and Edmund Randolph attorney-general.

Several amendments to the Constitution were proposed, ten of which, as

given in the preceding chapter, were afterwards adopted.

The salary of the president was fixed at 25,000 dollars a year, that of

the vice-president at 5,000, those of the heads of departments at 3,500.

Six dollars a day, with six dollars for every twenty miles of

travelling, were allowed to the representatives, and seven dollars, with

the same sum for travelling expenses, in the same ratio, to the members

of the Senate. The chief-justice of the Supreme Court was to receive

4,000 dollars, and the associate judges 500 dollars less, per annum.

On the 29th of September, the first session of congress closed. In

November, North Carolina ratified the Constitution.

During the recess of congress, the president made a tour through the New

England states, omitting, however, Rhode Island, which had not yet given

in its adhesion to the Constitution. Everywhere he was received with

demonstrations of love and respect. “Men, women and children,” says

Jared Sparkes, “people of all ranks, ages, and occupations, assembling

from far and near, at the crossings of the roads and other public places

where it was known he would pass. Military escorts attended him on the

way, and at the principal towns, he was received and entertained by the

civil authorities.

“This journey,” continues the same writer, “not only furnished proofs of

the attachment of the people, but convinced him of the growing

prosperity of the country, and of the favour which the Constitution and

the administration of government were gaining in the public mind. He saw

with pleasure that the effects of the war had almost disappeared; that

agriculture was pursued with activity; that the harvests were abundant,

manufactures increasing, the towns flourishing, and commerce becoming

daily more extended and profitable. The condition of society, the

progress of improvements, the success of industrial enterprise, all gave

tokens of order, peace and contentment, and a most cheering promise for

the future.”

Journeys of this kind, the great object of which was the becoming better

acquainted with the capabilities, as well as the condition of the

country, were not uncommon with Washington. Already, in 1784, at the

close of the war, he had made a journey of 600 miles, to visit his lands

on the Ohio, when the practicability of a great scheme suggested itself

to him, viz. that of uniting the East and West, by means of

intercommunication between the head waters of the Atlantic streams and

the western rivers. He pressed the subject upon the notice of the

government of Virginia, the result of which was the formation of two

companies, “the Potomac Company,” and “the Kenhawa and James River

Company.” Washington thus became the first mover in the great series of

internal improvements which took place.

The second session of congress opened on the 6th of January, 1790.

Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, brought forward early his

report upon the public debt contracted during the war, and which had

hung like a mill-stone so long round the neck of government. Taking an

able and enlarged view of the advantages of public credit, he

recommended that not only the debts of the continental congress, but

those of the individual states contracted on behalf of the common cause,

should be funded or assumed by the general government, and that

provision should be made for paying the interest by taxes imposed on

certain articles of luxury, and on spirits distilled in the country.

This report led to long discussion; but in conclusion, congress passed

an act for the assumption of the states’ debts, and for funding the

national debt. Provision for the payment of the foreign debt was made

without any difficulty. The debt funded amounted to about 75,000,000

dollars; and it was especially enacted that no certificate should be

obtained from a state-creditor, which it could not be ascertained had

been issued for the express purposes of compensation, services, or

supplies, during the late war. The proceeds of the western lands and the

surplus revenue, with the addition of 2,000,000 dollars which the

president was authorised to borrow at 5 per cent, constituted a sinking

fund to be applied to the reduction of the debt. The effect of these

measures upon the country in general was of the most satisfactory kind.

The sudden increase of monied capital gave a fresh impulse to commerce

and consequently to agriculture.

Shortly after the discussion on the debt commenced in Congress, it was

interrupted by petitions from the yearly meeting of the Quakers of

Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York, advocating the abolition of

slavery, and which were followed up by a memorial from the Pennsylvania

Abolition Society, signed by Benjamin Franklin as president, one of the

last public acts of this remarkable man’s life; he died a few weeks

afterwards. This subject led to two months’ controversy on the subject

of slavery and the slave-trade, the end of which was a report, entered

on the journal of the debates, that any state thinking proper to import

slaves, could not be prohibited by congress prior to the year 1808,

although it had power to prevent their supplying foreigners with slaves,

and that they had no authority to interfere in the emancipation of

slaves, or in the treatment of them in any of the states.

