CHAPTER XIII. MAKING THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION (1787-1789) THE right way to get a new start was pointed out by Henry Laurens in 1779 when he asked, "Shall we call forth a grand 163. Preliminaries of the Federal Convention convention in aid of the great council?" This suggestion of a special constitutional convention was repeated by state legislatures and individuals. In 1785 a conference of commissioners from Maryland and Virginia at Alexandria (1779-1787) suggested some reforms; but the first actual step toward a complete revision of the Articles of Confederation was a convention on interstate trade at Annapolis (September, 1786). The only action was a report, drawn by Alexander Hamilton, proposing that a general convention meet in Philadelphia in May, 1787, to prepare amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Journal of Under this unofficial call some of the states began to elect delegates, and Congress reluctantly issued a formal call for a convention "for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures, such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the states, render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of government, and the preservation of the Union." 164. Mem When the members of the Convention met and exchanged views, they saw that they must go outside the call of Congress and frame a new constitution altogether. For such a purpose the Convention was rather clumsy, inasmuch as each delegation cast one vote for its state. This arrangement gave as much voting power to a combination bers of the Convention of five states-Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, South Carolina, and Delaware-as to the representatives of twice as many people living in the five states of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Rhode Island sent no delegates, the New Hampshire delegation came in late, and Georgia, with a large and fertile territory, commonly voted with the large states, which thus had a majority of one vote on critical questions. Fortunately the fifty-five gentlemen who at one time or another were members of the Convention included some of the greatest names in American history, among them eight signers of the Declaration of Independence. The heaviest work fell on a few leaders. Benjamin Franklin was old, but as canny as ever. Alexander Hamilton, one of the most impetuous members of the Convention, took too extreme ground and lost influence. William Paterson of New Jersey spoke for the small states. James Wilson of Pennsylvania, later a justice of the federal Supreme Court, was the keenest constitutional lawyer. The galaxy of the Convention was the Virginia delegation, including George Washington, who gave it prestige throughout the country. The man who did most to harmonize the sharp differences in the Convention was James Madison of Virginia. In 1787 Madison was only thirty-six years old. A graduate of Princeton College, he had seen service in the Virginia legislature and in Congress, where he learned to know the difficulties of the Confederation. He was a studious man, and before the Convention began sent for all the books that he could find on the history of earlier confederations, and prepared a sort of digest of those books, which he sent to Washington. He also consulted with his friends in Virginia and elsewhere, and drew up the strongly federal Virginia Plan" as a basis of argument. 66 165. James Madison, a father of the Constitu At the beginning of the Convention it occurred to Madison that posterity would be interested in the debates; and as tion there were no reporters, he took down in shorthand an abbreviated or concentrated statement of the debates, which he wrote out in the evenings and submitted to the speakers. In these discussions Madison himself took part more than fifty times, and throughout he advocated a national government, well knit, strong, and empowered to carry out its own just authority. As a representative of the largest and most populous state in the Union, the members from the small states sometimes thought him unfair; but in a quiet and sagacious way he often suggested a middle course, and few things against which he argued were adopted. stitution For materials with which to put together a new constitution, the delegates simply took the experience of mankind, so far as they knew it. Therefore they based their consti- 166. Sources tution on the principles of free government as developed of the Conin England; yet in its form the new federal government owed little to Parliament, or to the crown, or to the English judiciary; for the Convention took English institutions as they had been modified and expanded in the colonial governments, in the states, in the Continental Congress, and in the Congress of the Confederation. For instance, the two houses of Congress were suggested by the two houses of the colonial legislatures, and also by experience of the clumsy working of a single house in the Confederation. The great merit of the members of the Federal Convention was that they had the sanctified common sense to discard old forms of government that worked ill, and to substitute forms which from their experience they thought would work well. 167. Blocking out the (May-June, document The Convention was slow in starting, but chose Washington to be its president and settled down to work May 29, when Edmund Randolph, in behalf of the Virginia delegation, submitted a set of resolutions, commonly known as the Virginia Plan. This plan in broad outlines provided for a government of three departments; and next day in its first formal resolution the Convention agreed "That a national government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislature, executive, and judiciary." To avoid the radical step proposed in the resolution, two other plans were suggested in the course of the Convention: (1) the Connecticut Plan, which proposed to enlarge the powers of 1787) Congress under the Confederation, but to leave the execution of the national laws to state governments; (2) the New Jersey Plan, which stood for the views of the small states; it included three departments, but preserved the equal representation of the states in Congress. Hamilton's Plan, a highly centralized scheme, included a life senate and life president; the state governors to be appointed by the general government. The so-called Pinckney Plan, of which we have no contemporary copy, was much like the constitution as finally adopted. After about two weeks' debate, however, the Convention adopted a set of provisional votes, embodying most of the features of the Virginia Plan, as the foundation of the new constitution. The most serious question at this stage was how to divide members of Congress among the states. The South wanted an assignment in proportion to population, including slaves; the North wanted to leave the slaves out of account. As a midway course, it was provisionally voted to count slaves, but only at three fifths of their actual numbers. 168. The A second debate, from June 19 to July 26, brought out the most serious differences of opinion on four subjects, and set in motion forces which eventually brought about four compromises, the adoption of which made something like (June-July, agreement possible. great constitutional compromises 1787) (1) The so-called "Connecticut Compromise" settled the question of representation in Congress. The small states insisted on one house with equal vote of the states; the large states stood out for the Virginia Plan of two houses, with proportional representation in both. So obstinate and bitter were both sides that Franklin feared lest "our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and by-word down to future ages." He therefore moved that the Convention be opened every day with prayer. A Connecticut member threw out the suggestion that in one branch the |