THE CONVENTION OF STATES--WASHINGTON CHOSEN PRESIDENT OF THE
CONVENTION--RANDOLPH'S SPEECH AND RESOLUTIONS--NUMBER AND NAMES OF
DELEGATES--NOTICE OF SOME OF THEM--FRANKLIN IN THE CONVENTION OF
1754--THE LEADING SPEAKERS IN THE CONVENTION--POSITION OF THE
MEMBERS IN REGARD TO PRECEDENTS--SYNOPSIS OF RANDOLPH'S
PLAN--PINCKNEY'S SKETCH--NATIONAL AND STATE-RIGHTS MEN--PATTERSON'S
PLAN--VIRGINIA AND NEW JERSEY PLANS--HAMILTON DISSENTS FROM
BOTH--HIS CHARACTER, SPEECH, AND SCHEME--ALL PLANS AND AMENDMENTS
REFERRED TO A COMMITTEE FOR REVISION--A CONSTITUTION REPORTED AND
ADOPTED--CRITICAL PERIODS IN THE CONVENTION--SUBJECTS FOR
DIFFERENCES--WASHINGTON'S APPREHENSIONS AND VIEWS--PATRIOTISM OF
HAMILTON--THE CONSTITUTION SIGNED--REMARKS BY WASHINGTON AND
FRANKLIN--CLOSE OF THE CONVENTION.
On Monday, the fourteenth day of May, 1787, those delegates to the
convention called to revise the Articles of Confederation who were then
in Philadelphia, assembled in the large room in the statehouse, since
known as Independence hall; but it was not until Friday, the
twenty-fifth, that seven states, the number required by Congress to form
a quorum, were represented, and the convention was organized. On that
day, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and North
and South Carolina, were represented by an aggregate number of
twenty-seven delegates; and on the nomination of Robert Morris, in
behalf of the state of Pennsylvania, Washington was, by unanimous vote,
elected president of the convention. William Jackson was chosen
secretary; and on Monday, the twenty-eighth, Edmund Randolph, of
Virginia, at the request of his colleagues, opened the business of the
convention by an elaborate speech, in which he showed the defects of the
Articles of Confederation, illustrated their utter inadequacy to secure
the peace and safety of the republic, and the absolute necessity of a
more energetic government. When he closed his remarks, he offered for
the consideration of the convention fifteen resolutions; not as a system
of organic law, but as leading principles whereon to form a new
government.
Very soon after the commencement of the session, eleven states were
represented. New Hampshire sent delegates at the close of June, but the
Rhode Island assembly refused to elect any. Some of the most influential
men of that little commonwealth united in a letter to the convention, in
which they expressed warm sympathy with the movement.
Sixty-one delegates had been appointed at the beginning of July, but
only about fifty served in the convention.[8] These were among the most
illustrious citizens of the republic, most of whom had been
distinguished for worth of character, talents, and patriotism, during
the late struggle for the independence of the colonies. Eighteen of them
were at that time members of the continental Congress.
It is not proposed to consider in detail, nor even in a synoptical
manner, the proceedings of that convention, which occupied several hours
each day for four months. We will merely glance at the men and measures,
contemplate the result, and leave the reader to seek, in special
sources, for information concerning the important and interesting
subject of the formation of our federal constitution.[9]
[Illustration: PORTRAITS OF RUFUS KING, JOHN DICKINSON, GOUVERNEUR
MORRIS, OLIVER ELLSWORTH, AND JOHN RUTLEDGE]
Next to Washington, the venerable Doctor Franklin, then a little over
eighty-one years of age, was the most conspicuous member. Thirty-three
years before, he had submitted to a convention of colonial delegates,
held at Albany, a plan for a confederation, similar to our federal
constitution, but it was not adopted. It satisfied neither the board of
trade to whom it was submitted, nor the colonial assemblies who
discussed it. "The assemblies did not adopt it," he said, "as they all
thought there was too much _prerogative_ in it, and in England it was
judged to have too much of the _democratic_."
