III. Jan. 17. Massachusetts were unmoved. Samuel Thompson, CHAP. of Maine, condemned it for not requiring of a representative some property qualification, saying: "Men 1788. who have nothing to lose have nothing to fear." "Do you wish to exclude from the federal government a good man because he is not rich?" asked Theodore Sedgwick. "The men who have most injured the country," said King, "have commonly been rich men." The compromise respecting the taxation and representation of slaves was cried against. Thomas Dawes, of Boston, answered: "Congress in the year 1808 may wholly prohibit the importation of them, leaving every particular state in the mean time its own option totally to prohibit their introduction into its own territories. Slavery could not be abolished by an act of congress in a moment; but it has received a mortal wound." 1 18. On the nineteenth, a farmer of Worcester county 19. complained: "There is no provision that men in power should have any religion; a Papist or an infidel is as eligible as Christians." John Brooks and Parsons spoke on the other side; and Daniel Shute, the minister of Hingham, said: "No conceivable advantage to the whole will result from a test." William Jones, of Maine, rejoined: "It would be happy for the United States if our public men were to be of those who have a good standing in the church." Philip Payson, the minister of Chelsea, retorted: "Human tribunals for the consciences of men are impious encroachments upon the prerogatives of God. A religious test, as a quali fication for office, would have been a great blemish." 1 Elliot, ii. 41, 149. CHAP. Jan. 19. William Jones, of Maine, objected to the long pe riod of office for the senators. "One third of the 1788. senators," observed Fisher Ames, "are to be introduced every second year; the constitution, in practice as in theory, will be that of a federal republic.” "We cannot," continued Jones, "recall the senators." "Their duration," answered King, "is not too long for a right discharge of their duty." 21. 1 On the twenty-first, King explained the nature of the transition from a league of states with only authority to make requisitions on each state, to a republic instituted by the people with the right to apply laws directly to the individual members of the states. He showed that without the power over the purse and the sword no government can give security to the people; analyzed and defended the grant of revenue alike from indirect and direct taxes, and insisted that the proposed constitution is the only efficient federal government that can be substituted for the old confederation. Thomas Dawes, of Boston, defended the power of laying imposts and excises in this wise: "For want of general laws of prohibition through the union, our coasting trade, our whole commerce, is going to ruin. A vessel from Halifax with its fish and whalebone finds as hearty a welcome at the southern ports as though built and navigated and freighted from Salem or Boston. South of Delaware three fourths of the exports and three fourths of the returns are made in British bottoms. Of timber, one half of the value-of other produce shipped for Lon 1 Elliot, ii. 54–57. 1 III. Jan. don from a southern state, three tenths-go to the Brit- CHAP. ish carrier in the names of freight and charges. This is money which belongs to the New England states, 1788. because we can furnish the ships much better than 21. the British. Our sister states are willing that these benefits should be secured to us by national laws; but we are slaves to Europe. We have no uniformity in duties, imposts, excises, or prohibitions. Congress has no authority to withhold advantages from foreigners in order to obtain reciprocal advantages from them. Our manufacturers have received no encouragement by national duties on foreign manufactures, and they never can by any authority in the confederation. The very face of our country, our numerous falls of water and places for mills, lead to manufactures: have they been encouraged? Has congress been able by national laws to prevent the importation of such foreign commodities as are made from such raw materials as we ourselves raise? The citizens of the United States within the last three years have contracted debts with the subjects of Great Britain to the amount of near six millions of dollars. If we wish to encourage our own manufactures, to preserve our own commerce, to raise the value of our own lands, we must give congress the power in question.”1 Every day that passed showed the doubtfulness of the convention. "The decision of Massachusetts either way," wrote Madison from congress, "will involve the result in New York," and a negative would rouse the minority in Pennsylvania to a stubborn resistance. Langdon, of New Hampshire, and men 1 1 Elliot, ii. 57-60. CHAP. from Newport and Providence who came to watch III. the course of the debates, reported that New Hamp1788. shire and Rhode Island would accept the constitution Jan. 21. 23. should it be adopted by Massachusetts. Gerry, under the influence of Richard Henry Lee, had written a letter to the two houses of Massachusetts, insinuating that the constitution needed amendments, and should not be adopted till they were made. These same views it was attempted to diffuse throughout Virginia and Maryland; but Washington threw himself into the discussion. "If another federal convention is attempted," so he wrote to Charles Carter, of Fredericksburg, "its members will be more discordant; will agree upon no general plan. The constitution is the best that can be obtained at this time; it is free from many of the imperfections with which it is charged. The constitution or disunion is before us to choose from. If the constitution is our election, a constitutional door is open for amendments, and may be adopted in a peaceable manner without tumult or disorder." This advice reached Boston in season to be published in the Boston Centinel of the twenty-third of January. In the convention the majority still seemed adverse to the constitution. To win votes from the ranks of its foes, its friends resolved to combine with its ratification a recommendation of amendments. For this end Bowdoin and Hancock, Theophilus Parsons and Gorham, Samuel Adams, Heath, and a very few other resolute and trusty men, matured in secret council a plan of action." 1 Washington to Charles Car- King to Madison, quoted in ter, 14 Dec., 1787, in Penn. Madison's Writings, i. 373. Packet of 11 Jan., 1788. III. Jan. 23. Meantime Samuel Thompson could see no safety CHAP. but in a bill of rights. Bowdoin spoke at large for the new government with its ability to pay the pub- 1788. lic debts and to regulate commerce. "Power inadequate to its object is worse than none; checks are provided to prevent abuse. The whole constitution is a declaration of rights. It will complete the temple of American liberty, and consecrate it to justice. May this convention erect Massachusetts as one of its pillars on the foundation of perfect union, never to be dissolved but by the dissolution of nature." Parsons recapitulated and answered the objections brought against the constitution, and closed his remarks by saying: "An increase of the powers of the federal constitution by usurpation will be upon thirteen completely organized legislatures having means as well as inclination to oppose it successfully. The people themselves have power to resist it without an appeal to arms. An act of usurpation is not law, and therefore is not obligatory; and any man may be justified in his resistance. Let him be considered as a criminal by the general government: his own fellowcitizens are his jury; and if they pronounce him innocent, not all the powers of congress can hurt him."" On the morning of the twenty-fourth, Nason, of Maine, an implacable enemy of the constitution, proposed to cease its discussion by paragraphs so as to open the whole question. This attempt "to hurry the matter" was resisted by Samuel Adams in a speech so effective that the motion was negatived without a division. On the next day, Amos Singletary, of Sutton, a 1 Elliot, ii. 81, 82, 84, 85, 87, 88. 2 * Elliot, ii. 94. 24. 25. |