In May of this year, Rhode Island acceded to the New Constitution, and

thus completed the union of the Thirteen States. About the same time an

act was passed for accepting a cession of land from North Carolina, and

erecting it into a territorial government, under the title of “the

Territory South of the Ohio,” and which was in every respect to stand

upon the same basis as the “Territory North West of the Ohio,” with this

exception, that slavery was not excluded. This new territory, which

forms the present Tennessee, included the late aspiring state of

Frankland, and another tract of about 2,000 square miles, which had been

settled in 1780 by James Robertson, who, with about forty families, had

advanced 300 miles into the wilderness, and there established the town

of Nashville on the banks of the Cumberland River; whither, also, he had

been followed by many of the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary

war, to whom land-bounties had been assigned on the same river. The new

territory, for which a governor was presently appointed, was for the

greater part in the possession of the Indians at that very time.

Indian wars were the certain result of the advance of the white man into

the wilderness, and the frontiers of the more southern states still

continued to be the scenes of bloodshed. A war had been carried on for

some time between the Creek Indians and Georgia, on the subject of lands

said to have been ceded by the Indians to that state, but which they

denied. The Creek warriors were well supplied with fire-arms and

ammunition, and had the advantage of an able and accomplished chief, a

half-breed Indian called, after his father, M‘Gillivray, and who had

received an excellent education in Charleston. Under this chief the

Creeks carried on a fierce and terrible war, which spread alarm even as

far as Savannah. Washington, anxious to bring about a negotiation with

these formidable warriors, invited M‘Gillivray to New York; and

accompanied by twenty-eight chiefs and warriors, he arrived there,

congress being still in session, and was received with every mark of

respect and attention. A treaty of peace was entered into; wampum given

and tobacco smoked; after which M‘Gillivray having made a speech, and “a

shake of peace” between Washington and the chiefs being given, “a song

of peace” was raised by the Indians, and the ceremony ended. Peace was

established on the frontiers of Georgia, and the lands which the Creeks

claimed solemnly guaranteed to them, not much to the satisfaction of the

whites.

Thus successful with the Creeks, they were much less so with the western

Indians, who encouraged, it was said, by the British in Canada, insisted

on making the Ohio their boundary, and infested the banks of the river,

attacking the emigrant boats, which descended it, and carrying their

ravages far into Kentucky. Pacific overtures having been made in vain by

the president to these hostile Indians, General Harmar was sent from

Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, with a force of 1,400, to reduce them

to terms. He succeeded in destroying the Indian villages and their

harvests, but in two engagements near the confluence of the St. Mary’s

and St. Joseph’s in Indiana, successive detachments of the army were

defeated with considerable loss.

Congress during this present session passed an act “for the

encouragement of learning,” which secured a copyright to authors for

fourteen years, and if living at the end of that term, for fourteen

years longer.

During the session of 1791, a National Bank was proposed by Hamilton,

which met with the most vigorous opposition from the republican party,

who considered that congress had no constitutional power for such a

measure. The supporters of the bill maintained it to be constitutional

and necessary for the operations of government. The president required

the opinions of the cabinet in writing, and after mature deliberation,

gave the bill his signature, and the bank was established at

Philadelphia, with a capital of 10,000,000 dollars.

The dissentions on the subjects of the funding system and the bank,

originating in the heart of the republic, extended themselves to the

extremities, and were a signal for the people to range themselves under

two parties. Hamilton and Jefferson were the leaders of these factions,

and Washington in vain endeavoured, by his practical wisdom and

affectionate remonstrances, to reconcile the two parties. But we have

not space to enter at large into the struggles and bitternesses of this

party strife. We pass, therefore, on to events.

New York having relinquished her claim to Vermont, though not without

the purchase of a release for 30,000 dollars, and the Green Mountain

Boys, having adopted the Constitution, were in February admitted into

the Union.

The Indian war still continuing, and even with increased violence,

additional troops were raised and command given to General St. Clair,

governor of the North West Territory, to march to the relief of the

suffering settlers; and in October he encamped with 1,400 men near the

Miami villages. The chief of the Miamis, at this time, was the powerful

Michikiniqua, or the Little Turtle, who by the force of native talent,

had raised himself to the military leadership of the confederated

western tribes. In his forces, which numbered about 1,500, were included

many half-breeds and refugees, among whom was the notorious Simon Girty.

