American Pageant Chapter 9 PDF

PART T WO BUILDING THE NEW NATION  1776–1860 B y 1783 Americans had won their freedom. Now they had to build their coun-...

PART T WO BUILDING THE NEW NATION  1776–1860 B y 1783 Americans had won their freedom. Now they had to build their coun- The feeble national gov- ernment cobbled together under the Articles of Con- try. To be sure, they were federation during the Revo- blessed with a vast and fertile lutionary War soon proved land, and they inherited from woefully inadequate to the their colonial experience a task of nation building. In proud legacy of self-rule. But less than ten years after the history provided scant prece- Revolutionary War’s con- dent for erecting a republic clusion, the Articles were on a national scale. No law of replaced by a new Constitu- nature guaranteed that the tion, but even its adoption thirteen rebellious colonies did not end the debate over would stay glued together just what form American as a single nation, nor that government should take. they would preserve, not to Would the president, the mention expand, their demo- Congress, or the courts be cratic way of life. New insti- the dominant branch? What tutions had to be created, should be the proper divi- new habits of thought cultivated. Who could predict sion of authority between the federal government whether the American experiment in government by and the states? How could the rights of individuals the people would succeed? be protected against a potentially powerful govern- 164 ment? What economic poli- of new lands and new labor cies would best serve the fed the growth of a market infant republic? How should economy, including the the nation defend itself commercialization of agri- against foreign foes? What culture and the beginnings principles should guide for- of the factory system of pro- eign policy? Was America a duction. Old ways of life nation at all, or was it merely withered as the market a geographic expression, economy drew women as destined to splinter into sev- well as men, children as well eral bitterly quarreling sec- as adults, blacks as well as tions, as had happened to whites, into its embrace. so many other would-be Ominously, the slave system countries? grew robustly as cotton After a shaky start under production, mostly for sale George Washington and on European markets, John Adams in the 1790s, exploded into the booming buffeted by foreign troubles Southwest. and domestic crises, the Meanwhile, the United new Republic passed a States in the era of Andrew major test when power was Jackson gave the world an peacefully transferred from the conservative Feder- impressive lesson in political science. Between alists to the more liberal Jeffersonians in the elec- roughly 1820 and 1840, Americans virtually tion of 1800. A confident President Jefferson pro- invented mass democracy, creating huge political ceeded boldly to expand the national territory with parties and enormously expanding political partici- the landmark Louisiana Purchase in 1803. But pation by enfranchising nearly all adult white males. before long Jefferson, and then his successor, James Nor was the spirit of innovation confined to the Madison, were embroiled in what eventually political realm. A wave of reform and cultural vital- proved to be a fruitless effort to spare the United ity swept through many sectors of American society. States from the ravages of the war then raging in Utopian experiments proliferated. Religious revivals Europe. and even new religions, like Mormonism, flour- America was dangerously divided during the ished. A national literature blossomed. Crusades War of 1812 and suffered a humiliating defeat. But were launched for temperance, prison reform, a new sense of national unity and purpose was women’s rights, and the abolition of slavery. unleashed in the land thereafter. President Monroe, By the second quarter of the nineteenth cen- presiding over this “Era of Good Feelings,” pro- tury, the outlines of a distinctive American national claimed in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 that both of character had begun to emerge. Americans were a the American continents were off-limits to further diverse, restless people, tramping steadily west- European intervention. The foundations of a conti- ward, eagerly forging their own nascent Industrial nental-scale economy were laid, as a “transporta- Revolution, proudly exercising their democratic tion revolution” stitched the country together with political rights, impatient with the old, in love with canals and railroads and turnpikes. Settlers flooded the new, testily asserting their superiority over all over those new arteries into the burgeoning West, other peoples—and increasingly divided, in heart, often brusquely shouldering aside the native peo- in conscience, and in politics, over the single great- ples. Immigrants, especially from Ireland and Ger- est blight on their record of nation making and many, flocked to American shores. The combination democracy building: slavery. 165  9 The Confederation and the Constitution  1776–1790 This example of changing the constitution by assembling the wise men of the state, instead of assembling armies, will be worth as much to the world as the former examples we have given it. THOMAS JEFFERSON T he American Revolution was not a revolution in the sense of a radical or total change. It did not suddenly and violently overturn the entire political the way for new, Patriot elites to emerge. It also cleared the field for more egalitarian ideas to sweep across the land. and social framework, as later occurred in the French and Russian Revolutions. What happened was accelerated evolution rather than outright revo- The Pursuit of Equality lution. During the conflict itself, people went on working and praying, marrying and playing. Many of them were not seriously disturbed by the actual “All men are created equal,” the Declaration of Inde- fighting, and the most isolated communities pendence proclaimed, and equality was everywhere scarcely knew that a war was on. the watchword. Most states reduced (but usually did Yet some striking changes were ushered in, not eliminate altogether) property-holding require- affecting social customs, political institutions, and ments for voting. Ordinary men and women ideas about society, government, and even gender demanded to be addressed as “Mr.” and “Mrs.”— roles. The exodus of some eighty thousand substan- titles once reserved for the wealthy and highborn. tial Loyalists robbed the new ship of state of conser- Most Americans ridiculed the lordly pretensions of vative ballast. This weakening of the aristocratic Continental Army officers who formed an exclusive upper crust, with all its culture and elegance, paved hereditary order, the Society of the Cincinnati. Social 166  Aftermath of the Revolution 167 democracy was further stimulated by the growth of be barred from purchasing property, holding certain trade organizations for artisans and laborers. Citi- jobs, and educating their children. Laws against zens in several states, flushed with republican fervor, interracial marriage also sprang up at this time. also sawed off the remaining shackles of medieval Why, in this dawning democratic age, did aboli- inheritance laws, such as primogeniture, which tion not go further and cleanly blot the evil of slav- awarded all of a father’s property to the eldest son. ery from the fresh face of the new nation? The sorry A protracted fight for separation of church and truth is that the fledgling idealism of the Founding state resulted in notable gains. Although the well- Fathers was sacrificed to political expediency. A entrenched Congregational Church continued to be fight over slavery would have fractured the fragile legally established in some New England states, the national unity that was so desperately needed. Anglican Church, tainted by association with the “Great as the evil [of slavery] is,” the young Virginian British crown, was humbled. De-anglicized, it re- James Madison wrote in 1787, “a dismemberment of formed as the Protestant Episcopal Church and was the union would be worse.” Nearly a century later, everywhere disestablished. The struggle for divorce the slavery issue did wreck the Union—temporarily. between religion and government proved fiercest in Likewise incomplete was the extension of the Virginia. It was prolonged to 1786, when freethink- doctrine of equality to women. Some women did ing Thomas Jefferson and his co-reformers, includ- serve (disguised as men) in the military, and New ing the Baptists, won a complete victory with the Jersey’s new constitution in 1776 even, for a time, passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Free- dom. (See the table of established churches, p. 95.) The egalitarian sentiments unleashed by the war likewise challenged the institution of slavery. Philadelphia Quakers in 1775 founded the world’s