II. Dec. 18. in organizing the house, all the elected members being CHAP, present save one. John Stevens was chosen president by ballot; Samuel Whitham Stockton, secretary. 1787. The morning began with prayer. Then with open 12. doors the convention proceeded to read the federal constitution by sections, giving opportunity for debates and for votes if called for; and after a week's deliberation, on Tuesday, the eighteenth, determined unanimously to ratify and confirm the federal constitution. A committee, on which appear the names of Brearley, a member of the federal convention, Witherspoon, Neilson, Beatty, former members of congress, was appointed to draw up the form of the ratification; and the people of the state of New Jersey, "by the unanimous consent of the members present, agreed to, ratified, and confirmed the proposed constitution and every part thereof.” 1 1 On the next day, the resolve for ratification having 19. been engrossed in duplicate on parchment, one copy for the congress of the United States and one for the archives of the state, every member of the convention present subscribed his name. In the shortest possible time, Delaware, Pennsyl vania, and New Jersey, the three central states, one by a majority of two thirds, the others unanimously, accepted the constitution. The union of the central states was of the best omen. Before knowing their decision, Georgia at the extreme south had independently taken its part; its legislature chanced to be in session when the message from congress arrived. All its relations to the United II. Dec. 19. 25. 1788. CHAP. States were favorable; it was in possession of a territory abounding in resources and large enough to con1787. stitute an empire; its people felt the need of protec tion against Spain, which ruled along their southern frontier from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and against the savages who dwelt in their forests and hung on the borders of their settlements. A convention which was promptly called met on Christmas-day, with power to adopt or reject any part or the whole of the proposed constitution. Assembled at Augusta, its members, finding themselves all of one mind, on the second day of the new year, unanimously, for themselves and for the people of Georgia, fully and entirely assented to, ratified, and adopted the proposed constitution. They hoped that their ready compliance would "tend to consolidate the union" and "promote the happiness of the common country.' The completing of the ratification by the signing of the last name was announced by a salute of thirteen guns in token of faith that every state would accede to the new bonds of union.1 Jan. 2. CHAPTER III. THE CONSTITUTION IN CONNECTICUT AND MASSACHU SETTS. III. Sept. 26. On the twenty-sixth of September Roger Sherman CHAP. and Oliver Ellsworth, two of the delegates from Connecticut to the federal convention, transmitted to 1787. Samuel Huntington, then governor of the state, a printed copy of the constitution to be laid before the legislature. In an accompanying letter they observed that the proportion of suffrage accorded to the state remained the same as before; and they gave the assurance that the "additional powers vested in congress extended only to matters respecting the common interests of the union, and were specially defined; so that the particular states retained their sovereignty in all other matters." The restraint on the legislatures of the several states respecting bills of credit, or making anything but money a tender in payment of debts, or impairing the obligation of contracts by ex post facto laws, was a security to the commercial interests of foreigners as well as of the citizens of different states." 1 Compare the remark of Wilson, supra, 244, 245. 2 For the letter, see Carey's Museum, ii. 434, and Elliot, i. 491, 492. III. Oct. 16. CHAP. The governor was a zealous friend of the new constitution. The legislature, on the sixteenth of 1787. October, unanimously called a convention of the state. To this were chosen the retired and the present highest officers of its government; the judges of its courts; "ministers of the Gospel ;" and nearly sixty who had fought for independence. Connecticut had a special interest in ratifying the constitution; the compromise requiring for acts of legislation a majority of the states and a majority of the representatives of the people had prevailed through its own delegates. 1788. Jan. 4. In January, 1788, the convention, having been organized in the state house in Hartford, moved immediately to the North Meeting House, where, in the presence of a multitude, the constitution was read and debated section by section, under an agreement that no vote should be taken till the whole of it should have been considered. On the fourth, Oliver Ellsworth explained the necessity of a federal government for the national defence, for the management of foreign relations, for preserving peace between the states, for giving energy to the public administration. He pointed out that a state like Connecticut was specially benefited by the restraint on separate states from collecting duties on foreign importations made through their more convenient harbors. Johnson added: While under the confederation states in their political capacity could be coerced by nothing but a military force, the constitution intro 1 Madison, i. 359. "Penn. Packet for 18 Jan., 1788. III. Jan. duces the mild and equal energy of magistrates for CHAP. the execution of the laws. "By a signal intervention of divine providence, a convention from states differ. 1788. ing in circumstances, interests, and manners, have harmoniously adopted one grand system; if we reject it, our national existence must come to an end."1 The grave and weighty men who listened to him approved his words; but when the paragraph which gave to the general government the largest powers of taxation was debated, James Wadsworth, who had served as a general officer in the war, objected to duties on imports as partial to the southern states. "Connecticut," answered Ellsworth, "is a manufac turing state; it already manufactures its implements of husbandry and half its clothes." Wadsworth further objected, that authority which unites the power of the sword to that of the purse is despotic. Ellsworth replied: "The general legislature ought to have a revenue; and it ought to have power to defend the state against foreign enemies; there can be no government without the power of the purse and the sword." "So well guarded is this constitution," observed Oliver Wolcott, then lieutenant-governor, "it seems impossible that the rights either of the states or of the people should be destroyed." When on the ninth the vote was taken, one hundred and twenty-eight appeared for the constitution; forty only against it.' The people received with delight the announcement of this great majority of more than three to one; at the next election the "wrong-headed" James 1 Penn. Packet, 24 Jan., 1788. * Penn. Packet, 24 Jan., 1788. 4. 7. 9. |