twenty-four members in town on the 16th; two days later they would have been, in a proper sense, one too many for him. But much more important things than these are to be found in the letters. Beginning with the earliest letters, we catch glimpses of those private and preparatory consultations of which the official records tell us nothing. "The Virginia deputies (who are all here)," says Mason, writing in the days when a quorum had not yet come together, "meet and confer together two or three hours every day, in order to form a proper correspondence of sentiments; and for form's sake, to see what new deputies are arrived, and to grow into some acquaintance with each other, we [that is, the Convention] regularly meet every day at 3 o'clock." The ordinary hours of meeting, by the way, are stated by one member as being from 10 o'clock till 4. Franklin writes to his sister, immediately after the adjournment of the Convention: I attended the business of it five hours in every day from the beginning, which is something more than four months. You may judge from thence that my health continues; some tell me I look better, and they suppose the daily exercise of going and returning from the statehouse has done me good. Washington in his diary speaks of "not less than five, for a large part of the time six, and sometimes seven hours, sitting every day." But to return to the earliest days of the Convention. It will be remembered that soon after the Randolph or Virginia plan was presented Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, presented a plan, and also that it has wholly disappeared, for that which is printed in the journal under his name is demonstrably something quite different. Now, a letter written in those early days before a quorum had been obtained gives an a No. 4. No. 62. The journal, however, shows these hours as definitely fixed during only the period from August 18 to August 24. See No. 67. After that the hours were from 10 to 3. From May 28 to June 2 the hour of meeting was 10 o'clock, from June 4 to August 18 11 o'clock, but without specified hour for adjournment. Documentary History, I, 132, 154; III, 559, 613, et passim. No. 84. Watson, Annals, ed. 1891, 1, 402, says that the municipal authorities covered the street pavement outside the statehouse with earth to silence the rattling of wheels during the time of the Convention. In the Documentary History, I, 280, is printed a communication from the Library Company of Philadelphia, extending the privilege of drawing books to the members of the Convention during its continuance. So it was universally supposed at the time when this paper was read; but see pp. 128, 132, infra, and the American Historical Review, VIII, 509–511. outline of a plan which the writer of the letter had seen and copied, and which, though he does not give the author's name, can be demonstrated to have been Pinckney's, which accordingly was in existence as early as May 20." The events of the first days' proceedings of the Convention are not related in a manner different from that of the journal; but the letters show much of the spirit which the delegates manifested at the beginning of their labors, of the various expectations which they and others formed concerning their work, and of the prevalent notions as to what it should be." If George Mason's estimate was correct, the prevailing opinion at the beginning of the sessions was in favor of a total renovation of the existing articles and a government at least as strongly centralized as that which was outlined in the Virginia resolutions soon after presented. But it should be said that his estimate was formed at a time when the large States were more fully represented in Philadelphia than the small. The spirit in which the work was begun was obviously marked by the expectation and the desire of harmony. Many passages declare, forcibly and even eloquently, the writers' sense of the magnitude of the occasion and of the critical situation in which the United States stood. Pierce in his notes, published a few years ago, speaks of himself as having occupied "a seat in the wisest council in the world." Johnson, of Connecticut, a graver man, tells his son that the assembly includes many of the ablest men in America, while Robert Morris writes to his sons in Germany that they ought to pray for a successful issue to the Convention's labors, “as the result is to be a form of government under which you are to live, and in the administration of which you may probably hereafter have a share, provided you qualify yourselves by application to your studies," and one of the North Carolina delegates takes satisfaction in believing that they have contributed to the happiness of millions." The situation of the General Government [wrote Washington], if it can be called a government, is shaken to its foundation and liable to be overturned by every blast. In a word, it is at an end, and unless a remedy is soon applied anarchy and confusion will inevitably ensue. ¿ No member of the Convention was less inclined to rhetorical exaggeration than George Mason; none surpassed him in the gift of a terse and masculine eloquence. America [he writes to his son] has certainly upon this occasion drawn forth her first characters. There are upon this Convention many gentlemen of the most respectable abilities and, so far as I can discover, of the purest intentions. The eyes of the United States are turned upon this assembly and their expectations raised to a very anxious degree. May God grant we may be able to gratify them by establishing a wise and just government. For my own part I never before felt myself in such a situation, and declare I would not, upon pecuniary motives, serve in this Convention for a thousand pounds per day. The revolt from Great Britain and the formations of our new governments at that time were nothing compared to the great business now before us. There was then a certain degree of enthusiasm which inspired and supported the mind; but to view through the calm, sedate medium of reason the influence which the establishment now proposed may have upon the happiness or misery of millions yet unborn is an object of such magnitude as absorbs, and in a measure suspends, the operations of the human