Dickinson, Johnson, and Rutledge, had been members of the stamp-act
Congress in 1765. The first and last had been compatriots with
Washington in the Congress of 1774, and Sherman, Livingston, Read, and
Wythe, had shared the same honors. The two latter, with Franklin,
Sherman, Gerry, Morris, Clymer, and Wilson, had signed the Declaration
of Independence. Washington, Mifflin, Hamilton, and Cotesworth Pinckney,
represented the continental army; and the younger members, who became
prominent after the Declaration of Independence, were Hamilton, Madison,
and Edmund Randolph. The latter was then governor of Virginia, having
succeeded Patrick Henry.
The leading speakers in the long and warm debates elicited by the
resolutions of Governor Randolph and others, were King, Gerry, and
Gorham, of Massachusetts; Hamilton and Lansing, of New York; Ellsworth,
Johnson, and Sherman, of Connecticut; Paterson, of New Jersey, who
presented a scheme counter to that of Randolph; Franklin, Wilson, and
Morris, of Pennsylvania; Dickinson, of Delaware; Martin, of Maryland;
Randolph, Madison, and Mason, of Virginia; Williamson, of North
Carolina; and the Pinckneys, of South Carolina. Such were the men with
whom Washington was associated in the contrivance and construction of a
new system of government.
"At that time," says Curtis, "the world had witnessed no such spectacle
as that of the deputies of a nation, chosen by the free action of great
communities, and assembled for the purpose of thoroughly reforming its
constitution, by the exercise and with the authority of the national
will. All that had been done, both in ancient and in modern times, in
forming, moulding, or modifying constitutions of government, bore little
resemblance to the present undertaking of the states of America. Neither
among the Greeks nor the Romans was there a precedent, and scarcely an
analogy."
The great political maxim established by the Revolution was the original
residence of all human sovereignty in the people; and the statesmen in
the federal convention had scarcely any precedent, in theory or
practice, by which they might be governed in parcelling out so much of
that sovereignty as the people of the several states should be willing
to dismiss from their local political institutions, in making a strong
and harmonious federal republic, that should be at the same time
harmless toward reserved state-rights.
Randolph's resolutions proposed: First, To correct and enlarge the
Articles of Confederation, so as to accomplish the original objects of
common defence, security of liberty, and general welfare. Secondly, To
make the right of suffrage in the national legislature proportioned to
the quotas of contribution, or to the number of free inhabitants, as
might seem best in different cases. Thirdly, To make the national
legislature consist of two branches; the members of the first to be
elected by the people of the several states at certain intervals for a
specified term. They were to be of a prescribed age, entitled to liberal
emolument for their public services, and to be ineligible to any office,
state or federal, except such as pertained to the functions of that
first branch, during their service; also to be ineligible to re-election
until after a certain space of time succeeding their term of service.
Fourthly, To have the members of the second branch elected by those of
the first from among those who should be nominated by the state
legislatures; to hold their offices "for a term sufficient to insure
their independency;" to be liberally paid for their services, and to be
subject to restrictions similar to those of the first. Fifthly, To have
each branch invested with power to originate acts; to give the national
legislature the right to legislate in all cases where the state
governments might be incompetent, or in which the harmony of the
confederation might be interrupted by the exercise of individual
legislation; to negative all laws passed by the individual states that
might contravene the articles of union; and to call forth the whole
Union against any member of the confederation that should fail to fulfil
its stipulated duty. Sixthly, To institute a national executive, to be
chosen periodically, liberally remunerated, and to be ineligible to a
second official term. Seventhly, To constitute the executive and a
convenient number of the national judiciary a council of revision, who
should have authority to examine every act of the national legislature
before it should operate, and of every individual legislature before a
negative thereon should be final, the dissent of said council amounting
to a rejection unless such act be again passed, or that of such
particular legislature should be again negatived by a specified number
of members of each branch. Eighthly, To establish a national judiciary,
the members of which should hold office during good behavior; and to
define their duties, powers, privileges, and emoluments. Ninthly, To
provide for the admission of new states into the Union. Tenthly, To
guaranty a republican form of government to each state and territory.
Eleventhly, To provide for a continuation of a Congress with its
delegated powers, until a new constitution should be established.
