Volume Ii Part 15 (2/2)
Virginia 532,000 [280,000 of them negroes.]
North Carolina 224,000 [60,000 of them negroes.]
South Carolina 188,000 [80,000 of them negroes.]
Georgia [rough estimate] 80,000 [20,000 of them negroes.]
Another table exhibits approximately the number of houses in the princ.i.p.al cities of the country in 1785-86. It was customary then in estimating population to allow seven persons to each house. This multiplier is probably too large rather than too small.
Population, multiplying Houses. number of houses by seven.
Portsmouth, N. H 450 3,150 Newburyport 510 3,570 Salem, Ma.s.s 730 5,210 Boston 2,200 15,400 Providence 560 3,920 Newport 790 5,530 Hartford 300 2,100 New Haven 400 2,800 New York 3,340 23,380 Albany and suburbs 550 3,850 Trenton 180 1,260 Philadelphia and suburbs 4,500 31,500 Wilmington 400 2,800 Baltimore 1,950 13,650 Annapolis 260 1,820 Frederick, Md. 400 2,800 Alexandria 300 2,100 Richmond 310 2,170 Petersburg 280 1,960 Williamsburg 230 1,610 Charleston 1,540 10,780 Savannah 200 1,400
The first New York City Directory appeared in 1786. It had eight hundred and forty-six names, not going above Roosevelt and Cherry Streets on the East side, or Dey Street on the West. There were then in the city three Dutch Reformed churches, four Presbyterian, three Episcopal, two German Lutheran, and one congregation each belonging to the Catholics, Friends, Baptists, Moravians, and Jews. In 1789 the Methodists had two churches, and the Friends two new Meetings. The houses in the city were generally of brick, with tile roofs, mostly English in style, but a few Dutch. The old Fort, where the provincial governors had resided, still stood in the Battery. The City Hall was a brick structure, three stories high, with wings, fronting on Broad Street. Want of good water greatly inconvenienced the citizens, as there was no aqueduct yet, and wells were few. Most houses supplied themselves by casks from a pump on what is now Pearl Street, this being replenished from a pond a mile north of the then city limits. New York commanded the trade of nearly all Connecticut, half New Jersey, and all Western Ma.s.sachusetts, besides that of New York State itself. In short it did the importing for one-sixth of the population of the Union. Pennsylvania and Maryland made the best flour. In the manufacture of iron, paper, and cabinet ware, Pennsylvania led all the States.
Over this rapidly growing portion of the human race in its widely separated homes there was at last a central government worthy the name.
The old Articles of Confederation had been no fundamental law, not a foundation but a homely botch-work of superstructure, resembling more a treaty between several States than a ground-law for one. In the new Const.i.tution a genuine foundation was laid, the Government now holding direct and immediate relations with each subject of every State, and citizens of States being at the same time citizens of the United States.
Hitherto the central power could act on individuals only through States.
Now, by its own marshals, aided if need were by its army, it could itself arrest and by its own courts try and condemn any transgressor of its laws.
But if the State relinquished the technical sovereignty which it had before, it did not sink to the level of an administrative division, but increased rather in all the elements of real dignity and stability. Over certain subjects the new const.i.tution gave the States supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power. The range of this supreme state prerogative is, in fact, wider on the whole than that of national. For national action there must be demonstrable const.i.tutional warrant, for that of States this is not necessary. In more technical phrase: to the United States what is not granted is denied, to the State what is not denied is granted. It is a perpetual reminder of original state sovereignty, that no State can without its consent be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. Each State also must have at least one representative.
States cannot be sued by private persons or corporations. Even upon subjects const.i.tutionally reserved for national law, if Congress has not legislated state statute is valid.
Precisely as its advocates had prophesied, this revised order worked well, bringing a blessed new feeling of security. On commerce and business it conferred immense benefits, which rapidly became disseminated through all cla.s.ses of the population. The sense and appearance of unity and consequent strength which the land had enjoyed in the early days of the Revolution came back in greater completeness, and was most gratifying to all. There was still a rankling hatred toward England, and men hostile to central government on other grounds were reconciled to it as the sole condition of successful commercial or naval compet.i.tion with that country.
