Part 4 (2/2)

Madison's responsibility for this result was that of every other delegate,--no more and no less Neither he nor they, whether more or less opposed to slavery, saw in it a systeoverneneration, and even that was slow to learn To the fathers it was, at worst, only an unfortunate and unhappy social condition, which it would be well to be rid of if this could be done without too much sacrifice; but otherwise, to be submitted to, like any other misfortune

While it did exist, however, Madison believed it should be protected, though not encouraged, as a Southern interest The question resolved itself into one of expediency,--of union or disunion What disunion would be, he knew, or thought he knew Perhaps he was ht have been the way to a true union ”We are so weak,” said C C Pinckney, ”that by ourselves we could not forh for the purpose of effectually protecting each other Without union with the other States, South Carolina must soon fall” But he was careful to say this at home, not in Philadelphia In the convention, Madison wrote a ia were inflexible on the point of the slaves” What was to be the union which that inflexibility carried was not foreseen

It was the children's teeth that were to be set on edge

CHAPTER IX

ADOPTION OF THE CONStitUTION

Madison's labors for the Constitution did not cease when the convention adjourned, although he was not at that ard to it Within a week of the adjournment he wrote to Jefferson: ”I hazard an opinion that the plan, should it be adopted, will neither effectually answer its national object, nor prevent the local overn seems to have soon passed away Perhaps, when he devoted himself to a careful study of what had been done, he saw, in looking at it as a whole, how just and true it was in its fair proportions He now diligently sought to prove how certainly the Constitution would answer its purpose; hoisely all its parts were adjusted; how successfully the obstacles to a perfect union of the States had been, as he thought, overcouarded, while the needed general government would be secured Whether there should be an American nation or not depended, as he had believed for years, upon whether a national Constitution could be agreed upon Now that it was framed he believed that upon its adoption depended whether there should be, or should not be, a nation In September, as he wrote to Jefferson, he was in doubt; in February he wrote to Pendleton: ”I have for some time been persuaded that the question on which the proposed Constitution must turn is the simple one, whether the Union shall or shall not be continued There is, in round to be taken”

Those ould have called a second convention to revise the labors of the first had no sympathy from hiain; he doubted if it could be done at all With him, it was this Constitution or none ”Everyto a picture he had just drawn of the perils of disunion,--”every man who loves peace, every ht to have it ever before his eyes, that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America, and be able to set a due value on theit” This ”hty papers of ”The Federalist” he wrote twenty-nine; Ha forty-six, and Jay only five These famous essays, of wider repute than any other Aenerally accepted upon faith than upon knowledge But at that time, when the new Constitution was in the erly read as they followed each other rapidly in the columns of a New York newspaper They were an armory, wherein all who entered into the controversy could find such weapons as they could best handle What governht to be, and what the political union of these American States would be under their new Constitution, were questions on which the writers of these papers undertook to answer all reasonable inquiries, and to silence all cavils

Madison would undoubtedly have written more than his two fifths of them, had he not been called upon early in March to return to Virginia; for the as of the deepest interest to him, and the popularity of the papers would have stimulated to exertion one as indolent as he was industrious

But the canvass for the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention of Virginia called him home He had been nominated as the representative of his county, and his friends had urged him to return before the election, for there was reason to fear that theside Henry, Mason, Randolph, Lee, and others ainia, were opposed to the Constitution

Thereed to take the stump and canvass for his own election Even this he illing to do at this crisis, if need be, though he said it would be at the sacrifice of every private inclination, and of the rule which hitherto fro of his public career he had strictly adhered to,--never to ask, directly or indirectly, for votes for himself

It is quite possible, even quite probable, that Mr Madison had little of that gift which has always passed for eloquence, and is, indeed, eloquence of a certain kind If we h he wanted so in the power of winning and convincing His arguments were often, if not always, prepared with care If there was no play of fancy, there was no forgetfulness of facts If there was lack of iination, there was none of historical illustration, when the subject adotten, method was not His ai clear, and to put the right in its place; to appeal to reason, not to passion, nor to prejudice; to try his cause by the light of clear logic, hard facts, and sound learning; to convince his hearers of the truth, as he believed in it, not to take their judgrace of hbors only, but the most zealous of the Federalists of the State, sent him to the convention It was there that such eloquence as he possessed was peculiarly needed The ground was to be fought over inch by inch, and with antagonists whom it would be difficult, if not impossible, to beat There was to be contest over every word of the Constitution from its first to its last ”Givespeech, ”to deht had they to say 'We the people' instead of 'We the States'?” He began at the beginning It was the gage of the coed to show that any better union than that already in existence was needed, and that in this new Constitution a better union was furnished

As month after month passed ahile the Constitution was before the people for adoption, the anxiety of the Federalists grew, lest the requisite nine States should not give their assent But when eight were secured there was rooinia should coht be perfect; for the re States would be almost sure to follow her lead But should she say No, the final result would be doubtful, even if the requisite nine should be secured by the acquiescence of one of the sether upon one man, but it did depend more upon Madison than upon anybody else

The convention was in session nearly a ht he was not hopeful ”The business,” he wrote to Washi+ngton, ”is in the ined The majority will certainly be very small, on whatever side it e much expectation that it will be on the favorable side” But his fears stied hiuument; always prompt to appeal from passion to reason; quick to brush asidethe minds of his hearers back to a calht of the responsibility resting on that convention Others were no less earnest and diligent than he; but he was easily chief, and the burden and heat of the day fell mainly upon him Probably when the convention assembled the majority were opposed to the Constitution; but its adoption was carried at last by a vote of eighty-nine to seventy-nine Thenceforth opposition in the reh the fact was not known in Virginia--preceded that State by a few days in accepting the Constitution, so that the requisite nine were secured before the convention at Richmond came to a decision