understanding." It may naturally be supposed that the hopefulness with which the Convention began its work was overclouded by the discordant debates which marked the last days of June and the first days of July, days in which it long seemed impossible to bring into any agreement the conflicting desires of the large and the small States. Several extant letters show that this was plainly felt to be the great crisis of the Convention, in which the danger of breaking up without result was imminent. Most strikingly is this shown by the letter of Washington to Hamilton already alluded to. When I refer you [he says] to the state of the counsels which prevailed at the period you left the city [some ten days before] and add that they are now, if possible, in a worse train than ever, you will find but little ground on which the hope of a good establishment can be formed. In a word, I almost despair of seeing a favorable issue to the proceedings of our Convention, and do therefore repent having had any agency in the business. * * I am sorry you went away. I wish you were back. * The crisis is equally important and alarming, and no opposition, under such circumstances, should discourage exertions till the signature is offered. As has already been said, in the later months of the Convention one finds in the correspondence occasional disclosures as to the stage reached in the proceedings. But these add nothing to what is in the journal, except the evidences of relief when, the main outlines of the Constitution having a No. 16. Nos. 30-33, 39. No. 39. a been completed, it had been handed over to the Committee of Detail. More interesting are the letters in which hints respecting the Constitution itself are conveyed. It is not probable [writes one of the North Carolina delegates, August 12] that the United States will in future be so ideal as to risk their happiness upon the unanimity of the whole, and thereby put it in the power of one or two states to defeat the most salutary propositions and prevent the Union from rising out of that contemptible situation to which it is at present reduced. Gilman's disclosures as to the process of ratification have already been mentioned. Madison, after outlining to Jefferson the powers proposed to be conferred on the General Government, remarks: The extent of them may perhaps surprise you. I hazard an opinion, nevertheless, that the plan, should it be adopted, will neither effectually answer its national object nor prevent the local mischiefs which everywhere excite disgust against the State governments. As the Convention draws to its close several members, looking forward to the action of Congress upon it, express to the authorities of their States an anxiety that the latter shall maintain an adequate representation in Congress, in order that that body may act promptly, and get the Constitution before the State legislatures at their autumnal sessions. One of the last letters is one in which Dickinson, writing to Read, authorizes the latter to sign his name to the Constitution, as he wishes to leave a few days before the close. I am informed by Mr. Andrew H. Allen, the official custodian of the original document, that Dickinson's signature to it is undoubtedly written in Read's hand. Finally comes the brief note in which Maj. William Jackson, secretary of the Convention, informs General Washington that— Major Jackson, after burning all loose scraps of paper which belong to the Convention, will this evening wait upon the General with the journals and other papers which their vote directs to be delivered to his excellency Monday evening. a Nos. 34, 46, 56, 58, 65, 68. b No. 58. € No. 75. d Nos. 34, 62, 65. e No. 77. No. 78. From a conversation with Jackson in 1818, which John Quincy Adams records, Memoirs, IV, 175, it appears that Jackson did preserve extensive minutes of the debates of the Convention. Possibly these are still extant; see Appleton's Cyc. Biog., s. v., but also Pa. Mag. Hist., IL 353. A group of letters which in strictness falls outside the present subject, yet which presents much the same sort of interest, is that of the letters written by members in the next day or two after the adjournment. General Washington transmits a copy of the Constitution to Lafayette, with a brief note: It is the result of four months' deliberation [he says]. It is now a child of fortune, to be fostered by some and buffeted by others. What will be the general opinion or the reception of it is not for me to decide, nor shall I say anything for or against it. If it be good, I suppose it will work its way; if bad, it will recoil on the framers. « Randolph sends a copy to Beverley Randolph, the lieutenantgovernor, who had been taking his place as head of the executive of Virginia during his absence; and adds, in a sentence characteristic of his tortuous mind: Altho' the names of Col. Mason and myself are not subscribed, it is not therefore to be concluded that we are opposed to its adoption. Our reasons for not subscribing will be better explained at large, and on a personal interview, than by letter. The members from North Carolina are careful to explain promptly to their governor how completely the interests, and especially the pecuniary interests, of North Carolina have been safeguarded by the great compromises and by some of the minor provisions of the proposed Constitution. The series fitly ends with a letter of Madison to Edmund Pendleton, in which he sums up in a sentence the history of the Convention: The double object of blending a proper stability and energy in the Government with the essential characters of the republican form, and of tracing a proper line of demarcation between the national and State authorities, was necessarily found to be as difficult as it was desirable, and to admit of an infinite diversity concerning the means among those who were unanimously agreed concerning the end. II. LETTERS NOT HERETOFORE PRINTED. 1. David Brearley to Jonathan Dayton (extract)." DEAR SIR: * PHILADELPHIA, 9th June 1787. We have been in a Committee of the Whole for some time, and have under consideration a number a No. 83. b No. 82. e No. 79. #No. 85. From a copy kindly furnished by Mr. Simon Gratz, of Philadelphia, who possesses the original manuscript. |