first antislavery society. Hostilities hampered the noxious trade in “black ivory,’’ and the Continental Congress in 1774 called for the complete abolition of the slave trade, a summons to which most of the states responded positively. Several northern states went further and either abolished slavery outright or provided for the gradual emancipation of blacks. Even on the plantations of Virginia, a few idealistic masters freed their human chattels—the first frail sprouts of the later abolitionist movement. But this revolution of sentiments was sadly incomplete. No states south of Pennsylvania abol- ished slavery, and in both North and South, the law discriminated harshly against freed blacks and slaves alike. Emancipated African-Americans could The impact of the American Revolution was worldwide. About 1783 a British ship stopped at some islands off the East African coast, where the natives were revolting against their Arab masters. When asked why they were fighting they replied, “America is free, Could not we be?” 168 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 colonies to summon themselves into being as new states. The sovereignty of these new states, accord- The Revolution enhanced the expectations ing to the theory of republicanism, would rest on and power of women as wives and mothers. As the authority of the people. For a time the manufac- one “matrimonial republican” wrote in 1792, ture of governments was even more pressing than “I object to the word ‘obey’ in the marriage- the manufacture of gunpowder. Although the states service because it is a general word, without of Connecticut and Rhode Island merely retouched limitations or definition.... The obedience their colonial charters, constitution writers else- between man and wife, I conceive, is, or where worked tirelessly to capture on black-inked ought to be mutual.... Marriage ought parchment the republican spirit of the age. never to be considered a contract between Massachusetts contributed one especially note- a superior and an inferior, but a reciprocal worthy innovation when it called a special conven- union of interest, an implied partnership of tion to draft its constitution and then submitted the interests, where all differences are final draft directly to the people for ratification. accommodated by conference; and where Once adopted in 1780, the Massachusetts constitu- the decision admits of no retrospect.” tion could be changed only by another specially called constitutional convention. This procedure was later imitated in the drafting and ratification of the federal Constitution. The newly penned state constitutions had many enabled women to vote. But though Abigail Adams features in common. Their similarity, as it turned teased her husband John in 1776 that “the Ladies’’ out, made easier the drafting of a workable federal were determined “to foment a rebellion’’ of their charter when the time was ripe. In the British tradi- own if they were not given political rights, most of tion, a “constitution” was not a written document, the women in the Revolutionary era were still doing but rather an accumulation of laws, customs, and traditional women’s work. precedents. Americans invented something differ- Yet women did not go untouched by Revolution- ent. The documents they drafted were contracts ary ideals. Central to republican ideology was the that defined the powers of government, as did the concept of “civic virtue’’—the notion that democracy old colonial charters, but they drew their authority depended on the unselfish commitment of each citi- from the people, not from the royal seal of a distant zen to the public good. And who could better culti- king. As written documents the state constitutions vate the habits of a virtuous citizenry than mothers, were intended to represent a fundamental law, to whom society entrusted the moral education of superior to the transient whims of ordinary legisla- the young? Indeed the selfless devotion of a mother tion. Most of these documents included bills of to her family was often cited as the very model of rights, specifically guaranteeing long-prized liber- proper republican behavior. The idea of “republican ties against later legislative encroachment. Most of motherhood’’ thus took root, elevating women to a them required the annual election of legislators, newly prestigious role as the special keepers of the who were thus forced to stay in touch with the nation’s conscience. Educational opportunities for mood of the people. All of them deliberately created women expanded, in the expectation that educated weak executive and judicial branches, at least by wives and mothers could better cultivate the virtues present-day standards. A generation of quarreling demanded by the Republic in their husbands, with His Majesty’s officials had implanted a deep daughters, and sons. Republican women now bore distrust of despotic governors and arbitrary judges. crucial responsibility for the survival of the nation. In all the new state governments, the legisla- tures, as presumably the most democratic branch of government, were given sweeping powers. But as Constitution Making in the States Thomas Jefferson warned, “173 despots [in a legisla- ture] would surely be as oppressive as one.’’ Many Americans soon came to agree with him. The Continental Congress in 1776 called upon the The democratic character of the new state legis- colonies to draft new constitutions. In effect, latures was vividly reflected by the presence of the Continental Congress was actually asking the many members from the recently enfranchised  Examining the Evidence 169 Copley Family Portrait, c. 1776–1777 A portrait her; and she provides the focus of activity for the painting like this one by John Singleton Copley family group. Although Copley had moved to Eng- (1738-1815) documents physical likenesses, cloth- land in 1774 to avoid the disruptions of war, he had ing styles, and other material possessions typical made radical friends in his home town of Boston of an era. But it can do more than that. In the and surely had imbibed the sentiment of the age execution of the painting itself, the preeminent about “republican motherhood”—a sentiment portrait painter of colonial America revealed that revered women as homemakers and mothers, important values of his time. Copley’s composition the cultivators of good republican values in young and use of light emphasized the importance of the citizens. What other prevailing attitudes, about mother in the family. Mrs. Copley is the visual cen- gender and age, for example, might this painting ter of the painting; the light falls predominantly on reveal? poorer western districts. Their influence was power- Economic Crosscurrents fully felt in their several successful movements to relocate state capitals from the haughty eastern sea- ports into the less pretentious interior. In the Revo- Economic changes begotten by the war were like- lutionary era, the capitals of New Hampshire, New wise noteworthy, but not overwhelming. States York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and seized control of former crown lands, and although Georgia were all moved westward. These geographi- rich speculators had their day, many of the large cal shifts portended political shifts that deeply dis- Loyalist holdings were confiscated and eventually comfited many more conservative Americans. cut up into small farms. Roger Morris’s huge estate 170 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 in New York, for example, was sliced into 250 parcels Britain was still reserved for the loyal parts of the —thus accelerating the spread of economic democ- empire. American ships were now barred from racy. The frightful excesses of the French Revolution British and British West Indies harbors. Fisheries were avoided, partly because cheap land was easily were disrupted, and bounties for ships’ stores had available. People do not chop off heads so readily abruptly ended. In some respects the hated British when they can chop down trees. It is highly signifi- Navigation Laws were more disagreeable after inde- cant that in the United States, economic democracy, pendence than before. broadly speaking, preceded political democracy. New commercial outlets, fortunately, compen- A sharp stimulus was given to manufacturing by sated partially for the loss of old ones. Americans the prewar nonimportation agreements and later by could now trade freely with foreign nations, subject the war itself. Goods that had formerly been imported to local restrictions—a boon they had not enjoyed from Britain were mostly cut off, and the ingenious in the days of mercantilism. Enterprising Yankee Yankees were forced to make their own. Ten years shippers ventured boldly—and profitably—into the after the Revolution, the busy Brandywine Creek, Baltic and China Seas. In 1784 the Empress of China, south of Philadelphia, was turning the water