vote of the states in one of them. On the next morning Johnson* took up the theme. Avoiding every appearance of dictation, he invited the convention to harmonize the individuality of the states as proposed by New Jersey with the general sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Virginia plan. He wished it to be well considered, whether the portion of sovereignty which was to remain with the states could be preserved without allowing them in the second branch of the national legislature a distinct and equal vote. The six national states, re-enforced by Connecticut, then resolved that the general legislature should consist of two branches. Upon this decision, which was carried by more than two states to one, the New Jersey plan fell hopelessly to the ground. It was on the twenty-fifth, in the course of these debates, that Wilson said: "When I consider the amazing extent of country, the immense population which is to fill it, the influence which the government we are to form will have, not only on the present generation of our people and their multiplied posterity, but on the whole globe, I am lost in the magnitude of the object. We are laying the foundation of a building in which millions are interested, and which is to last for ages.# In laying one stone amiss we may injure the superstructure; and what will be the consequence if the corner-stone should be loosely placed? A citizen of America is a citizen of the general government, and is a citizen of the particular state in which he may reside. The general government is meant for them in the first capacity; the state governments in the second. Both governments are derived from the people, both meant for the people; both, therefore, ought to be regulated on the same principles. In forming the general government we must forget our local habits and attachments, lay aside our state connections, and act for the general good of the whole. ◊ The general government is not an assemblage of states, but of * Gilpin, 920; Elliot, 220; Yates in Elliot, i., 431. Gilpin, 956; Elliot, 239. Yates in Elliot, i., 445, 446. ◊ Yates in Elliot, i., 446. #Yates in Elliot, i., 446. A Gilpin, 956; Elliot, 239. individuals, for certain political purposes; it is not meant for the states, but for the individuals composing them; the individuals, therefore, not the states, ought to be represented in it." He persisted to the last in demanding that the senate should be elected by electors chosen by the people. Ellsworth replied: "Whether the member of the senate be appointed by the people or by the legislature, he will be a citizen of the state he is to represent. Every state has its particular views and prejudices, which will find their way into the general council, through whatever channel they may flow. † The state legislatures are more competent to make a judicious choice than the people at large. Without the existence and co-operation of the states, a republican government cannot be supported over so great an extent of country. We know that the people of the states are strongly attached to their own constitutions. If you hold up a system of general government, destructive of their constitutional rights, they will oppose it. The only chance we have to support a general government is to graft it on the state governments." + That the members of the second branch should be chosen by the individual legislatures, which in the committee had been unanimously accepted, was then affirmed in convention by all the states except Pennsylvania and Virginia, which looked upon this mode of choice as the stepping-stone to an equal representation.# For the term of office of the senators, who, as all agreed, were to go out in classes, Randolph proposed seven years; Cotesworth Pinckney, four; Gorham and Wilson, six with biennial rotation. Read desired the tenure of good behavior, but, hardly finding a second, moved for a term of nine years as the longest which had a chance for support. Madison came to his aid. "The second branch, as a limited number of citizens, respectable for wisdom and virtue, will be watched by and will keep watch over the representatives of the people; it will seasonably interpose between impetuous counsels; and will guard the minority who are placed Yates in Elliot, i., 446, 447. * Gilpin, 957; Elliot, 239. + Ibid. #Gilpin, 959; Elliot, 240; Yates in Elliot, i., 447. Compare Gilpin, 960, or Elliot, 241, with Yates in Elliot, i., 448. above indigence against the agrarian attempts of the everincreasing class who labor under all the hardships of life, and secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings. The longer the members of the senate continue in office, the better will these objects be answered. The term of nine years can threaten no real danger.” * Sherman replied: "The more permanency a government has, the worse, if it be a bad one. I shall be content with six years for the senate; but four will be quite sufficient." † "We are now to decide the fate of republican government," said Hamilton; "if we do not give to that form due stability, it will be disgraced and lost among ourselves, disgraced and lost to mankind forever. I acknowledge I do not think favorably of republican government; but I address my remarks to those who do, in order to prevail on them to tone their government as high as possible. I profess myself as zealous an advocate for liberty as any man whatever; and trust I shall be as willing a martyr to it, though I differ as to the form in which it is most eligible. Real liberty is neither found in despotism nor in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. Those who mean to form a solid republic ought to proceed to the confines of another government. