sentative to every thirty thousand persons until the whole number should amount to two hundred, a number put in by the committee to whom the matter had been referred.1 Thirteen members of the committee were Federalists, though the intention was to have two delegates from each county, one a Federalist and one an Anti-Federalist. Mayhew and Dunham from Duke's county, were both Federalists, but Dunham did not serve on the committee. During its discussion of the amendments, the opinions of some of its members were changed, so that finally one declined to express any views whatever; fifteen agreed to the report and seven voted against it. This signified that three Anti-Federalists had changed their views.2

Congress, so ran this report, should not attempt to regulate elections unless a State neglected or refused to do so; or to make rules subversive of the rights of the people to a free and equal representation. Only when the revenue from imposts and excises was insufficient should Congress lay direct taxes. No company with exclusive commercial advantages should be created. Indictment by a grand jury should precede all criminal trials, except in military, or naval, cases. In suits arising between citizens of different States, the federal courts should have no jurisdiction, unless the matter in dispute was of the value of three thousand dollars; in all federal suits, trial by jury should be allowed at the request of either party. No person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, should be permitted to accept any title from any foreign power.

Samuel Adams was too astute a politician to reject a

1 Debates, 82; their report, February 4, Id., 83-85. The committee as appointed consisted of twenty-five members, two from each county, James Bowdoin, chairman.

2 Debates, 250.

compromise of this kind and urged the adoption of the amendments. He believed that they fairly expressed public sentiment in the other States.1 He had little faith that the Constitution, if once adopted, would be amended, therefore the amendments now proposed should be adopted, not, however, as a condition of ratification.2 The course of Massachusetts would be followed, doubtless, by States that had not yet met. Though Adams's advocacy of the compromise practically insured its success, yet, the leading Anti-Federalists looked upon the amendments only as a device to secure ratification. Pierce, of Berkshire, expressed this doubt, when he said that it seemed very uncertain to him that they would ever become a part of the Constitution.3 Lusk, also of Berkshire, could see in the amendments no relief from the protection which the Constitution gave to slavery and the slave trade, or the danger of the induction of Roman Catholics and pagans into office; but Isaac Backus, a Baptist clergyman from Plymouth county, replied, that religion is a matter between God and individuals, and that to impose religious tests had ever been the greatest engine of tyranny. As to slavery and the slave trade, the new plan was far better than the old, because, under the Articles, no limitation whatever was put upon the trade. Slavery was growing more and more odious through the world, and he intimated that the Constitution encouraged the hope that it would ultimately cease in America."

John Taylor, of Worcester county, advanced the objec

1 To what extent they were utilized by Madison when he drew the first draft of the twelve amendments in 1789, see the notes on Chapters VI, VII, post.

2 Debates, 226-227.

8 Debates, 242.

4 Debates, 251.

5 Id., 252.

tion that no assurance was given that the amendments would ever become a part of the system, to whom Parsons replied, that, in forming a national Constitution, it was impracticable to particularize individual rights, and the plan under consideration gave Congress no power to infringe on any of them.1 It was at this point in the debate, that the Anti-Federalists, led by Gilbert Deuch, of Middlesex, moved to adjourn the convention. The proposition was discussed the greater part of the day, but at last rejected by a vote of nearly three to one. This clearly encouraged the Federalists to hasten the termination of the business. The defeat of the motion for adjournment was due to the influence of Samuel Adams. Meanwhile the compromise had won over several votes from the opposition, a change which was explained by one of them, William Symmes, of Andover. He had spoken, he said, against the Constitution early in the session, but now he expressed approval of the amendments, and especially as they were to be a standing instruction to the Massachusetts delegates in Congress, he gave the plan his unreserved assent.3

The part which Adams was playing was not wholly of his own choosing. He had found little to admire in the Constitution, at first reading, and saw in the plan, not a federal union of sovereign States, which he desired, but a national government, an objection which he hastened to communicate to Richard Henry Lee. But Adams was a political instrument upon which public sentiment played, and the Federalists thoroughly familiar with his character, had stirred up the mechanics of Boston to assemble

1 Debates, 265.

2 321 to 115; Debates, 266.

3 Debates, 278; Harding, 89-94.

4 December 3, 1787, Lee's Lee, II, 130. Harding, 95.

THE COMPROMISE IN DANGER.

53

two days before the convention met and draw up resolutions demanding as on the part of the trades-people of the Commonwealth that the Constitution be ratified. Adams was of the people and depended for his influence upon his constant response to the wishes of the laboring classes. The meeting of the Boston mechanics practically silenced his opposition. Almost at the last moment he proposed additional amendments:1 for the liberty of the press, the right to bear arms, the prohibition of standing armies, the right of petition and the exemption from unreasonable searches and seizures.

This unexpected move threatened to ruin the compromise. It alarmed the Federalists, lest too much might be demanded, and equally alarmed the Anti-Federalists lest a sufficient demand for amendments had not been made. Quickly detecting the peril in which he had placed the compromise, Adams withdrew his amendments, but another member at once proposed them again, and there was nothing left for Adams to do save to help defeat his own propositions.2 The convention was now ready for the vote and Samuel Stillman, a Baptist clergyman of Boston, to whom, by common consent, the privilege of closing the debate had been given, presented the arguments of both sides in a general review. The numerous and extensive object of the general government, he said, would require a system of biennial elections of Congress. This was sufficiently frequent to prevent perpetuity in office. The powers granted to Congress, though great and extensive, were limited and defined. The people were secure, because all officers were elected, elections were frequent, Congress could have no motive to abuse its powers, every State in the Union was guaranteed a repub

1 February 6, 1788; Debates, 86, 266.

2 Harding, 98.

54

DISTRIBUTION OF THE VOTE.

lican form of government, and every officer in Congress, guilty of malconduct, was liable to impeachment.1

Before putting the question, Hancock declared that he gave his assent to the Constitution, in full confidence that the amendments proposed would soon become a part of it; they were in no wise local, but calculated to give security alike to all the States. The vote stood, one hundred and eighty-seven to one hundred and sixty-eight, a majority of nineteen for the Constitution.2 Among the members voting in the negative were nine of the grand committee, who had given the amendments their final form. Nine delegates were absent, and as they were from Anti-Federalist towns, their votes, had they been recorded, would probably have been against the Constitution. Forty-six towns had not sent delegates, and enough of these were Anti-Federalist to have caused the rejection of the plan, had they been represented.

The distribution of the vote confirms the analysis already made of public sentiment in the State. The four coast counties, Barnstable, Plymouth, Suffolk and Essex, cast one hundred yeas and nineteen nays for the Constitution. The five counties to the west, Middlesex, Bristol, Hampshire, Worcester and Berkshire, cast sixty-six yeas and one hundred and twenty-eight nays. The Maine delegates, from Lincoln, York and Cumberland, were almost equally divided; twenty-five yeas to twenty-one nays. Dukes county cast sixty-two votes for the Constitution, and Barnstable was also solidly in its favor; but Worcester county, accessible to the world neither by sea nor river,

1 Stillman probably meant to say that every officer under the Constitution guilty of malconduct was liable to impeachment. Debates, 266-273.

2 Debates, 83, 92, 280. For the ratification see Documentary History, III, 90-96.