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THE CAMPAIGN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

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adopted at Langdon's suggestion.1 Atherton and the antifederal leaders earnestly opposed this, but without success; Langdon's resolution was finally carried by a majority of five votes, and the convention was adjourned to meet at Concord on the eighteenth of June.

The friends of the Constitution hailed this result as a great victory and straightway began a campaign of information. The people of the State should be told the true character of the proposed government. The AntiFederalists also claimed the adjournment as a victory, and were confident that it would be so construed in other States; at least, it would give ratification a serious check. Some near the seat of action interpreted the condition of affairs more accurately: the Massachusetts Centinel had caught the spirit of public sentiment in New Hampshire, when it represented the New Hampshire column half way risen to the federal arch.2

Meanwhile Maryland and South Carolina had ratified and the news from South Carolina reached New Hampshire in the first days of June. When, then, the convention reassembled, on the eighteenth, and it was known that Virginia3 and New York were also in session, the effect of the activity of the Federalists since February was apparent.

The adjourned session attracted far greater attention in the State than had the session at Exeter. The weight of ability was distinctly on the side of the Federalists. They profited by the sagacity of Rufus King and the Massachusetts Federalists, and on the twentieth of June, through Langdon, moved the adoption of twelve amend

1 Id., 29.

2 Id., 43.

3 The Virginia convention met June 6, and the New York June

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THE DEBATE OPENS.

ments, similar to those which had been adopted in Massachusetts.1 The similarity between them leads to the conclusion that the objections made to the Constitution in the two States were the same.2 Sullivan quickly

added that the Constitution should be ratified with the amendments, but should not go into effect without them; but this condition meant the practical defeat of the plan. The debate then began. The acceptance of the amendments would settle the main question and Atherton, detecting how things were going, did as the Anti-Federalists had done in every Convention thus far assembled; he moved an adjournment to some future day; but this was defeated. Langdon then called for the vote; it was taken and the Constitution was ratified by a vote of fiftyseven to forty-seven, with four members absent. The distribution of this vote shows that the northern and southwestern portions of the States were against the Constitution, and the southeastern portion for it.* This

3

1 Id., 40; the amendments are given in Walker's, 49-51; Elliot, I, 326; and in Documentary History, III, 142-143. The extent to which they were incorporated in the Constitution is shown in the chapters on the first twelve amendments, post. Vol. III.

2 The debates in the New Hampshire Convention are not preserved, a fragment however is given in Elliot, II, 203; a speech of Joshua Atherton against the continuation of the slave trade; Walker, 112-114, and another in support of the Federal Judiciary by General Sullivan; Walker, 115-116.

8 For the ratification see Documentary History III, 141. Among the absentees was Ebenezer Webster; it does not appear that his part in the convention was at all conspicuous.

4 On the instructions to the New Hampshire delegates see Libby, 70-75; and address by Hon. A. S. Batchellor, entitled "A Brief View of the Influence which Moved in the Adoption of the Federal Constitution by the State of New Hampshire," delivered before the Grafton and Cos. Bar Association at Berlin, January 27, 1899; printed in the Littleton Courier, February 1, 1899. I am under many obligations to Mr. Batchellor for New Hampshire data used in the present volumes. See also Walker, 45-47.

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federal region was the oldest part of the State; was in proximity to the sea, and was interested in commerce. The southwestern and northern sections were remote from the lines of travel, were interested almost solely in agriculture, and did not feel the need of a new government. The fifty-seven delegates, who voted for ratification represented nearly the same percentage of the population of the State.1

New Hampshire thus repeated the political paradox of Massachusetts: the Federal party proposing amendments to a plan of government with which they were abundantly satisfied, but the reasons in both commonwealths were the same. The amendments were the price of ratification; Langdon's were in substance a transcript of the Massachusetts set, and were twelve in number. While their authorship is uncertain, there is little doubt that they were principally the work of Langdon and Judge Livermore.

The vote was taken on Saturday, the twenty-first of June, at one o'clock in the afternoon. Langdon at once sent the news to Governor Hancock, of Massachusetts, and, a little later, to Rufus King and Alexander Hamilton.

The vote had been anticipated, and Sullivan and Knox had arranged that special express riders should bear the news to Poughkeepsie,2 where the New York Convention was in session, and to Richmond, where the Virginia delegates had just met. The news was of the greatest importance, for New Hampshire was the ninth State to ratify, and the Constitution could now be put in force. When the news reached Portsmouth, on Sunday morning, even the habits of Puritan propriety were

1 The 57 yeas represented 76,091 people; the 47 nays represented 57,641. Walker, 47.

2 See p. 144.

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THE SHIP “UNION.”

not stern enough wholly to restrain the people from expressions of joy. The second day of the week began with the ringing of bells and the pealing of salutes. Thursday was appointed as the day to celebrate, and the people at an early hour began pouring into the town.

About eleven o'clock, a watchman from the State House gave notice that he descried an armed ship bearing down under full sail. On being hailed, it proved to be the ship Union, out five days from Concord, bound to the Federal City. She dropped anchor, and having taken a pilot on board soon got under way and joined the procession, which was like that which had already been seen in the streets of Boston, Baltimore and Charlestown. The favorite emblem of the hour was of nine strong pillars supporting Federal arches. The ninth was New Hampshire, and the tenth, partly raised, was Virginia. Scarcely less imposing were the celebrations at Salem, Providence and Newport. The people of New Hampshire were fully compensated for the check on the course of ratification, which the adjournment of their convention had caused. It gave them the unique honor of being the ninth State to ratify, and of completing the number required by the Constitution to inaugurate the new government. Meanwhile the people of Virginia had been discussing the Constitution.

1 Walker, 54-64.

CHAPTER III.

RATIFICATION BY VIRGINIA.

The adjournment of the New Hampshire convention, Washington recognized as prudent, but as very mal a propos for Virginia, which at this time and for thirty years afterwards ranked first in the country in population, wealth and political influence.1 The news reached the State while the elections to the convention were going on, and gave an opportunity to the opponents of the Constitution to represent to the people that it had not been so generally approved in other States as they had been taught to believe; therefore, it tended to influence their votes in favor of anti-federal candidates.2 For months Washington had been ceaselessly active on behalf of the new plan. On his return from the Federal Convention he had sent copies of the Constitution to Thomas Nelson, Benjamin Harrison and Patrick Henry, former Governors of Virginia, urging their influence in its behalf. He wished it had been more perfect, but believed it the best that could be obtained at this time. Its adoption was eminently desirable under the existing circumstances of the Union, and a door was left open for amendments.3 Henry soon replied that he could not give the Constitution his support, and Harrison plainly intimated that he thought the remedy would prove worse than the disease, but he would withhold his judgment until the general assembly had taken action. He was chiefly concerned

1 Between 1810 and 1820 it fell back to a second place, being supplanted by New York. In 1890, New York stood first, and Virginia, nineteenth in rank.

2 Washington to John Langdon, April 3, 1788; Sparks, IX, 340. 3 Washington to Henry, September 27, 1787; Sparks, IX, 256.

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