St. Clair and his officers were asleep in the midst of their camp, when

in the early dawn they were roused by a sudden attack. The carnage which

followed was terrible; more than one-fourth of the Americans, and the

artillery and baggage, fell into the hands of the enemy.[66] This second

repulse spread the greatest terror throughout the north-west frontier

even into Pennsylvania. On the news of this disaster, congress resolved

to prosecute the war with increased vigour, and provision was made for

augmenting the army, by enlistment, to the number of 5,000 men. The

defeat of Harmar and St. Clair had, however, created such a dread of the

Indians, that a sufficient number of recruits could not be obtained. A

clamour was raised against the war; Willett and Daniel Morgan, old

revolutionary officers, declined to act as brigadier-generals, Willett

openly declaring his doubt of the justice of the war. “The intercourse,”

said he, “which I have had with these people, and the treatment which I

and others have received from them, makes me their advocate. The honour

of fighting and beating the Indians is not what I aspire after.” Colonel

Harden and Major Trueman were then sent with a flag of truce, to attempt

a negotiation, but they were both murdered. The Six Nations now, at the

request of Washington, interfered to persuade the tribes on the Wabash

to withdraw from the confederacy, and make peace with the United States.

This was in part effected, and the Miamis agreed to a conference the

following spring.

The first census of the inhabitants of the United States was taken this

year, when the population was found to be 3,921,326, of whom 695,655

were slaves. By this census the representatives were apportioned,

allowing one representative for each 33,000 inhabitants, and thus giving

the house 105 members. The revenue, according to the report of the

secretary, amounted to 4,771,000 dollars.

In this session, the long-agitated question regarding the locality of

the permanent seat of government was decided. A district, ten miles

square, comprehending lands on both sides the river Potomac, was

selected and the city of Washington laid out, the sales which took place

producing the necessary funds for its erection.

Kentucky had the satisfaction, after her long efforts at independence,

to be admitted into the Union, in June of 1792. The same year the

post-office was organised and a mint was established and located in

Philadelphia. The coinage, to be called Federal money, were the eagle,

half-eagle and quarter-eagle in gold; the dollar, half-dollar,

quarter-dollar, dime and half-dime in silver; the cent and half-cent in

copper. The device for the coinage led to considerable agitation; the

head of Washington, in the first instance, and other presidents for the

time being, with the name and order of succession, being considered an

alarming step towards monarchy, like the former proposition of the title

of Highness and the present levees of the president, and was therefore

rejected. An emblematic figure of liberty was finally adopted.

The first Congress had now closed its sessions. Washington was again

elected president, and was inaugurated in March of 1793, John Adams also

being re-elected to the office of vice-president.

CHAPTER XVII.

WASHINGTON’S ADMINISTRATION (_continued_).

The two parties of Federalists and Anti-Federalists enlisted under their

banners the friends and enemies of the new National Constitution, the

former asserting the necessity of a strong central government, and the

latter opposing, with jealous anxiety, any measure which should lessen

the popular power by decreasing that of the individual States. The

admirable working, however, of the Constitution under Washington and his

able ministry; the increase of commerce; the extension of territory, and

the general prosperity, would no doubt within a few years have allayed

party animosities, had not an element at that moment come into operation

which, if no other causes had existed, would have divided the country

into two equally violent parties. This was the French Revolution.

Thomas Jefferson had been recalled from France, where he acted as

ambassador of the United States, to take part in the administration

under the new Constitution, and brought with him a strong prepossession

in favour of the French revolutionists. Nothing could be more natural

than that the citizens of the United States, who had so lately and so

gloriously achieved their own independence, should sympathise warmly in

the struggle of that very nation which had aided them in the time of

their difficulty to throw off the despotism under which they was

suffering, and the early and better impulse to which had been a spark

caught from the American flame of liberty. While the anti-federalists,

resisting, as they believed, all dangerous aggressions on their own

dearly-bought independence, cordially espoused the French cause; the

federalists saw in the outrage and ferocity of the French republicans

indications which filled them with the utmost jealousy and alarm, lest

the same spirit should break forth upon their shores, and sweep away

those wise foundations of order which had been so carefully laid.