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy." The term of nine years received only the votes of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia; and that for six years, with the biennial renewal of one third of its members, was carried by the voice of seven states against four. # On the twenty-seventh, Rutledge brought the convention to consider the rule of suffrage in the two branches of the national legislature. For the rest of the day, and part of the next, Martin vehemently denounced any general government that could reach individuals, and intimated plainly that Clinton of New York would surely prevent its adoption in that state. Lansing renewed the proposal to vote by states in the first branch of the legislature. Madison summed up a most * Gilpin, 964; Elliot, 242, 243; Yates in Elliot, i., 450. Gilpin, 965, 966; Elliot, 244. Gilpin, 969; Elliot, 245; i., 451. elaborate statement by saying: "The two extremes before us are, a perfect separation, and a perfect incorporation of the thirteen states. In the first case, they will be independent nations, subject only to the law of nations; in the last, they will be mere counties of one entire republic, subject to one common law. In the first, the smaller states will have everything to fear from the larger; in the last, nothing. Their true policy, therefore, lies in promoting that form of government which will most approximate the states to the condition of counties." Johnson and Sherman and Ellsworth, Paterson and Dickinson, even at the risk of union, opposed King, the most eloquent orator, Wilson, the most learned civilian, and Madison, the most careful statesman, of the convention. It was in vain for the smaller states to say they intended no injustice, and equally in vain for Madison to plead that the large states, from differing customs, religion, and interests, could never unite in perilous combinations. In the great diversity of sentiment, Johnson could not foresee the result of their deliberations; † and at a later day Martin reported that the convention was "on the verge of dissolution, scarce held together by the strength of a hair." + To restore calm, Franklin, just as the house was about to adjourn, proposed that the convention should be opened every morning by prayer. Having present in his mind his own marvellous career from the mocking skepticism of his boyhood, he said: "The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see that God governs in the affairs of men. I firmly believe that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' Without his concurring aid, we shall be divided by our little local interests, succeed no better than the builders of Babel, and become a reproach and by-word to future ages. What is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance and war." # The motion was avoided by adjournment. The concurring aid which Franklin invoked implied a Gilpin, 982; Elliot, 252. + William Samuel Johnson to his son, Philadelphia, 27 June 1787. Elliot, i., 358. #Gilpin, 985; Elliot, 253, 254. purification from the dominion of selfish interests. In the next meeting the members were less absorbed by inferior motives.* The debate was opened by Johnson. "A state," he said, "exists as a political society, and it exists as a district of individual citizens. The aristocratic and other interests, and the interests of the states, must be armed with some power of self-defence. In one branch of the general government the people ought to be represented; in the other, the states." + Gorham brought together arguments for union alike from the point of view of small and of large states; and his last word was: "A union of the states is necessary to their happiness, and a firm general government is necessary to their union. I will stay here as long as any state will remain, in order to agree on some plan that can be recommended to the people." ‡ "I do not despair," said Ellsworth; "I still trust that some good plan of government will be devised and adopted." "If this point of representation is once well fixed," said Madison, we shall come nearer to one another in sentiment.# The necessity will then be discovered of circumscribing more effectually the state governments, and enlarging the bounds of the general government. There is a gradation from the smallest corporation with the most limited powers to the largest empire with the most perfect sovereignty. The states never possessed the essential rights of sovereignty; these were always vested in congress. Voting as states in congress is no evidence of sovereignty. The state of Maryland voted by counties. Did this make the counties sovereign? The states, at present, are only great corporations, having the power of making by-laws not contradictory to the general confederation. The proposed government will have powers far beyond those exercised by the British parliament when the states were part of the British empire. The mixed nature of the government ought to be kept in view; but the exercise of an equal voice by unequal portions of the people is confessedly unjust, and would infuse * Compare Walter Scott in The Heart of Midlothian, vol. i., chap. xiv. Gilpin, 987; Elliot, 255. * Elliot, i., 461. Gilpin, 990; Elliot, 256. Gilpin, 989; Elliot, 255. A Yates in Elliot, i., 461. |