Twelfthly, To make provision for the amendment of the article of union
whenever it should seem necessary, the assent thereto of the national
legislature to be required. Thirteenthly, To require the legislative,
executive, and judiciary powers within the several states to be bound by
oath to support the Union. Fourteenthly, To submit the amendments made
by the convention, after the approbation of the same by Congress, "to an
assembly or assemblies of representatives, recommended by the several
legislatures, to be expressly chosen by the people, to consider and
decide thereon."
Upon general principles, the scheme of Randolph, called the "Virginia
plan," was highly approved; but there were many zealous and pure-minded
patriots in that convention, who regarded the preservation of state
sovereignty, in all its integrity, as essential to the stability of the
republic. Holding the "Virginia plan" to be an infringement upon the
prerogatives of such sovereignty, they opposed it with vehemence. This
plan and a sketch submitted by Charles Pinckney, which appears to have
furnished the outline of the constitution as finally adopted, was
referred to a committee.
The question arose at the beginning, and frequently recurred, "What
limit has the convention in revising the Articles of Confederation? and
has it power to prepare an entirely new system of government?" It was
properly argued, that as a favorably-received resolution in Mr.
Randolph's plan proposed to submit the matter finally to popular
conventions in the several states, that question need not to be
considered.
The debates were carried on warmly, day after day, in committee of the
whole house, and the convention soon became divided into national and
state-rights men, the representatives of six of the states being in
favor of the broad national view, and five for the state-rights view.
Randolph's resolutions were taken up consecutively and debated for a
fortnight, when, after many modifications, they were reported back to
the house. Paterson, of New Jersey, then immediately brought forward a
counter scheme, which was called the "New Jersey plan," and embodied the
peculiar views of the state-rights party. It proposed to preserve the
continental Congress as the federal legislature, with additional power
to levy duties on foreign importations; to impose stamp and postage
taxes; to collect, without hinderance, requisitions not promptly met by
the states; and to regulate commerce with foreign nations. It proposed a
plural federal executive and a federal judiciary, and made acts of
Congress and foreign treaties supreme laws.
Paterson's plan and Randolph's modified resolutions were referred to a
new committee, and the whole question concerning a national government
was again considered. Again debates ran high. In the course of these,
Hamilton, who had come into the convention with more courage and fixed
plan than any other member, avowed his dissent from both the schemes
before the committee. He was listened to with the most profound respect;
and gray-haired men, as they looked upon his delicate form and youthful
features, were filled with wonder at the display of his great genius for
political construction, his extensive knowledge of the means by which
true conservative liberty might be secured, and his thorough
comprehension of the wants and resources of his country. He had come
into the convention fully prepared to propound a solution of the great
questions which he knew would perplex the members; and at the close of
an elaborate and in many respects most extraordinary speech, he offered
a written sketch of a system, not, he said, for discussion in the
committee, nor with the idea that the public mind was yet prepared for
it, but as explanatory of his own views and introductory to some
amendments he intended to propose. He then departed for New York,
leaving his two colleagues, who took the state-rights view of the
matter, to represent his state in the convention. They too soon left,
and never returned.
Day after day and week after week the debates continued, sometimes with
great courtesy, and sometimes with considerable acrimony, until the
tenth of September, when all plans and amendments which had been adopted
by the convention were placed in the hands of a committee for revision
and arrangement. Hamilton, who had returned to the convention at the
middle of August, was placed upon that committee, having for his
associates Messrs. Madison, King, Johnson, and Gouverneur Morris. To the
latter was intrusted the task of giving the finish to the style and
arrangement of the instrument. It was then reported to the convention,
taken up clause by clause, discussed, somewhat amended, and ordered to
be engrossed. On the fifteenth it was agreed to as amended, by all the
states present, and on the seventeenth a fair copy was brought in to
receive the signatures of the members.
Many times, during that long session of almost four months, there were
serious apprehensions of failure, the views of members differed so
essentially upon important points. One of the most exciting of these
questions which elicited zealous debates, was a proposition for the
general government to assume the debts of the respective states. The
debts of the several commonwealths were vastly unequal, and the
proposition was therefore distasteful to several. For example, those of
Massachusetts and South Carolina amounted to more than ten and a half
millions of dollars, while those of all the other states did not exceed,
in the aggregate, fifteen millions.