With these opposite sentiments towards France were united, as a matter

of course, equally opposed feelings towards England. The federalists

regarding their country as allied to Great Britain by similarity of

language, religion, and literature, were ready even to doubt, with the

example of France before them, whether a republican form of government

could be relied upon, and to draw still more closely the bonds of union

between themselves and the mother-country. They charged the

anti-federalists with blind devotion to the French cause, and their

leaders, with Jefferson at the head, with being deeply tinctured with

the sentiments of the French school of philosophy, and with the design

of introducing the same infidel and jacobinical notions into America, as

had led to the sanguinary and revolting scenes in France.[67]

The revolutionary party in France regarded the Americans as brethren,

and expected from them only applause and sympathy. The French minister

who had been sent over by the king was recalled, and citizen Genet, as

representative of the new republic, arrived in April, 1793, about a

month after Washington’s second entrance into office, at Charleston,

South Carolina, where he was received with distinguished respect and

honour, intended to express the approbation with which America regarded

the change in the institutions of France. While the minister of the

French republic was thus received with peculiar marks of honour by the

anti-federal party, they insisted upon the president resuming office

with the most republican simplicity. Jefferson was at the head of this

movement, and lest he might appear as the only thorough republican in

the cabinet, now that republicanism was the fashion, Hamilton, the

opponent of Jefferson, fell into the same idea. Knox and Randolph

dissented; and Washington took the oath of office in the Senate-chamber

in the presence of the members of the cabinet, various public officers

and foreign ministers. The Vice-President Adams, too, assumed a

republican simplicity of living; gave up his house in Philadelphia and

went into lodgings, leaving his wife at home to manage the farm, to whom

writing, he said that his style of living made him very popular, and

that he himself was well satisfied with his present simplicity. This

republican rage was consequently shocked severely on the occasion of

Washington’s next birth-day, when visits of congratulation, balls,

parties, and other festivities, took place, not in Philadelphia only,

where congress was now sitting, but in many other cities and towns; all

which were regarded by the democrats as alarming steps towards monarchy,

and the press teemed with bitter effusions on the subject.[68]

Genet, the new French minister, flattered by the reception given to him,

and supposing that the American nation, whatever its government might

be, were ready to embark in the cause of France, proceeded to authorise

the fitting out and arming privateers in the port of Charleston, and the

enlisting men and giving commissions to cruise and commit hostilities on

nations with whom the United States were at peace. He assumed also to

authorise the French consuls throughout the Union to erect Courts of

Admiralty, for trying and condemning such prizes as might be brought

into the American ports; and acting on this assumed authority, proceeded

accordingly against several prizes which were very soon brought to

Charleston.

Five days before the arrival of Genet at Charleston, the news had

reached New York of the French declaration of war against England and

Holland. Washington, who was then at Mount Vernon, hastened to

Philadelphia, summoned his cabinet, and took into serious consideration

the important question, as to what part the United States must take in

the present crisis of European affairs. Not wishing to involve his

country in the contests of Europe, he himself advocated neutrality, and

the cabinet finally came to the same opinion. This step, however, was by

no means a popular one. Genet, who was an old and able diplomatist,

arrived at Philadelphia immediately after the American government had

published their decision. His journey, like his reception, called forth

the most extravagant enthusiasm. The very men, says Hildreth, who had

reprobated any demonstration of respect to Washington, as savouring too

much of the old spirit of monarchical adulation, now seemed almost

insane in the fervour of their desire to do honour to the Republic of

France, in the person of her minister.

Republican feasts were held in sober Philadelphia; the public press took

up the cry; democratic societies were formed; the red cap of Liberty was

hoisted; the Marseilles hymn was sung, with two additional verses

written by Genet, with reference to the navy; and a large faction, more

French than American, seemed all going mad together.

Genet was a firebrand in the country. Not alone did he attempt to

exercise sovereignty on the coast, but to organise in Georgia and South

Carolina a hostile expedition against Florida, and another in Kentucky

against New Orleans. The leadership in this latter undertaking was given

to George Rogers Clarke, who formerly distinguished himself in the

revolutionary war by the conquest of the Illinois country, but who now

had sunk very low by a long course of intemperance. America could not

rule her own country as long as Genet remained within it. Nothing could

be more opposed than the restless, scheming, hot-headed and unprincipled

Genet, and the calm, religious, and sagacious Washington. The excesses

into which Genet and his party ran, caused complaints from the British

minister. The cabinet resolved to enforce the laws; and Genet, believing

that the whole management of American affairs was in his hands,

threatened to appeal to the people against their government.

