ATTITUDE OF PARTIES.

17

Virginia, men holding federal opinions were uniformly opposed to paper money issues, and that the most vehement opponents to the Constitution were men who, like Patrick Henry, were suspected of favoring bills of credit. There is no doubt that Virginians whose estates were hopelessly involved, looked to paper money issues for relief and were active Anti-Federalists.1 In the Carolinas and Georgia the same differences prevailed. The advocates of legal tender laws, there, were Anti-Federalists, and these were generally of the debtor class. In Georgia, the members of assembly who favored paper issues came from the back country, while the opponents of these issues came from the larger towns. In all the States the men who wished to escape paying their taxes and their debts, who, as Hamilton said, would cheat their creditors,2 were quite without exception, Anti-Federalists.

No truer description of the attitude of the people to the new Constitution has been drawn than by the historian Hildreth. "The federal party with Washington and Hamilton at its head, represented the experience, the prudence, the practical wisdom, the discipline, the conservative reason and instincts of the country. The opposition headed by Jefferson, expressed its hopes, wishes, theories, many of them enthusiastic and impracticable, and more especially its passions, its sympathies and antipathies, its impatience at restraint. The Federalists had their strength in those narrow districts were a concentrated population had produced and contributed to maintain that complexity of institutions, and that reverence for social order, which, in proportion as men are brought into contiguity become necessaries of existence. The ultra democratical ideas of the opposition prevailed in all that

1 Libby, 66-67.

2 Hamilton's Works (Lodge's Edition), I, 401.

18

QUESTION OF RATIFICATION.

more extensive region in which the dispersion of population and the despotic authority vested in individuals over families of slaves kept society in a state of immaturity and made legal restraints the more unknown in proportion as their necessity was less felt." This description of the two parties in 1801 applies to them with slight modification as they existed at the time of their beginning, when the ratification of the Constitution was the issue between them. When Congress submitted it to the States in 1787, its fate depended upon the relative strength of the paper money men and the sound money men; of the urbane population and the rural population; of the commercial class and of the farming class; of the older communities and of the people in the newer on the frontier.

In Delaware, petitions had been pouring in upon the general assembly,' which met on the twenty-fourth of October, that it speedily call a convention to ratify. Early in December, one assembled at Dover, and, almost without debate, freely and entirely approved the Constitution, ratifying it unanimously. But though Delaware was the first to ratify, it was not the first State to convene, for the Pennsylvania convention had assembled on the twentieth of November. The legislature had not waited for the action of Congress.

On the morning following the adjournment of the Federal Convention, the eight delegates from Pennsylvania, headed by Franklin, formally presented the new Constitution to the legislature, and Franklin, in an appropriate

1 Sharf's Delaware, I, 269; and Pennsylvania Packet, November 17, 1787.

2 Ratified December 6, signed December 7, 1787; Documentary History, II, 25. The convention consisted of thirty members and among them were Richard Bassett of Kent and Gunning Bedford of New Castle counties, who had been delegates to the Federal Convention.

PARTIES IN PENNSYLVANIA.

19

speech, urged its speedy adoption. The twenty-ninth of September was set as the day of adjournment, but on the twenty-eighth, George Clymer, one of the signers,1 and also a member of the legislature, moved that provision be made for calling a convention. The Anti-Federalists, who comprised nearly half the legislature, were led by Robert Whitehill of Cumberland county, and Cumberland was anti-federal.2

While the question of a convention was under debate, William Bingham, a delegate of the State to Congress, presented himself, with its resolution, unanimously recommending the Constitution to the States, but the Anti-Federalists, still hostile, resorted to obstructive tactics, and absented themselves; for as the Assembly consisted of sixty-nine members, forty-six making a quorum, nineteen absentees could bring the business to a full stop and the House must adjourn.3 Nineteen members were found only too willing to remain away, so that when the assembly convened, though every federal member was present, there was not a quorum. This was the condition of affairs when Bingham presented his news.

Determined to carry their purpose through, the Federalists, in the House, sent out the sergeant-at-arms to bring in the absentees. Several were found in their lodging houses, and, much against their will, were brought back to their seats. The roll was called, a quorum was counted and the business proceeded. The Anti-Federalists drew up an address to the people, which sixteen of the nineteen signed, setting forth all the defects of the new plan. These were, in brief, its expense; its dangerous

1 Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 27.

2 Libby, 84.

3 Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 60-72.

4 Id., 73-79; among the signers were Robert Whitehill and Edward Findlay.

20

PARTIES IN PENNSYLVANIA.

grant of power to Congress to levy taxes; its lack of a Bill of Rights, and its organization of a federal judiciary, which would override the State system.

To this accusation there were numerous rejoinders from among the Federalists, of which the most elaborate was written by Pelatiah Webster,1 a well known pamphleteer, who, nearly five years before, had written a dissertation, urging the States to unite under a common constitution. Having now control of the House, the Federalists quickly passed an act for the election of delegates to the convention to be held the third Tuesday of November.2 This news was received in the city with every manifestation of joy, but the minority beheld in it only a violation of political principle, and nursing their hostility, laid the foundation of that great party which Jefferson was soon to organize, and which, at the opening of the new century, was ready to take complete control of the government.

3

Though the Federalists had the better in the argument, which now ran high, the Anti-Federalists depended upon the elections to defeat the Constitution. In Philadelphia and Northampton counties the delegates pledged themselves to support it. Northumberland was divided, but the veterans of the army succeeded in choosing two of their number and thus saved the county for the Federalists.5 The counties of Franklin and Washington were divided, but if the delegates followed the wishes of their constituents, they would vote against the plan. The six western counties, too, were anti-federal, as were Burks, Dauphin

1 Id., 89-106.

2 November 6, 1787.

6

It is reported more or less fully in Chapters III, V, VI and VII of Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution.

4 Libby, 83.

• Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 159.

• Libby, 83-84.

THE PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION.

21

and Fayette. The convention assembled on the twenty-first of November,1 and two days later was discussing the Constitution. Among its sixty-nine members was James Wilson, one of the principal authors of the Constitution, and the only signer who had been chosen a delegate.

On the twenty-fourth, Thomas McKean moved for ratification and the debate began.2 Wilson, utilizing his profound knowledge of the plan, defended it even more cogently than he had done in the Federal Convention.3 It would give peace to the country; would co-ordinate its interests, and would promote the general welfare, as separate confederacies could not do. As both the States and the citizens were represented in the plan, the States were called upon to give up a portion of their power for the good of the whole. It was founded on the principle of representation. The Federal Convention had found it difficult to draw the line between the national and State government. Whatever objects of government were confined in their operation and effect within the bounds of a State should be considered as belonging exclusively to its government, but whatever extended beyond the bounds of a State should be considered as belonging to the government of the United States. The new plan would limit the power of legislation; the supreme authority for the government rested in the people. As he had so frequently

1 Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 211.

2 The convention met on November 21, chose Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg President, and James Campbell (November 23) Secretary.

* He had made a great speech, known as the State House speech, on the Saturday evening preceding the election. A great concourse of people had met to nominate representatives for the ensuing general assembly. This speech ranks with the essays in the Federalist in spirit and tone; see Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 143-149.