Volume I Part 41 (1/2)

[985] _Ib._, 25.

[986] The Jockey Club was holding its annual races at Richmond when the Const.i.tutional Convention of 1788 convened. (Christian, 31.)

[987] Grigsby, i. 31.

[988] Humphrey Marshall, from the District of Kentucky, saw for the first time one number of the _Federalist_, only after he had reached the more thickly peopled districts of Virginia while on his way to the Convention. (_ib._, footnote to 31.)

[989] George Nicholas to Madison, April 5, 1788; _Writings_: Hunt, v, footnote to p. 115.

[990] ”The most common and ostensible objection was that it [the Const.i.tution] would endanger state rights and personal liberty--that it was too strong.” (Humphrey Marshall, i, 285.)

[991] Tyler, i, 142. Grigsby estimates that three fourths of the people of Virginia were opposed to the Const.i.tution. (Grigsby, i, footnote to 160.)

[992] Lee to Madison, Dec. 1787; _Writings_: Hunt, v, footnote to p. 88.

[993] Madison's father to Madison, Jan. 30, 1788; _Writings_: Hunt, v, footnote to p. 105.

[994] Madison to Jefferson, Feb. 19, 1788; _ib._, 103.

[995] Henry to Lamb, June 9, 1788; Henry, ii, 342.

[996] Minton Collins to Stephen Collins, March 16, 1788; Collins MSS., Lib. Cong.

[997] Even Hamilton admitted this. ”The framers of it [the Const.i.tution]

will have to encounter the disrepute of having brought about a revolution in government, without subst.i.tuting anything that was worthy of the effort; they pulled down one Utopia, it will be said, to build up another.” (Hamilton to Was.h.i.+ngton, Sept., 1788; Hamilton's _Works_: Lodge, ix, 444; and also in Jefferson, _Writings_: Ford, xi, footnote to 330.) Martin Van Buren describes the action of the Federal Convention that framed the Const.i.tution, in ”having ... set aside the instructions of Congress by making a new Const.i.tution ... an heroic but lawless act.”

(Van Buren, 49-50.)

Professor Burgess does not overstate the case when he declares: ”Had Julius or Napoleon committed these acts [of the Federal Convention in framing and submitting the Const.i.tution], they would have been p.r.o.nounced _coups d'etat_.” (Burgess, i, 105.)

Also see Beard: _Econ. I. C._, 217-18.

[998] Ford: _P. on C._, 14.

[999] _Ib._, 100-01.

[1000] Ford: _P. on C._, 284-85. And see Jameson, 40-49.

[1001] Was.h.i.+ngton to Lafayette, Sept. 18, 1788; _Writings_: Sparks, ix, 265.

[1002] Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware had practically no ports and, under the Confederation, were at the mercy of Ma.s.sachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania in all matters of trade. The Const.i.tution, of course, remedied this serious defect. Also, these smaller States had forced the compromise by which they, with their comparatively small populations, were to have an equal voice in the Senate with New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, with their comparatively great populations.

And therefore they would have practically equal weight in the law--and treaty-making power of the Government. This was the most formidable of the many rocks on which the Federal Convention all but broke up.

[1003] One proposition was to call the State Convention ”within _ten_ days.” (See ”Address of the Minority of the Pennsylvania Convention,” in McMaster and Stone, 458.)

[1004] _Ib._, 3-4; and see _ib._, 75. An excuse for these mob methods was that the Legislature previously had resolved to adjourn _sine die_ on that very day. This would put off action until the next session. The Anti-Const.i.tutionalists urged--with entire truthfulness--that even this delay would give the people too little time to inform themselves upon the ”New Plan” of government, as it was called, which the Convention was to pa.s.s upon in the people's name. ”Not one in twenty know anything about it.” (Mr. Whitehall in debate in the Legislature; _ib._, 32.)

[1005] McMaster and Stone, 459-60. This charge was wholly accurate.

Both sides exerted themselves to carry the ”election.” The Anti-Const.i.tutionalists declared that they stood for ”the principles of the Revolution”; yet, a.s.serts Graydon, who was at Reading at the time, they sought the support of the Tories; the country lawyers were opposed to the ”New Plan” and agreed not ”to practice or accept any office under the Const.i.tution”; but the Const.i.tutionalists promised ”prothonotarys.h.i.+ps, attorney generals.h.i.+ps, chief justices.h.i.+ps, and what not,” and the hostile attorneys ”were tempted and did eat.” Describing the spirit of the times, Graydon testifies that ”pelf was a better goal than liberty and at no period in my recollection was the wors.h.i.+p of Mammon more widely spread, more sordid and disgusting.”