But the most serious subject for difference was that of representation
in the senatorial branch of the national legislature, the smaller states
claiming, and the larger ones opposing, the exercise of the rule of
equality. For a long time an equal division of votes on that point had
been reiterated, and most of the members began to feel assured that no
compromise could be effected. But the matter was finally adjusted by
mutual concessions, and a plan for the construction of the senate upon
the basis of an equal number of representatives from each of the states,
large and small, was adopted.
Frequently during the session of the convention, Washington had serious
apprehensions concerning the result. He perceived with much anxiety a
disposition to withhold power from the national legislature, which, in
his opinion, was the chief cause of the inadequacy of the confederation
to fulfil its mission. "Happy indeed will it be," he wrote to David
Stuart on the first of July, "if the convention shall be able to
recommend such a firm and permanent government for this Union, that all
who live under it may be secure in their lives, liberty, and property;
and thrice happy would it be if such a recommendation should obtain.
Everybody wishes, everybody expects something from the convention; but
what will be the final result of its deliberations the book of fate must
disclose. Persuaded I am, that the primary cause of all our disorders
lies in the different state governments, and in the tenacity of that
power which pervades the whole of their systems. Whilst independent
sovereignty is so ardently contended for, whilst the local views of each
state, and separate interests by which they are too much governed, will
not yield to a more enlarged scale of politics, incompatibility in the
laws of different states, and disrespect to those of the general
government, must render the situation of this great country weak,
inefficient, and disgraceful. It has already done so, almost to the
final dissolution of it. Weak at home, and disregarded abroad, is our
present condition, and contemptible enough it is."
"Thirteen governments," he wrote on the fifteenth of August, "pulling
against each other, and all tugging at the federal head, will soon bring
ruin on the whole; whereas, a liberal and energetic constitution, well
checked and well watched, to prevent encroachments, might restore us to
that degree of respectability and consequence to which we had the
fairest prospect of attaining." And again: "I confess that my opinion of
public virtue is so far changed, that I have my doubts whether any
system, without means of coercion in the sovereign, will enforce due
obedience to the ordinances of a general government, without which
everything else fails."
Although Washington took no part in the debates of the convention, his
opinions, concurrent with those of Hamilton, were firmly and strongly
expressed, and had great influence. The constitution as finally framed
and adopted did not receive his unqualified approval. He had decided
objections to several of its features; but he accepted it as a whole, as
the best that could be obtained under the circumstances, firmly
persuaded that it was a great step in advance of the confederation, and
that experience in its workings would suggest necessary amendments, for
which ample provision was made. In fact, the instrument did not wholly
please a single member of the convention. It was, to a considerable
extent, a patchwork of compromises, and many doubted its being ratified
by a majority of the states.
Hamilton regarded the constitution as adopted with feelings of
disappointment. It lacked the strength that he desired it to possess;
but, like Washington, he yielded his private sentiments and impulses to
the consideration of the public good. His own plan, which he had urged
with all his eloquence and energy, differed radically from the one
adopted; yet, with a nobleness of spirit which challenges our highest
admiration, he sacrificed the pride of opinion, and when the
constitution had passed the ordeal of severest criticism and amendment
by the convention, he avowed himself ready to sign it, and urged others,
who hesitated, to do the same "No man's ideas are more remote from the
plan than my own," he said; "but is it possible to deliberate between
anarchy and confusion on one side, and the chance of good on the other."
A large majority of the members desired that the instrument should go
forth to the people, not only as the act of the convention, but with the
individual sanction and signatures of their representatives. Franklin,
desirous of having it promulgated with such sanction, arose with a
written speech in his hand when the engrossed copy was brought in, in
which, with pleasant words, he endeavored to allay the irritated temper
of some of the delegates, and procure for the constitution unanimous
signature. Mr. Wilson read the speech, and it was closed with a form
suggested by Gouverneur Morris, which might be signed without implying
personal approval of the instrument: "Done by consent of the states
present. In testimony whereof, we have subscribed," et cetera.