A reaction had already begun, and this very attempt to shake the

government served but to strengthen it. Washington requested the recall

of Genet, and in the following year his place was supplied by Fauchet,

who was instructed to inform the American government that France

disapproved of the conduct of her late minister. The Reign of Terror had

now commenced in that devoted country, and Genet, who had in the

meantime married the daughter of Governor Clinton, of New York, not

choosing to return to France settled down in America, dropping at once

his character of democratic agitator and sinking into the obscure

citizen.

We must now take a rapid glance at the state of affairs in the West.

After the defeat of St. Clair in 1791, General Wayne, to whom the

Indians gave the name of the Black Snake, was appointed to the command

of the American forces. Taking post near the country of the enemy, he

made assiduous but vain attempts at negotiating peace, while his troops

suffered greatly from a kind of epidemic influenza. The winter of 1793

he passed on the ground where the disastrous battles of 1791 had been

fought, and here erected Fort Recovery. The Little Turtle would

willingly have made peace, for, said he, addressing the confederated

tribes, “we shall not now surprise them, for they have a chief who never

sleeps;” but the Indian council insisted on war.

Early in the summer of 1794 operations commenced; Fort Recovery was

attacked, and the Indians repulsed, although at the loss of 300

pack-mules and fifty men. In August, a reinforcement of 1,100 men having

joined him, Wayne reached the confluence of the Au Glaize and the Maumee

rivers, about thirty miles from a British post, where the whole force of

the enemy, about 2,000 strong, was collected. Here, taken by surprise,

they fled precipitately, and were pursued for two hours at the point of

the bayonet. The country was finely cultivated and full of abundant

crops. The American commander declared that he had never seen anything

equal to it. The banks of those beautiful rivers appeared for many miles

one complete village. At this point the conqueror built a strong fort

called Fort Defiance, and a second called Fort Adams, to connect it with

Fort Recovery.

Wayne offered to treat with the Indians, but they asked ten days for

deliberation. This he would not grant, and followed them down the Maumee

for two days; on the third he found them strongly encamped by the river,

and a battle took place in which they were completely routed. The

English lost 107 men; the loss of the Indians was never ascertained. The

Indian corn-fields were ravaged up to the very walls of the British

fort. Two British companies, it was asserted, with their faces painted

to represent Indians, were in the fight; nevertheless, when the routed

Indians fled to the fort for refuge, they were refused admittance, which

treatment they never forgave; and Buckongahelas, the principal chief of

the Delawares, immediately afterwards made peace with the Americans. The

British influence over the savages was broken, and their confederacy

dissolved. This victory insured peace and security to the whole

settlements north-west of the Ohio, and even extended to Georgia.

On the 3rd of August, 1795, Wayne concluded a treaty of peace on behalf

of the “Thirteen Fires,” as the federal states were called, with the

Indians at Greenville. The principal chiefs, Tarhe, Buckongahelas, Black

Hoof, Blue Jacket, and the Little Turtle, attended by 1,100 warriors,

were parties to it. This treaty stipulated that the Ohio, with a few

reservations, should thence become the boundary of the Indian territory.

Besides the extent of country thus ceded, were several detached portions

of territory, including the present or former sites of forts in the

possession of the British, and about to be surrendered under a treaty

with Great Britain, of which we shall speak anon, having, as regards

these Indian affairs, somewhat advanced beyond the regular course of

events. Among these cessions was a tract opposite Louisville, granted by

Virginia to George Rogers Clarke and his soldiers for their services in

the Illinois country; the ancient post of Vincennes and other French

settlements; Fort Massac on the Ohio; and several other forts on

different rivers with adjacent territory, Detroit, Mackinaw, and tracts

at Sandusky, Chicago, and at the mouth and head of the Illinois river.

The Indians received for these cessions 20,000 dollars worth of goods,

with an annual allowance of about 10,000 dollars more.