wheels of carrying a valuable weed (ginseng) that was highly numerous mills along an eight-mile stretch. Yet Amer- prized by Chinese herb doctors as a cure for impo- ica remained overwhelmingly a nation of soil-tillers. tence, led the way into the East Asian markets. Economically speaking, independence had Yet the general economic picture was far from drawbacks. Much of the coveted commerce of rosy. War had spawned demoralizing extravagance,  Problems of a New Government 171 speculation, and profiteering, with profits for some Philadelphia newspaper in 1783 urged readers to as indecently high as 300 percent. Runaway infla- don home-stitched garments of homespun cloth: tion had been ruinous to many citizens, and Con- Of foreign gewgaws let’s be free, gress had failed in its feeble attempts to curb And wear the webs of liberty. economic laws. The average citizen was probably worse off financially at the end of the shooting than Yet hopeful signs could be discerned. The thir- at the start. teen sovereign states were basically alike in govern- The whole economic and social atmosphere mental structure and functioned under similar was unhealthy. A newly rich class of profiteers was constitutions. Americans enjoyed a rich political noisily conspicuous, whereas many once-wealthy inheritance, derived partly from Britain and partly people were left destitute. The controversy leading from their own homegrown devices for self-govern- to the Revolutionary War had bred a keen distaste ment. Finally, they were blessed with political lead- for taxes and encouraged disrespect for the majesty ers of a high order in men like George Washington, of the law generally. John Adams had been shocked James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and when gleefully told by a horse-jockey neighbor that Alexander Hamilton. the courts of justice were all closed—a plight that proved to be only temporary. Creating a Confederation A Shaky Start Toward Union The Second Continental Congress of Revolutionary days was little more than a conference of ambas- What would the Americans do with the independ- sadors from the thirteen states. It was totally with- ence they had so dearly won? The Revolution had out constitutional authority and in general did only dumped the responsibility of creating and operating what it dared to do, though it asserted some control a new central government squarely into their laps. over military affairs and foreign policy. In nearly Prospects for erecting a lasting regime were far all respects, the thirteen states were sovereign, for from bright. It is always difficult to set up a new gov- they coined money, raised armies and navies, and ernment and doubly difficult to set up a new type of erected tariff barriers. The legislature of Virginia government. The picture was further clouded in even ratified separately the treaty of alliance of 1778 America by leaders preaching “natural rights’’ and with France. looking suspiciously at all persons clothed with Shortly before declaring independence in 1776, authority. America was more a name than a nation, the Congress appointed a committee to draft a writ- and unity ran little deeper than the color on the map. ten constitution for the new nation. The finished Disruptive forces stalked the land. The depar- product was the Articles of Confederation. Adopted ture of the conservative Tory element left the politi- by Congress in 1777, it was translated into French cal system inclined toward experimentation and after the Battle of Saratoga so as to convince France innovation. Patriots had fought the war with a high that America had a genuine government in the mak- degree of disunity, but they had at least concurred ing. The Articles were not ratified by all thirteen on allegiance to a common cause. Now even that states until 1781, less than eight months before the was gone. It would have been almost a miracle if any victory at Yorktown. government fashioned in all this confusion had long The chief apple of discord was western lands. endured. Six of the jealous states, including Pennsylvania and Hard times, the bane of all regimes, set in Maryland, had no holdings beyond the Allegheny shortly after the war and hit bottom in 1786. As if Mountains. Seven, notably New York and Virginia, other troubles were not enough, British manufac- were favored with enormous acreage, in most cases turers, with dammed-up surpluses, began flooding on the basis of earlier charter grants. The six land- the American market with cut-rate goods. War-baby hungry states argued that the more fortunate states American industries, in particular, suffered indus- would not have retained possession of this splendid trial colic from such ruthless competition. One prize if all the other states had not fought for it also. 172 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 Western Land Cessions to the United States, 1782–1802 A major complaint was that the land-blessed states Fertile public lands thus transferred to the cen- could sell their trans-Allegheny tracts and thus pay tral government proved to be an invaluable bond of off pensions and other debts incurred in the com- union. The states that had thrown their heritage into mon cause. States without such holdings would the common pot had to remain in the Union if they have to tax themselves heavily to defray these obli- were to reap their share of the advantages from the gations. Why not turn the whole western area over land sales. An army of westward-moving pioneers to the central government? purchased their farms from the federal government, Unanimous approval of the Articles of Confeder- directly or indirectly, and they learned to look to the ation by the thirteen states was required, and land- national capital, rather than to the state capitals— starved Maryland stubbornly held out until March 1, with a consequent weakening of local influence. 1781. Maryland at length gave in when New York sur- Finally, a uniform national land policy was made rendered its western claims and Virginia seemed possible. about to do so. To sweeten the pill, Congress pledged itself to dispose of these vast areas for the “common benefit.’’ It further agreed to carve from the new The Articles of Confederation: public domain not colonies, but a number of America’s First Constitution “republican’’ states, which in time would be admit- ted to the Union on terms of complete equality with all the others. This extraordinary commitment faith- The Articles of Confederation—some have said fully reflected the anticolonial spirit of the Revolu- “Articles of Confusion’’—provided for a loose con- tion, and the pledge was later fully redeemed in the federation or “firm league of friendship.’’ Thirteen famed Northwest Ordinance of 1787. independent states were thus linked together for  A Crippled Confederation 173 joint action in dealing with common problems, such as foreign affairs. A clumsy Congress was to be the chief agency of government. There was no exec- utive branch—George III had left a bad taste—and the vital judicial arm was left almost exclusively to the states. Congress, though dominant, was securely hob- bled. Each state had a single vote, so that some 68,000 Rhode Islanders had the same voice as more than ten times that many Virginians. All bills dealing with subjects of importance required the support of nine states; any amendment of the Articles them- selves required unanimous ratification. Unanimity was almost impossible, and this meant that the amending process, perhaps fortunately, was unworkable. If it had been workable, the Republic might have struggled along with a patched-up Arti- cles of Confederation rather than replace it with an effective Constitution. The shackled Congress was weak—and was purposely designed to be weak. Suspicious states, having just won control over taxation and com- merce from Britain, had no desire to yield their newly acquired privileges to an American parlia- ment—even one of their own making. Two handicaps of the Congress were crippling. It had no power to regulate commerce, and this loophole left the states free to establish conflictingly They were for those days a model of what a loose different laws regarding tariffs and navigation. Nor confederation ought to be. Thomas Jefferson enthu- could the Congress enforce its tax-collection pro- siastically hailed the new structure as the best one gram. It established a tax quota for each of the states “existing or that ever did exist.’’ To compare it with and then asked them please to contribute their the European governments, he thought, was like share on a voluntary basis. The central authority—a comparing “heaven and hell.’’ But although the “government by supplication’’—was lucky if in any Confederation was praiseworthy as confederations year it received one-fourth of its requests. went, the troubled times demanded not a loosely The feeble national government in Philadelphia woven confederation but a tightly knit federation. could advise and advocate and appeal. But in deal- This involved the yielding by the states of their sov- ing with the independent states, it could not com- ereignty to a completely recast federal government, mand or coerce or control. It could not act directly which in turn would leave them free to control their upon the individual citizens of a sovereign state; it local affairs. could not even protect itself against gross indigni- In spite of their defects, the anemic Articles of ties. In 1783 a dangerous threat came from a group Confederation were a significant stepping-stone of mutinous Pennsylvania soldiers who demanded toward the present Constitution. They clearly out- back pay. After Congress had appealed in vain to the lined the general powers that were to be exercised state for protection, the members were forced to by the central government, such as making treaties move in disgrace to Princeton College in New Jer- and establishing a postal service. As the first written sey. The new Congress, with all its paper powers, constitution of the Republic, the Articles kept alive was even less effective than the old Continental the flickering ideal of union and held the states Congress, which wielded no constitutional powers together—until such time as they were ripe for the at all. establishment of a strong constitution by peaceful, Yet the Articles of Confederation, weak though evolutionary methods. Without this intermedi- they were, proved to be a landmark in government. ary jump, the states probably would never have 174 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 consented to the breathtaking leap from the old recorded, contrasted sharply with the chaos south boycott Association of 1774 to the Constitution of of the Ohio River, where uncertain ownership was the United States. the norm and fraud was rampant. Even more noteworthy was the Northwest Ordi- nance of 1787, which related to the governing of the Landmarks in Land Laws Old Northwest. This law came to grips with the problem of how a nation should deal with its colonies—the same problem that had bedeviled the Handcuffed though the Congress of the Confedera- king and Parliament in London. The solution pro- tion was, it succeeded in passing supremely far- vided by the Northwest Ordinance was a judicious sighted pieces of legislation. These related to an compromise: temporary tutelage, then permanent immense part of the public domain recently equality. First, there would be two evolutionary ter- acquired from the states and commonly known as ritorial stages, during which the area would be sub- the Old Northwest. This area of land lay northwest ordinate to the federal government. Then, when a of the Ohio River, east of the Mississippi River, and territory could boast sixty thousand inhabitants, it south of the Great Lakes. might be admitted by Congress as a state, with all The first of these red-letter laws was the Land the privileges of the thirteen charter members. Ordinance of 1785. It provided that the acreage of (This is precisely what the Continental Congress the Old Northwest should be sold and that the pro- had promised the states when they surrendered ceeds should be used to help pay off the national their lands in 1781.) The ordinance also forbade debt. The vast area was to be surveyed before sale slavery in the Old Northwest—a pathbreaking gain and settlement, thus forestalling endless confusion for freedom. and lawsuits. It was to be divided into townships six The wisdom of Congress in handling this explo- miles square, each of which in turn was to be split sive problem deserves warm praise. If it had into thirty-six sections of one square mile each. The attempted to chain the new territories in perma- sixteenth section of each township was set aside to nent subordination, a second American Revolution be sold for the benefit of the public schools—a almost certainly would have erupted in later years, priceless gift to education in the Northwest. The fought this time by the West against the East. Con- orderly settlement of the Northwest Territory, where gress thus neatly solved the seemingly insoluble the land was methodically surveyed and titles duly problem of empire. The scheme worked so well that Surveying the Old Northwest Sections of a township under the Land Ordinance of 1785. 36 30 24 18 12 6 16 BRIT ISH CANADA e S up e rio r Income from section 16 La k 35 29 23 17 11 5 used to support schools La 34 28 22 16 10 4 MICHIGAN k e 6 miles M is s n Hu La k e Mic h ig a is s WISCONSIN ro n ip p i 33 27 21 15 9 3 R. Section e S PA NI S H e E ri 32 26 20 14 8 2 640 acres La k L OU I SI A N A 31 25 19 13 7 1 Half-section OHIO 320 acres ILLINOIS INDIANA 1 mile 6 miles Survey began Quarter- 80 acres io R. here section Oh 160 acres 40 40 TENNESSEE VIRGINIA 1 mile  Troubled Foreign Relations 175 its basic principles were ultimately carried over BRITISH CANADA from the Old Northwest to other frontier areas. Fort Michilimackinac MASS. The World’s Ugly Duckling M iss iss (U.S soil) i N.Y. pp N.H. i R. Detroit Fort Niagara MASS. Foreign relations, especially with London, remained (U.S. soil) (U.S. soil) R.I. troubled during these anxious years of the Confed- PA. CONN. eration. Britain resented the stab in the back from N.J. MD. its rebellious offspring and for eight years refused to St. Louis io R. DEL. Oh send a minister to America’s “backwoods’’ capital. VIRGINIA SPANISH London suggested, with barbed irony, that if it sent LOUISIANA one, it would have to send thirteen. NORTH CAROLINA Britain flatly declined to make a commercial treaty or to repeal its ancient Navigation Laws. SOUTH CAROLINA Lord Sheffield, whose ungenerous views prevailed, Natchez GEORGIA argued persuasively in a widely sold pamphlet that Britain would win back America’s trade anyhow. Commerce, he insisted, would naturally follow old New Orleans SPANISH Area disputed by channels. So why go to the Americans hat in hand? FLORIDA Spain and U.S. The British also officially shut off their profitable British influence West Indies trade from the United States, though the Spanish influence Yankees, with their time-tested skill in smuggling, illegally partook nonetheless. Main Centers of Spanish and British Influence After 1783 Scheming British agents were also active along This map shows graphically that the United States in 1783 the far-flung northern frontier. They intrigued with achieved complete independence in name only, particularly in the disgruntled Allen brothers of Vermont and the area west of the Appalachian Mountains. Not until twenty sought to annex that rebellious area to Britain. years had passed did the new Republic, with the purchase of Along the northern border, the redcoats continued Louisiana from France in 1803, eliminate foreign influence to hold a chain of trading posts on U.S. soil, and from the area east of the Mississippi River. there they maintained their fur trade with the Indi- ans. One plausible excuse for remaining was the failure of the American states to honor the treaty of peace in regard to debts and Loyalists. But the main which the pioneers of Tennessee and Kentucky were purpose of Britain in hanging on was probably to forced to float their produce. In 1784 Spain closed curry favor with the Indians and keep their toma- the river to American commerce, threatening the hawks lined up on the side of the king as a barrier West with strangulation. Spain likewise claimed a against future American attacks on Canada. large area north of the Gulf of Mexico, including All these grievances against Britain were mad- Florida, granted to the United States by the British dening to patriotic Americans. Some citizens in 1783. At Natchez, on disputed soil, it held an demanded, with more heat than wisdom, that the important fort. It also schemed with the neighbor- United States force the British into line by imposing ing Indians, grievously antagonized by the rapa- restrictions on their imports to America. But Con- cious land policies of Georgia and North Carolina, gress could not control commerce, and the states to hem in the Americans east of the Alleghenies. refused to adopt a uniform tariff policy. Some “easy Spain and Britain together, radiating their influence states’’ deliberately lowered their tariffs in order to out among resentful Indian tribes, prevented Amer- attract an unfair share of trade. ica from exercising effective control over about half Spain, though recently an enemy of Britain, was of its total territory. openly unfriendly to the new Republic. It controlled Even France, America’s comrade-in-arms, the mouth of the all-important Mississippi, down cooled off now that it had humbled Britain. The 176 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 French demanded the repayment of money loaned ing duties on goods from their neighbors; New York, during the war and restricted trade with their for example, taxed firewood from Connecticut and bustling West Indies and other ports. cabbages from New Jersey. A number of the states Pirates of the North African states, including the were again starting to grind out depreciated paper arrogant Dey of Algiers, were ravaging America’s currency, and a few of them had passed laws sanc- Mediterranean commerce and enslaving Yankee tioning the semiworthless “rag money.’’ As a con- sailors. The British purchased protection for their temporary rhymester put it, own subjects, and as colonists the Americans had Bankrupts their creditors with rage pursue; enjoyed this shield. But as an independent nation, No stop, no mercy from the debtor crew. the United States was too weak to fight and too poor to bribe. A few Yankee shippers engaged in the An alarming uprising, known as Shays’s Rebel- Mediterranean trade with forged British protection lion, flared up in western Massachusetts in 1786. papers, but not all were so bold or so lucky. Impoverished backcountry farmers, many of them John Jay, secretary for foreign affairs, derived Revolutionary War veterans, were losing their farms some hollow satisfaction from these insults. He through mortgage foreclosures and tax delinquen- hoped they would at least humiliate the American cies. Led by Captain Daniel Shays, a veteran of the people into framing a new government at home that Revolution, these desperate debtors demanded would be strong enough to command respect abroad. cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and a suspension of property takeovers. Hundreds of angry agitators, again seizing their muskets, attempted to enforce The Horrid Specter of Anarchy their demands. Massachusetts authorities responded with dras- tic action. Supported partly by contributions from Economic storm clouds continued to loom in the wealthy citizens, they raised a small army. Several mid-1780s. The requisition system of raising money skirmishes occurred—at Springfield three Shaysites was breaking down; some of the states refused to were killed, and one was wounded—and the move- pay anything, while complaining bitterly about the ment collapsed. Daniel Shays, who believed that he tyranny of “King Congress.’’ Interest on the public was fighting anew against tyranny, was condemned debt was piling up at home, and the nation’s credit to death but was later pardoned. was evaporating abroad. Shays’s followers were crushed—but the night- Individual states were getting out of hand. marish memory lingered on. The outbursts of these Quarrels over boundaries generated numerous and other distressed debtors struck fear in the minor pitched battles. Some of the states were levy- hearts of the propertied class, who began to suspect that the Revolution had created a monster of “mobocracy.’’ “Good God!’’ burst out George Wash- ington, who felt that only a Tory or a Briton could have predicted such disorders. Unbridled republi- Social tensions reached a fever pitch during canism, it seemed to many of the elite, had fed an Shays’s Rebellion in 1787. In an interview insatiable appetite for liberty that was fast becom- with a local Massachusetts paper, instigator ing license. Civic virtue was no longer sufficient to Daniel Shays (1747–1825) explained how the rein in self-interest and greed. It had become “unde- debt-ridden farmers hoped to free themselves niably evident,” one skeptic sorrowfully lamented, from the demands of a merchant-dominated “that some malignant disorder has seized upon our government. The rebels would seize arms and body politic.” If republicanism was too shaky a “march directly to Boston, plunder it, and ground upon which to construct a new nation, a then... destroy the nest of devils, who by stronger central government would provide the their influence, make the Court enact what needed foundation. A few panicky citizens even they please, burn it and lay the town of talked of importing a European monarch to carry on Boston in ashes.” where George III had failed. How critical were conditions under the Confed- eration? Conservatives, anxious to safeguard their  The Constitutional Convention 177 wealth and position, naturally exaggerated the seri- ousness of the nation’s plight. They were eager to persuade their fellow citizens to amend the Articles Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804) clearly of Confederation in favor of a muscular central gov- revealed his preference for an aristocratic ernment. But the poorer states’ rights people pooh- government in his Philadelphia speech poohed the talk of anarchy. Many of them were (1787): debtors who feared that a powerful federal govern- “All communities divide themselves into the ment would force them to pay their creditors. few and the many. The first are the rich and Yet friends and critics of the Confederation wellborn, the other the mass of the people. agreed that it needed some strengthening. Popular... The people are turbulent and changing; toasts were “Cement to the Union’’ and “A hoop to they seldom judge or determine right. Give the barrel.’’ The chief differences arose over how therefore to the first class a distinct, this goal should be attained and how a maximum permanent share in the government. They degree of states’ rights could be reconciled with a will check the unsteadiness of the second, strong central government. America probably could and as they cannot receive any advantage by have muddled through somehow with amended change, they therefore will ever maintain Articles of Confederation. But the adoption of a good government.” completely new constitution certainly spared the Republic much costly indecision, uncertainty, and turmoil. The nationwide picture was actually brighten- ing before the Constitution was drafted. Nearly half deal with commerce alone, but to bolster the entire the states had not issued semiworthless paper cur- fabric of the Articles of Confederation. rency, and some of the monetary black sheep Congress, though slowly and certainly dying in showed signs of returning to the sound-money fold. New York City, was reluctant to take a step that Prosperity was beginning to emerge from the fog of might hasten its day of reckoning. But after six depression. By 1789 overseas shipping had largely of the states had seized the bit in their teeth regained its place in the commercial world. If condi- and appointed delegates anyhow, Congress belat- tions had been as grim in 1787 as painted by foes of edly issued the call for a convention “for the sole the Articles of Confederation, the move for a new and express purpose of revising’’ the Articles of constitution would hardly have encountered such Confederation. heated opposition. Every state chose representatives, except for independent-minded Rhode Island (still “Rogues’ Island’’), a stronghold of paper-moneyites. These A Convention of “Demigods’’ leaders were all appointed by the state legislatures, whose members had been elected by voters who could qualify as property holders. This double distil- Control of commerce, more than any other prob- lation inevitably brought together a select group of lem, touched off the chain reaction that led to a propertied men—though it is a grotesque distortion constitutional convention. Interstate squabbling to claim that they shaped the Constitution primarily over this issue had become so alarming by 1786 that to protect their personal financial interests. When Virginia, taking the lead, issued a call for a conven- one of them did suggest restricting federal office to tion at Annapolis, Maryland. Nine states appointed major property owners, he was promptly de- delegates, but only five were finally represented. nounced for the unwisdom of “interweaving into a With so laughable a showing, nothing could be done republican constitution a veneration for wealth.’’ about the ticklish question of commerce. A charis- A quorum of the fifty-five emissaries from matic New Yorker, thirty-one-year-old Alexander twelve states finally convened at Philadelphia on Hamilton, brilliantly saved the convention from May 25, 1787, in the imposing red-brick statehouse. complete failure by engineering the adoption of his The smallness of the assemblage facilitated intimate report. It called upon Congress to summon a con- acquaintance and hence compromise. Sessions vention to meet in Philadelphia the next year, not to were held in complete secrecy, with armed sentinels 178 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 posted at the doors. Delegates knew that they would generate heated differences, and they did not want to advertise their own dissensions or put the ammu- nition of harmful arguments into the mouths of the opposition. The caliber of the participants was extraordi- narily high—“demigods,’’ Jefferson called them. The crisis was such as to induce the ablest men to drop their personal pursuits and come to the aid of their country. Most of the members were lawyers, and most of them fortunately were old hands at consti- tution making in their own states. George Washington, towering austere and aloof among the “demigods,’’ was unanimously elected chairman. His enormous prestige, as “the Sword of the Revolution,’’ served to quiet overheated tem- pers. Benjamin Franklin, then eighty-one, added the urbanity of an elder statesman, though he was inclined to be indiscreetly talkative in his declining years. Concerned for the secrecy of their deliber- ations, the convention assigned chaperones to were young (the average age was about forty-two) accompany Franklin to dinner parties and make but experienced statesmen. Above all, they were sure he held his tongue. James Madison, then nationalists, more interested in preserving and thirty-six and a profound student of government, strengthening the young Republic than in further made contributions so notable that he has been stirring the roiling cauldron of popular democracy. dubbed “the Father of the Constitution.’’ Alexander The delegates hoped to crystallize the last evap- Hamilton, then only thirty-two, was present as an orating pools of revolutionary idealism into a stable advocate of a super-powerful central government. political structure that would endure. They strongly His five-hour speech in behalf of his plan, though desired a firm, dignified, and respected govern- the most eloquent of the convention, left only one ment. They believed in republicanism but sought to delegate convinced—himself. protect the American experiment from its weak- Most of the fiery Revolutionary leaders of 1776 nesses abroad and excesses at home. In a broad were absent. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and sense, the piratical Dey of Algiers, who drove the Thomas Paine were in Europe; Samuel Adams and delegates to their work, was a Founding Father. They John Hancock were not elected by Massachusetts. aimed to clothe the central authority with genuine Patrick Henry, ardent champion of states’ rights, was chosen as a delegate from Virginia but declined to serve, declaring that he “smelled a rat.’’ It was per- haps well that these architects of revolution were absent. The time had come to yield the stage to lead- Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), despite his ers interested in fashioning solid political systems. high regard for the leaders at the Philadelphia convention, still was not unduly concerned about Shaysite rebellions. He wrote in Patriots in Philadelphia November 1787, “What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion?... The tree The fifty-five delegates were a conservative, well- of liberty must be refreshed from time to to-do body: lawyers, merchants, shippers, land time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. speculators, and moneylenders. Not a single It is its natural manure.” spokesperson was present from the poorer debtor groups. Nineteen of the fifty-five owned slaves. They  Searching for Compromise 179 power, especially in controlling tariffs, so that the United States could wrest satisfactory commercial treaties from foreign nations. The shortsighted hos- tility of the British mercantilists spurred the consti- tution framers to their task, and in this sense the illiberal Lord Sheffield was also a Founding Father. Other motives hovered in the Philadelphia hall. Delegates were determined to preserve the union, forestall anarchy, and ensure security of life and property against dangerous uprisings by the “mobocracy.’’ Above all, they sought to curb the unrestrained democracy rampant in the various states. “We have, probably, had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation,’’ Washington concluded. The specter of the recent outburst in Massachusetts was especially alarming, and in this sense Daniel Shays was yet another Founding Father. Grinding necessity extorted the Constitution from a reluctant nation. Fear occupied the fifty-sixth chair. Hammering Out a Bundle of Compromises Some of the travel-stained delegates, when they first reached Philadelphia, decided upon a daring step. They would completely scrap the old Articles of Confederation, despite explicit instructions from Congress to revise. Technically, these bolder spirits were determined to overthrow the existing govern- ment of the United States by peaceful means. A scheme proposed by populous Virginia, and forward as the framework of the Constitution. Its known as “the large-state plan,’’ was first pushed essence was that representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress should be based on popula- tion—an arrangement that would naturally give the larger states an advantage. Tiny New Jersey, suspicious of brawny Virginia, countered with “the small-state plan.’’ This provided Jefferson was never a friend of strong for equal representation in a unicameral Congress government (except when himself president), by states, regardless of size and population, as and he viewed with suspicion the substitute under the existing Articles of Confederation. The that was proposed for the Articles of weaker states feared that under the Virginia scheme, Confederation: the stronger states would band together and lord it “Indeed, I think all the good of this new over the rest. Angry debate, heightened by a stifling Constitution might have been couched in heat wave, led to deadlock. The danger loomed that three or four new articles, to be added to the the convention would unravel in complete failure. good, old, and venerable fabric.” Even skeptical old Benjamin Franklin seriously pro- posed that the daily sessions be opened with prayer by a local clergyman. 180 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 Evolution of Federal Union Years Attempts at Union Participants 1643–1684 New England Confederation 4 colonies 1686–1689 Dominion of New England 7 colonies 1754 Albany Congress 7 colonies 1765 Stamp Act Congress 9 colonies 1772–1776 Committees of Correspondence 13 colonies 1774 First Continental Congress (adopts The Association) 12 colonies 1775–1781 Second Continental Congress 13 colonies 1781–1789 Articles of Confederation 13 states 1789–1790 Federal Constitution 13 states After bitter and prolonged debate, the “Great partly inspired by the example of Massachusetts, Compromise’’ of the convention was hammered out where a vigorous, popularly elected governor had and agreed upon. A cooling of tempers came coinci- suppressed Shays’s Rebellion. The president was to dentally with a cooling of the temperature. The larger be military commander in chief and to have wide states were conceded representation by population powers of appointment to domestic offices— in the House of Representatives (Art. I, Sec. II, para. 3; including judgeships. The president was also to see Appendix at the end of this book), and the smaller have veto power over legislation. states were appeased by equal representation in the The Constitution as drafted was a bundle of Senate (see Art. I, Sec. III, para. 1). Each state, no mat- compromises; they stand out in every section. A ter how poor or small, would have two senators. The vital compromise was the method of electing the big states obviously yielded more. As a sop to them, president indirectly by the Electoral College, rather the delegates agreed that every tax bill or revenue than by direct means. While the large states would measure must originate in the House, where popula- have the advantage in the first round of popular vot- tion counted more heavily (see Art. I, Sec. VII, para. ing, as a state’s share of electors was based on the 1). This critical compromise broke the logjam, and total of its senators and representatives in Congress, from then on success seemed within reach. the small states would gain a larger voice if no can- In a significant reversal of the arrangement didate got a majority of electoral votes and the elec- most state constitutions had embodied, the new tion was thrown to the House of Representatives, Constitution provided for a strong, independent where each state had only one vote (see Art. II, Sec. executive in the presidency. The framers were here I, para. 2). Although the framers of the Constitution expected election by the House to occur frequently, it has happened just twice, in 1800 and in 1824. Sectional jealousy also intruded. Should the voteless slave of the southern states count as a per- One of the Philadelphia delegates recorded son in apportioning direct taxes and in according in his journal a brief episode involving representation in the House of Representatives? The Benjamin Franklin, who was asked by a South, not wishing to be deprived of influence, woman when the convention ended, answered “yes.’’ The North replied “no,’’ arguing that, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or as slaves were not citizens, the North might as logi- a monarchy?” cally demand additional representation based on its horses. As a compromise between total representa- The elder statesman answered, tion and none at all, it was decided that a slave might “A republic, if you can keep it.” count as three-fifths of a person. Hence the memo- rable, if arbitrary, “three-fifths compromise’’ (see Art. I, Sec. II, para. 3).  A Conservative Constitution 181 Most of the states wanted to shut off the African deliberately erected safeguards against the excesses slave trade. But South Carolina and Georgia, requiring of the “mob,’’ and they made these barriers as strong slave labor in their rice paddies and malarial swamps, as they dared. The awesome federal judges were to raised vehement protests. By way of compromise the be appointed for life. The powerful president was to convention stipulated that the slave trade might con- be elected indirectly by the Electoral College; the tinue until the end of 1807, at which time Congress lordly senators were to be chosen indirectly by state could turn off the spigot (see Art. I, Sec. IX, para. 1). It legislatures (see Art. I, Sec. III, para. 1). Only in the did so as soon as the prescribed interval had elapsed. case of one-half of one of the three great branches— Meanwhile, all the new state constitutions except the House of Representatives—were qualified Georgia’s forbade overseas slave trade. (propertied) citizens permitted to choose their offi- cials by direct vote (see Art. I, Sec. II, para. 1). Yet the new charter also contained democratic Safeguards for Conservatism elements. Above all, it stood foursquare on the two great principles of republicanism: that the only legitimate government was one based on the con- Heated clashes among the delegates have been sent of the governed, and that the powers of govern- overplayed. The area of agreement was actually ment should be limited—in this case specifically large; otherwise the convention would have speed- limited by a written constitution. The virtue of the ily disbanded. Economically, the members of the people, not the authority of the state, was to be the Constitutional Convention generally saw eye to eye; ultimate guarantor of liberty, justice, and order. “We they demanded sound money and the protection of the people,’’ the preamble began, in a ringing affir- private property. Politically, they were in basic mation of these republican doctrines. agreement; they favored a stronger government, At the end of seventeen muggy weeks—May 25 with three branches and with checks and balances to September 17, 1787—only forty-two of the origi- among them—what critics branded a “triple- nal fifty-five members remained to sign the Consti- headed monster.’’ Finally, the convention was virtu- tution. Three of the forty-two, refusing to do so, ally unanimous in believing that manhood-suffrage returned to their states to resist ratification. The democracy—government by “democratick bab- remainder, adjourning to the City Tavern, cele- blers’’—was something to be feared and fought. brated the toastworthy occasion. But no members Daniel Shays, the prime bogeyman, still fright- of the convention were completely happy about the ened the conservative-minded delegates. They result. They were too near their work—and too Strengthening the Central Government Under Articles of Confederation Under Federal Constitution A loose confederation of states A firm union of people 1 vote in Congress for each state 2 votes in Senate for each state; representation by population in House (see Art. I, Secs. II, III) Vote of 9 states in Congress for all important Simple majority vote in Congress, subject to presidential measures veto (see Art. I, Sec. VII, para. 2) Laws administered loosely by committees of Congress Laws executed by powerful president (see Art. II, Secs. II, III) No congressional power over commerce Congress to regulate both foreign and interstate commerce (see Art. I, Sec. VIII, para. 3) No congressional power to levy taxes Extensive power in Congress to levy taxes (see Art. I, Sec. VIII, para. 1) Limited federal courts Federal courts, capped by Supreme Court (see Art. III) Unanimity of states for amendment Amendment less difficult (see Art. V) No authority to act directly upon individuals Ample power to enforce laws by coercion of individuals and no power to coerce states and to some extent of states 182 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 weary. Whatever their personal desires, they finally The American people were somewhat aston- had to compromise and adopt what was acceptable ished, so well had the secrets of the convention been to the entire body, and what presumably would be concealed. The public had expected the old Articles of acceptable to the entire country. Confederation to be patched up; now it was handed a startling new document in which, many thought, the precious jewel of state sovereignty was swallowed up. The Clash of Federalists One of the hottest debates of American history forth- and Antifederalists with erupted. The antifederalists, who opposed the stronger federal government, were arrayed against the federalists, who obviously favored it. The Framing Fathers early foresaw that nationwide A motley crew gathered in the antifederalist acceptance of the Constitution would not be easy to camp. Its leaders included prominent revolutionar- obtain. A formidable barrier was unanimous ratifi- ies like Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard cation by all thirteen states, as required for amend- Henry Lee. Their followers consisted primarily, ment by the still-standing Articles of Confederation. though not exclusively, of states’ rights devotees, But since absent Rhode Island was certain to veto backcountry dwellers, and one-horse farmers—in the Constitution, the delegates boldly adopted a dif- general, the poorest classes. They were joined by ferent scheme. They stipulated that when nine paper-moneyites and debtors, many of whom states had registered their approval through spe- feared that a potent central government would force cially elected conventions, the Constitution would them to pay off their debts—and at full value. Large become the supreme law of the land in those states numbers of antifederalists saw in the Constitution a ratifying (see Art. VII). plot by the upper crust to steal power back from the This was extraordinary, even revolutionary. It was common folk. in effect an appeal over the heads of the Congress Silver-buckled federalists had power and influ- that had called the convention, and over the heads of ence on their side. They enjoyed the support of such the legislatures that had chosen its members, to the commanding figures as George Washington and people—or those of the people who could vote. In Benjamin Franklin. Most of them lived in the settled this way the framers could claim greater popular areas along the seaboard, not in the raw backcoun- sanction for their handiwork. A divided Congress try. Overall, they were wealthier than the antifeder- submitted the document to the states on this basis, alists, more educated, and better organized. They without recommendation of any kind. also controlled the press. More than a hundred Ratification of the Constitution Vote in Rank in 1790 State Date Convention Population Population 1. Delaware Dec. 7, 1787 Unanimous 13 59,096 2. Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787 46 to 23 3 433,611 3. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787 Unanimous 9 184,139 4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788 Unanimous 11 82,548 5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788 128 to 40 8 237,655 6. Massachusetts Feb. 7, 1788 187 to 168 2 475,199 (incl. Maine) 7. Maryland Apr. 28, 1788 63 to 11 6 319,728 8. South Carolina May 23, 1788 149 to 73 7 249,073 9. New Hampshire June 21, 1788 57 to 46 10 141,899 10. Virginia June 26, 1788 89 to 79 1 747,610 11. New York July 26, 1788 30 to 27 5 340,241 12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789 195 to 77 4 395,005 13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790 34 to 32 12 69,112  Federalists and Antifederalists 183 The Struggle over Ratification This mottled map shows that federalist support tended to cluster around the coastal areas, which had enjoyed profitable commerce with the outside world, including the export of grain and tobacco. Impoverished frontiersmen, suspicious of a powerful new central govern- ment under the Constitution, were generally antifederalists. newspapers were published in America in the absence of a bill of rights. They decried the drop- 1780s; only a dozen supported the antifederalist ping of annual elections for congressional represen- cause. tatives, the erecting of a federal stronghold ten miles Antifederalists voiced vehement objections to square (later the District of Columbia), the creation the “gilded trap’’ known as the Constitution. They of a standing army, the omission of any reference to cried with much truth that it had been drawn up by God, and the highly questionable procedure of rati- the aristocratic elements and hence was antidemo- fying with only two-thirds of the states. A Philadel- cratic. They likewise charged that the sovereignty of phia newspaper added that Benjamin Franklin was the states was being submerged and that the free- “a fool from age’’ and George Washington “a fool doms of the individual were jeopardized by the from nature.’’ 