The appeals of Hamilton and Franklin, a few approving words of
Washington, and the example of Madison and Pinckney, secured the
signatures of several dissatisfied members; and all present, except
Mason and Randolph of Virginia, and Gerry of Massachusetts, signed the
constitution.[10] The absence of the colleagues of Mr. Hamilton (Yates
and Lansing), who had left the convention in disgust on the first of
July, caused New York to be regarded as not officially present; but, to
secure for the proceedings the weight of a name so important as that of
Hamilton, in the place that should have been filled by his state, was
recited "Mr. Hamilton of New York."
"There is a tradition," says Curtis, "that when Washington was about to
sign the instrument, he rose from his seat, and holding the pen in his
hand, after a short pause, pronounced these words: 'Should the states
reject this excellent constitution, the probability is that an
opportunity will never again offer to cancel another in peace--the next
will be drawn in blood.' While the members were signing, Doctor
Franklin, looking toward the chair occupied by Washington, at the back
of which a sun was painted, observed to the persons near him: 'I have
often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of
my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun behind the
president, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting:
at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising, not a setting
sun.'"
The great convention adjourned on the seventeenth of September, after
directing a copy of the constitution, with an accompanying letter, to be
sent to the Congress. The journal of the convention was placed in the
hands of Washington (by whom it was afterward deposited in the
department of state); and on the following morning he wrote in his
dairy: "The business being thus closed, the members adjourned to the
City Tavern, dined together, and took a cordial leave of each other;
after which, I returned to my lodgings, did some business with, and
received the papers from, the secretary of the convention, and retired
to meditate on the momentous work which had been executed, after not
less than five, for a large part of the time six, and sometimes seven
hours' sitting every day (except Sundays, and the ten days' adjournment
to give a committee an opportunity and time to arrange the business) for
more than four months."
FOOTNOTES:
[8] The following are the names of the delegates: _New
Hampshire_--John Langdon, John Pickering, Nicholas Gilman, and Benjamin
West. _Massachusetts_--Francis Dana, Elbridge Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham,
Rufus King, and Caleb Strong. _Connecticut_--William Samuel Johnson,
Roger Sherman, and Oliver Ellsworth. _New York_--Robert Yates, John
Lansing, Jr., and Alexander Hamilton. _New Jersey_--David Brearly,
William Churchill Houston, William Paterson, John Neilson, William
Livingston, Abraham Clark, and Jonathan Dayton. _Pennsylvania_--Thomas
Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Jared Ingersoll, Thomas
Fitzsimons, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, and Benjamin Franklin.
_Delaware_--George Read, Gunning Bedford, Jr., John Dickinson, Richard
Bassett, and Jacob Broom. _Maryland_--James M'Henry, Daniel of St.
Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll, John Francis Mercer, and Luther Martin.
_Virginia_--George Washington, Patrick Henry (refused to serve, and
James M'Clure was nominated in his place), Edmund Randolph, John Blair,
James Madison, Jr., George Mason, and George Wythe. _North
Carolina_--Richard Caswell, Alexander Martin, William Richardson Davie,
Richard Dobbs Spaight, and Willie Jones: Caswell and Jones having
declined to serve, William Blount and Hugh Williamson were chosen in
their places. _South Carolina_--John Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney, and Pierce Butler. _Georgia_--William Few, Abraham
Baldwin, William Pierce, George Walton, William Houston, and Nathaniel
Pendleton.
[9] Curtis's _History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of
the Constitution of the United States_ is by far the most ample and
reliable source of information on this subject.
[10] The following are the names of the delegates who signed
the constitution: GEO. WASHINGTON, _President, and deputy from
Virginia_. _New Hampshire_--John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman.
_Massachusetts_--Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King. _Connecticut_--William
Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman. _New York_--Alexander Hamilton. _New
Jersey_--William Livingston, David Brearly, William Paterson, Jonathan
Dayton. _Pennsylvania_--Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert
Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James
Wilson, Gouverneur Morris. _Delaware_--George Reed, Gunning Bedford,
Jr., John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom. _Maryland_--James
M'Henry, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll. _Virginia_--John
Blair, James Madison, Jr. _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. _Attest_: William Jackson, _Secretary_.