But it was her decision, nevertheless, that really settled, so far as can be seen now, the question of a perinia been the other way it is not likely that Hamilton would have carried New York, or that North Carolina and Rhode Island would have finally decided not to be left in solitude outside What the history of the nine united States only, with four disunited States aht have been, it is impossible to know, and quite useless to conjecture The conditions which some of the States attached to the act of adoption, the addition of a Bill of Rights, proposed aestion of sub it to a second convention, were matters of coates was secured at Richmond These were questions that could be postponed ”The delay of a few years,” Madison wrote to Jefferson, ”will assuage the jealousies which have been artificially created by designing men, and will at the same time point out the faults which call for amendment”

Immediately after the adjournment of the Richmond Convention he returned to New York, where the confederate Congress was still in session That body had little to do now but decide upon the tiovernhth year, and we get an interesting glimpse of hient foreigner ”Mr

Warville Brissot has just arrived here,” he wrote to Jefferson in August, 1788 This was Brissot de Warville, a Frenchman of the new philosophy,--whose head, nevertheless, his co in Aress of the new republic His tour extended to nearly all the States; he uished ent use of his many opportunities for observation On his return to France he wrote an entertaining volume,--”New Travels in the United States of America,”--still to be found in so, not only for the ier, but as the evidence of the contemporary estimate of his character and reputation, which De Warville athered from others

”The name of Madison,” he writes, ”celebrated in Aium made of hih still young, he has rendered the greatest services to Virginia, to the Aeneral He contributedthe civil and criuished himself particularly in the convention for the acceptation of the new federal syste to it Mr Madison determined to it the ic This republican appears to be about thirty-eight years of age He had, when I saw hiue; perhaps it was the effect of the immense labors to which he has devoted himself for some time past His look announces a censor, his conversation discovers the , and his reserve was that of athe dinner, to which he invited me, they spoke of the refusal of North Carolina to accede to the new Constitution The ainst it was one hundred Mr Madison believed that this refusal would have no weight on the minds of the Aress I told hiarded as a trifle in Aht in Europe; that they would never inquire there into the motives which dictated it, nor consider the small consequence of this State in the confederation; that it would be regarded as a germ of division, calculated to retard the operations of Congress; and that certainly this idea would prevent the resurrection of American credit

”Mr Madison attributed this refusal to the attachreat part of the inhabitants of that State to their paper money and their tender act He was much inclined to believe that this disposition would not reinia assembly met Two thirds of its members were opposed to the new Constitution, and at their head was Patrick Henry, his zeal against it not in the least abated because he had been defeated in the late convention The acceptance of the Constitution by that representative body could not be recalled But the asseainst it, and was led by Henry to call upon Congress to convene a second national convention to do over again the work of the first The legislature was to elect senators for the first Senate under the new government; and it was also to divide the State into districts for its representation in the lower house of Congress In ordinary fairness, as the State had, in a popular convention, so recently accepted the Constitution, the party then in the majority was entitled to at least one of the representatives in the Senate But Henry noh to elect thee this would seem quite unobjectionable; indeed, a e for his party would be considered as unfit for practical politics But a hundred years ago it was thought sharp practice, and a fair proportion of Henry's partisans refused to be bound by it One of Henry's nominees was elected by a majority of twenty over Madison; but in the case of the other that e of five more votes would have elected Madison

He had, however, neither expected nor wished to be sent to the Senate, while he did hope to be elected to the House of Representatives The Senate was intended to be thein itsfor which wealth was indispensable

Madison had not the ive that kind of social support to official position; but he could afford to belong to that body where a member was not the less respectable because his whole do-house

Virginia was, as he wrote to Washi+ngton, ”the only instance aislature are at variance with the sense of the people, expressed by their representatives in convention” This had enabled Henry and a”the politics of the legislature,” did not represent ”the sense of the people” in regard to the national Constitution But in the election of members of the House of Representatives, the sense of the people was to be again appealed to, and a neay islative power The cleverness of Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, many years later, under sie of the country, and, it was supposed at the time, a new device in American politics But what has since been known as ”Gerry”

was really the invention of Patrick Henry This ressional districts in accordance with their political affinities, without regard to their geographical lines, Henry atte it to distant counties it was expected that an anti-Federal h to insure his defeat The attempt to elect him to the Senate was, Madison wrote to Jefferson, ”defeated by Mr Henry, who is oislature” He adds that Henry ”has taken equal pains, in for the counties into districts for the election of representatives, to associate with Orange such as are most devoted to his politics, and ainst me” The scheme, however, was unsuccessful, perhaps partly because of the indignation which so dishonorable a hout the State Madison entered upon an active canvass of his district against James Monroe, who had been nominated as a moderate anti-Federalist, and defeated hi rides his ears were frozen In later life he soly pointed to the scars of these wounds received, he said, in the service of his country

Thus Henry's ”Gerryht neither profit nor credit to the original inventor Had Henry acted in the broader spirit of the modern politician, who sees that he serves himself best who serves his party best, he would have disposed of every Federal county in the State as he disposed of Orange As it was, he only aroused a good deal of indignation and defeated hiratify his personal resentood of the party, he would, perhaps, have brought down his particular bird