The consequence was a wide-spread change of public feeling in reference to the Const.i.tution very soon after its adoption. Bitterest hostility turned to praise that was often fulsome, reducing to insignificance an opposition that had probably comprised a popular majority during the very months of ratification. Many s.h.i.+fted their ground merely to be on the popular side. With mult.i.tudes Was.h.i.+ngton's influence had more weight than any argument.
The Const.i.tution's unfortunate elasticity of interpretation also for the time worked well. People who had fought it saw how their cherished views could after all be based upon it. All parties soon began, therefore, to swear by the Const.i.tution as their political Bible. The fathers of the immortal paper were exalted into demiG.o.ds. Fidelity to the Const.i.tution came to be pre-eminently the watchword of those till now against its adoption. They in fact shouted this cry louder than the Federalists, who had never regarded it a perfect instrument of government. It came to pa.s.s ere long that nothing would blast a public measure so instantly or so completely as the cry of its unconst.i.tutionality.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of the Continental United States.]
Map Showing the Progressive Acquisitions of Territory by the United States
Few can form any idea of the herculean work performed by the First Congress in setting up and starting our present governmental machinery.
The debt which we owe the public men of that time is measureless. With such care and wisdom did they proceed, that little done by them has required alteration, the departments having run on decade after decade till now essentially in their original grooves. The Senate formed itself into its three cla.s.ses, so that one-third of its members, and never more than this, should retire at a time. Four executive departments were created, those of State, the Treasury, War, and the Attorney-Generals.h.i.+p. The first occupants were, respectively, Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph.
Of the present departments of government the post-office alone has come down from colonial times, Benjamin Franklin having been general superintendent thereof under the British Government. He was re-appointed by the second Continental Congress, in July, 1775. The First Congress under the Const.i.tution erected a general post-office, but its head attained the dignity of a regular cabinet officer not till about 1830, and then only by custom. To begin with, in fact, there was strictly no cabinet in the modern sense. Was.h.i.+ngton's habit was to consult his ministers separately.
Under the Articles of Confederation there had been a treasury board of several commissioners, and a superintendent of finance. The new arrangement, making one man responsible, was a great improvement. A law was pa.s.sed forbidding the Secretary of the Treasury to be concerned in trade or commerce, that is, to be a merchant. The late A. T. Stewart, appointed by President Grant to the office, was rejected as ineligible under this law. Yet no department of our Government has had a finer record than the Treasury.
Not only had the First Congress to vote revenue, but to make provision for the collection of this. Revenue districts had to be mapped out, the proper officers appointed, and light-houses, buoys, and public piers arranged for along the whole coast. Salaries were to be fixed, and a mult.i.tude of questions relating to the interpretation and application of the Const.i.tution to be solved by patient deliberation. The United States Mint was erected, and our so felicitous monetary system, based upon the decimal principle along with the binary, established in place of the desperate monetary chaos prevailing before. Hitherto there were four sorts of colonial money of account all differing from sterling, while Mexican dollars and numberless other forms of foreign money were in actual circulation.
The n.o.blest part of all this work was the organization of the federal judiciary, through an act drawn up with extraordinary ability by Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. A Chief Justice--the first one was John Jay--and five a.s.sociates were to const.i.tute the Supreme Court. District courts were ordained, one per State and one each for Kentucky and Maine, not yet States; also three circuit courts, the eastern, the middle, and the southern; and the jurisdiction of each grade was accurately fixed.
As yet there were no special circuit judges, nor, excepting the temporary ones of 1801, were there till some eighty years later. Clerks, marshals, and district-attorneys were part of this first arrangement.
Originally the Attorney-General was little but an honorary officer. He kept his practice, had no public income but his fees, and resided where he pleased.
As his t.i.tle implies, the Secretary of War was to have charge of all the nation's means of offence and defence, there being until April 30, 1796, no separate secretary for the navy. We had indeed in 1789 little use for such a functionary, not a war-vessel then remaining in Government's possession. In 1784 our formidable navy consisted of a single s.h.i.+p, the Alliance, but the following year Congress ordered her sold.
The senators most active in the creations just reviewed were Langdon, King, and Robert Morris, besides Ellsworth. In the House, Madison outdid all others in toil as in ability, though worthily seconded by distinguished men like Fisher Ames, Gerry, Clymer, Fitzsimmons, Boudinot, and Smith. The three Connecticut representatives, Sherman, Trumbull, and Wadsworth, made up perhaps the ablest state delegation in the body.
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