Volume Ii Part 15 (1/2)
He was a senator from that State between 1789 and 1795, and again between 1813 and 1826; and Minister to England from 1796 to 1803, and again after 1826 till his failing health compelled his resignation. He was the federalist candidate for Vice-President in 1804 and 1808, and for President in 1816. Sherman of Connecticut, Gillman of New Hamps.h.i.+re, and Baldwin of Georgia, went into the House of Representatives and were promoted thence to the Senate. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, Gouverneur Morris, now again of New York, Caleb Strong of Ma.s.sachusetts, William Patterson of New Jersey, Richard Ba.s.sett of Delaware, Alexander Martin and Blount of North Carolina, Charles Pinckney and Butler of South Carolina, and Colonel Few of Georgia, all became senators. Madison, Gerry, Fitzsimmons of Pennsylvania, Carroll of Maryland, and Spaight and Williamson of North Carolina, all wrought well in the House, but did not reach the Senate. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was nominated for the Presidency in 1800, on the ticket with John Adams, again in 1804, and still again in 1808.
Jared Ingersoll was the federalist candidate for Vice-President in 1812, on the ticket with De Witt Clinton, against Madison and Gerry. Yates rose to be Chief Justice of the State of New York, Lansing to be its Chancellor. Gerry and Strong of Ma.s.sachusetts, Patterson of New Jersey, Ba.s.sett of Delaware, Spaight and Davie of North Carolina, and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, became Governors of their States, as did Alexander Martin, of North Carolina, a second time.
Having received final revision and signature, the Const.i.tution was transmitted, with a commendatory letter from Was.h.i.+ngton, to the old Congress. Suggestions were added relating to the mode of launching it.
Congress was requested to lay the new Great Charter before the States, and, so soon as it should have been ratified by nine of them, to fix the date for the election by these of presidential electors, the day for the latter to cast their votes, and the time and place for commencing proceedings under the revised const.i.tution. Congress complied. The debates of the Convention, only more hot, attended ratification, which was carried in several States only by narrow majorities.
[1788-1790]
Delaware was the first to ratify, December 7, 1787. Pennsylvania and New Jersey soon followed, the one on the 12th of the same month, the other on the 18th. Delaware and New Jersey voted unanimously; Pennsylvania ratified by a vote of forty-six to twenty-three. During the first month of the new year, 1788, Georgia and Connecticut ratified, on the 2d and 9th respectively. New Hamps.h.i.+re next took up the question, but adjourned her convention to await the action of Ma.s.sachusetts. In this great State the people were divided almost equally. Of the western counties the entire population that had sympathized or sided with Shays was bitter against the Const.i.tution. The larger centres and in general the eastern part of the State favored it. The vote was had on February 6th, and showed a majority of only 19 out of 355 in favor of the Const.i.tution.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Parade with a float shaped as a s.h.i.+p carrying a banner ”Hamilton.”]
Celebrating the Adoption of the Const.i.tution in New York.
The good work still remained but half done. It was a crisis.
Accordingly, early in this year, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay published their weighty articles, since collected in the immortal volume known as ”The Federalist.” These discussions seemed to have much effect. Maryland ratified on April 28th, and South Carolina on May 23d. New Hamps.h.i.+re fell into line, the necessary ninth State to ratify, June 21st. Thus the Const.i.tution became binding, yet it was still painfully uncertain what the action of Virginia and New York would be. In both States the Const.i.tution was opposed by many of the most influential men, and after a long and heated canva.s.s adoption occurred in Virginia by a majority of only ten in a vote of 168; in New York by the narrow majority of two.
Even now North Carolina and Rhode Island remained aloof. The former, not liking the prospect of isolation, came into the Union November 21, 1789, after the new government had been some time at work. Rhode Island, owing to her peculiar history in the matter of religious liberty, which she feared a closer union would jeopardize, as well as to the strength of the paper-money fanaticism within her borders, was more obdurate. The chief difficulty here was to get the legislature to call a convention.
The New York Packet of February 20, 1790, in a letter from Rhode Island, tells how this was accomplished. Among the anti-adoptionists in the senate was a rural clergyman who, prompted by his conscience, or, as one account runs, by exhortation and the offer of a conveyance by an influential member of the adoption party, was, when Sunday came, absent upon his sacred work. The occasion was seized for a ballot. The senate was a tie, but the Governor threw the casting vote for a convention.