184 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 The Great Debate in the States of Confederation. The absence of a bill of rights alarmed the antifederalists. But the federalists gave them solemn assurances that the first Congress Special elections, some apathetic but others hotly would add such a safeguard by amendment, and contested, were held in the various states for mem- ratification was then secured in Massachusetts by bers of the ratifying conventions. The candidates— the rather narrow margin of 187 to 168. federalist or antifederalist—were elected on the Three more states fell into line. The last of these basis of their pledges for or against the Constitution. was New Hampshire, whose convention at first had With the ink barely dry on the parchment, four contained a strong antifederalist majority. The fed- small states quickly accepted the Constitution, for eralists cleverly arranged a prompt adjournment they had come off much better than they expected. and then won over enough waverers to secure ratifi- Pennsylvania, number two on the list of ratifiers, cation. Nine states—all but Virginia, New York, was the first large state to act, but not until high- North Carolina, and Rhode Island—had now taken handed irregularities had been employed by the shelter under the “new federal roof,’’ and the docu- federalist legislature in calling a convention. These ment was officially adopted on June 21, 1788. Fran- included the forcible seating of two antifederalist cis Hopkinson exulted in his song “The New Roof”: members, their clothes torn and their faces red with Huzza! my brave boys, our work is complete; rage, in order to complete a quorum. The world shall admire Columbia’s fair seat. Massachusetts, the second most populous state, provided an acid test. If the Constitution had But such rejoicing was premature so long as the four failed in Massachusetts, the entire movement dissenters, conspicuously New York and Virginia, might easily have bogged down. The Boston ratify- dug in their heels. ing convention at first contained an antifederalist majority. It included grudging Shaysites and the aging Samuel Adams, as suspicious of government The Four Laggard States power in 1787 as he had been in 1776. The assembly buzzed with dismaying talk of summoning another constitutional convention, as though the nation Proud Virginia, the biggest and most populous state, had not already shot its bolt. Clearly the choice was provided fierce antifederalist opposition. There the not between this Constitution and a better one, but college-bred federalist orators, for once, encoun- between this Constitution and the creaking Articles tered worthy antagonists, including the fiery Patrick  Ratifying the Constitution 185 series of articles for the New York newspapers. Though designed as propaganda, these essays Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794), a prominent remain the most penetrating commentary ever antifederalist, attacked the proposed written on the Constitution and are still widely sold constitution in 1788: in book form as The Federalist. Probably the most “’Tis really astonishing that the same people, famous of these is Madison’s Federalist No. 10, who have just emerged from a long and cruel which brilliantly refuted the conventional wisdom war in defense of liberty, should now agree of the day that it was impossible to extend a republi- to fix an elective despotism upon themselves can form of government over a large territory. and their posterity.” New York finally yielded. Realizing that the state could not prosper apart from the Union, the conven- The same year, prominent Patriot Patrick tion ratified the document by the close count of 30 to Henry (1736–1799) agreed that the proposed 27. At the same time, it approved thirty-two proposed constitution endangered everything the amendments and—vain hope—issued a call for yet Revolution had sought to protect: another convention to modify the Constitution. “This constitution is said to have beautiful Last-ditch dissent developed in only two states. features; but when I come to examine these A hostile convention met in North Carolina, then features, Sir, they appear to me horridly adjourned without taking a vote. Rhode Island did frightful: Among other deformities, it has an not even summon a ratifying convention, rejecting awful squinting; it squints towards the Constitution by popular referendum. The two monarchy: And does not this raise most ruggedly individualist centers of the colonial indignation in the breast of every American? era—homes of the “otherwise minded’’—thus ran Your President may easily become King: Your true to form. They were to change their course, Senate is so imperfectly constructed that albeit unwillingly, only after the new government your dearest rights may be sacrificed by had been in operation for some months. what may be a small minority;... Where are The race for ratification, despite much apathy, your checks in this Government?” was close and quite bitter in some localities. No lives were lost, but riotous disturbances broke out in New York and Pennsylvania, involving bruises and bloodshed. There was much behind-the-scenes pressure on delegates who had promised their con- stituents to vote against the Constitution. The last Henry. He professed to see in the fearsome docu- ment the death warrant of liberty. George Washing- ton, James Madison, and John Marshall, on the federalist side, lent influential support. With New Hampshire about to ratify, the new Union was going to be formed anyhow, and Virginia could not very well continue comfortably as an independent state. After exciting debate in the state convention, ratifi- cation carried, 89 to 79. New York also experienced an uphill struggle, burdened as it was with its own heavily antifederal- ist state convention. Alexander Hamilton at heart favored a much stronger central government than that under debate, but he contributed his sparkling personality and persuasive eloquence to whipping up support for federalism as framed. He also joined John Jay and James Madison in penning a masterly 186 CHAPTER 9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776–1790 four states ratified, not because they wanted to but A majority had not spoken. Only about one- because they had to. They could not safely exist fourth of the adult white males in the country, chiefly outside the fold. the propertied people, had voted for delegates to the ratifying conventions. Careful estimates indicate that if the new Constitution had been submitted to a man- A Conservative Triumph hood-suffrage vote, as in New York, it would have encountered much more opposition, probably defeat. Conservatism was victorious. Safeguards had The minority had triumphed—twice. A militant been erected against mob-rule excesses, while the minority of American radicals had engineered the republican gains of the Revolution were conserved. military Revolution that cast off the unwritten Radicals such as Patrick Henry, who had ousted British constitution. A militant minority of conser- British rule, saw themselves in turn upended by vatives—now embracing many of the earlier radi- American conservatives. The federalists were con- cals—had engineered the peaceful revolution that vinced that by setting the drifting ship of state on a overthrew the inadequate constitution known as steady course, they could restore economic and the Articles of Confederation. Eleven states, in political stability. effect, had seceded from the Confederation, leaving Yet if the architects of the Constitution were the two still in, actually out in the cold. conservative, it is worth emphasizing that they con-  Chronology 187 contended that every branch—executive, judiciary, and legislature—effectively represented the people. Two Massachusetts citizens took opposite By ingeniously embedding the doctrine of self-rule positions on the new Constitution. Jonathan in a self-limiting system of checks and balances Smith, a farmer unsympathetic to Shays’s among these branches, the Constitution reconciled Rebellion of 1787, wrote, the potentially conflicting principles of liberty and order. It represented a marvelous achievement, one “I am a plain man, and I get my living by the that elevated the ideals of the Revolution even while plow. I have lived in a part of the country setting boundaries to them. One of the distinctive— where I have known the worth of good and enduring—paradoxes of American history was government by the want of it. The black thus revealed: in