At the exchange of prisoners which took place on this occasion, many

affecting incidents occurred. The war, as against Kentucky, had lasted

for about twenty years, during which time a great number of white people

had been carried into captivity. Wives and husbands, parents and

children, who had been separated for years, were now reunited. Many of

the younger captives had quite forgotten their native language, and some

of them absolutely refused to leave the savage connexions, into whose

families they had been received by adoption.[69]

We now return to Congress and the affairs of the administration. On the

1st of January, 1794, Jefferson resigned his office as secretary of

state, and was succeeded by Randolph; William Bradford, of Pennsylvania,

supplying his place as attorney-general.

This year was rendered remarkable by an insurrection in Pennsylvania. In

1791, congress had enacted laws laying duties upon spirits distilled

within the United States, and upon stills. The operation of these laws

had from the first created dissatisfaction, and an organised system of

resistance was formed in the four western counties, and especially among

the anti-federal or democratic party, to resist and defeat them.

Indictments were found against such as had neglected to enter their

stills, and the marshal of the district, about to serve the thirtieth

warrant near Pittsburg, was met by an armed force which put him and his

men to flight. This was the signal for further and more determined

violence. The next morning, the house of General Neville, the inspector

of the revenue, who had been wounded the day before, was attacked by an

armed force, under a man called Tom the Tinker, and entered. Several

persons were wounded, and Neville compelled to enter into stipulations

to desist from the execution of his office. The following day the attack

was renewed by a still more formidable party, but Neville had then fled,

and the buildings were burned to the ground by the infuriated mob, the

garrison which was stationed there being compelled to surrender. The

marshal and the inspector fled to Ohio, and embarking, descended to

Marietta, and thence by land to Philadelphia. This was a great triumph

to the malcontents; a meeting was held at Pittsburg, and corresponding

societies established. The mail from Philadelphia was intercepted, and

the letters examined to ascertain beforehand how their affairs had been

taken up at head-quarters. These multiplied outrages appeared to the

president as very alarming signs of the times, especially as the

democratic societies of the West were beginning to affiliate with their

ferocious brethren of Paris. Several of the cabinet agreed with

Washington in the necessity of using very decided and summary measures,

and it was proposed to call out the militia. Again the governor of

Pennsylvania, this time Mifflin, doubted his authority to call them out,

or their obedience if he did so, and Washington immediately issued a

proclamation commanding the insurgents to disperse, and warning all

persons against aiding, abetting, or comforting the perpetrators of

these treasonable acts, and requiring all officers and other citizens,

according to their respective duties and the laws of the land, to use

their utmost endeavours to suppress these dangerous proceedings.

The insurgents were no way deterred by this proclamation, and meetings

of delegates from all the disaffected districts took place under

liberty-trees with liberty-banners floating around them. The president’s

call for the militia was responded to; and quotas were sent in from

Virginia under the old revolutionary officer Morgan, as well as from

Maryland, while Mifflin, thinking better of his hesitation, made a tour

through the lower counties, and using his extraordinary popular

eloquence for the occasion, soon filled up the ranks. Again, on the 25th

of September, the president issued a second proclamation, admonishing

the insurgents, and forcibly stating his determination, after the spirit

of defiance with which the former lenient treatment of the government

had been received, to obey the duty assigned to him by the Constitution,

and “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” and that he would

proceed forthwith to reduce the refractory to obedience.

It was time that summary measures were taken, for disaffection and

sedition were spreading in all directions; armed mobs were marching

everywhere, erecting liberty-poles and committing deeds of violence.

Fifteen thousand men were sent into the disaffected districts, under

General Lee of Virginia. No sooner was the news abroad that this

formidable army was advancing against them, than the tide of democratic

violence began to ebb; liberty-poles were pulled down, and the armed

insurgents dispersed. Several of the most active leaders were handed

over to the civil authorities for trial, but were afterwards pardoned,

as were also two others who were found guilty of treason. Morgan,

however, remained in the disaffected counties through the winter, with a

body of 2,500 men. The government was strengthened even by this

outbreak; the decision and promptitude of the president won the respect,

and his lenity the hearts of the country.

During this session an act was passed to raise a naval force consisting

of six frigates, as a defence for American commerce against the Algerine

pirates; no less than eleven merchant vessels and upwards of 100

citizens having been captured by those pests of the ocean. An act also

was passed about the same time for fortifying the principal harbours,

the more immediate cause for which was the apprehension of war with

Great Britain, which at that time prevailed.