This was called as soon as possible, and on May 29, 1790, Rhode Island, too, at the eleventh hour, made the National Const.i.tution her own. Not only had a MORE PERFECT UNION been formed at last, but it included all the Old Thirteen States.
PART SECOND
THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE CONSt.i.tUTION
PERIOD I.
THE UNITED STATES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
1789-1814
CHAPTER I.
THE NEW GOVERNMENT
Notified on July 2, 1788, that nine States had voted approval of the Const.i.tution, Congress, on September 13th, set the first Wednesday in January, 1789, for the choice of electors, the first in February for their ballot, and the first in March for putting the new government in motion. The first Wednesday in March, 1789, happening to fall on the 4th, this date has since remained as the initial one for presidencies and congresses. The First Congress had no quorum in either branch on March 4th, and did not complete its organization till April 6th.
Was.h.i.+ngton was inaugurated on April 30th, in New York, where the First Congress, proceeding to execute the Const.i.tution, held its entire first session. Its second session was in Philadelphia, the seat of Congress thence till the second session of the VIth Congress, 1800, since which time Congress has always met in Was.h.i.+ngton.
The inauguration of our first President was an imposing event. As the hero moved from his house on Franklin Square, through Pearl Street to Broad, and through Broad to Federal Hall, corner of Wall Street, people thronged every sidewalk, door-way, window, and roof along the entire line of march. About him on the platform after his arrival stood John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Baron Steuben, Generals St. Clair and Knox, Roger Sherman, and Chancellor Livingston. Was.h.i.+ngton advanced to the rail, placed his hand upon his breast, and, bowing low, said audibly, as the Chancellor in his robes solemnly recited the words, ”I swear, so help me G.o.d,” reverently kissing the Bible as if to add solemnity to his oath. ”It is done,” cried the Chancellor; ”long live George Was.h.i.+ngton, President of the United States!” The great crowd repeated the cry. It was echoed outside in the city, off into the country, far north, far south, till the entire land took up that watchword, which his own generation has pa.s.sed on to ours and to all that shall come, Long live George Was.h.i.+ngton!
Let us study for a moment the habitat of the people over which the new Chief Magistrate was called to bear sway. By the census of 1790, the population of the thirteen States and of the territory belonging to the Union numbered 3,929,214. It resided almost wholly on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Not more than five per cent of it was west of the mountains. The line of inner settlement, now farther, now nearer, ran at an average distance from the coast of two hundred and fifty-five miles.
The coast land of Ma.s.sachusetts, southern New England, and New York was the most densely covered. The Hudson Valley was well peopled as far as Albany. Farms and hamlets were to be met all the way from New York across New Jersey to the Delaware, and far up the Delaware Valley westward from that river. Maine, still belonging to Ma.s.sachusetts, had few settlements except upon her coast and a little way inland along her great rivers. Vermont, not yet a State and claimed by both New Hamps.h.i.+re and New York, was well filled up, as was all New Hamps.h.i.+re but the extreme north.
The westward movement of population took mainly four routes, the Mohawk and Ontario, the Upper Potomac, the Southwestern Virginia, and the Western Georgia. The Mohawk Valley was settled, and pioneers had taken up much land on Lake Ontario and near the rivers and lakes tributary to it. Elmira and Binghamton had been begun. Pennsylvania settlers had pressed westward more or less thickly to the lower elevations of the Alleghanies, while beyond, in the Pittsburgh regions, they were even more numerous. What is now West Virginia had squatters here and there.
Virginian pioneers had also betaken themselves southwestward to the head of the Tennessee. North and South Carolina were inhabited as far west as the mountains, though the population was not dense. In Northern Kentucky, along the Ohio, lay considerable settlements, and in Tennessee, where Nashville now is, there was another centre of civilization. In the Northwest Territory, Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Prairie du Chien, Mackinac, and Green River were outposts, at each of which a few white men might have been found.
The following table shows pretty nearly the population of the several States about the end of the Revolution: New Hamps.h.i.+re 102,000 Ma.s.sachusetts 330,000 Rhode Island [1783] 51,869 [2,342 of them negroes, 464 mulattoes, 525 Indians.]
Connecticut [1782] 208,870 New York [1786] 215,283 New Jersey[1785] 138,934 [10,500 of them negroes.]
Pennsylvania 330,000 Delaware 37,000 Maryland 250,000 [80,000 of them negroes.]