CHAPTER LXXIII.

INCIDENTS had occurred during the first Session of the first Congress, keenly to offend a man of Madison's temperament.

In his attempt to direct the foreign policy of the United States he had been foiled, after strenuous and repeated efforts, by the firmness of the Senate. How sore this defeat must have been, may be judged, by recurring to his course in the Congress of the Confederation.*

His effort to limit the duration of the acts raising a revenue, though at first successful in relation to the impost, had failed, under circumstances of a nature to wound his pride.

His exertions on the "Residence" question impaired the confidence of those who looked beyond local to great general interests.

In the debates on the organization of the Government, he had taken the side unpopular in Virginia; and, in respect to the proposed amendments of the Constitution, his course had confirmed the hostility of his opponents in that State.

*

Ames to Minot :-" The people of Virginia (whose murmurs, if louder than a whisper, make Mr. Madison's heart quake) are said to be very strenuous for a law to restrict the British trade." "Is it not more prudent to maintain a good understanding with Great Britain, and to preserve a dignified neutrality, and moderation of conduct towards all nations?

Her dissatisfaction was communicated to Congress in a memorial from her Assembly, presented to the House of Representatives on the fifth of May, seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, four days after the President's inaugural speech, asking the call of a second General Convention. A similar application from New York was laid before them, on the following day.

It has been seen, that the Conventions of each of these States, had recommended amendments to the Constitution.

In fulfilment of his pledge, given to his immediate constituents, Madison framed a series of amendments, which, though they embraced some of the views of Virginia, were, in fact, of small moment; and, in part, sufficiently provided for in the Constitution.*

They were offered, and understood at the time to be offered, merely in formal compliance with his engagement, and as "a panacea for the ill-humor of that State." To conciliate the discontented, two-thirds of both Houses concurred in proposing them to the States. But a vigorous opposition was made in the Senate, by the senators from Virginia, who urged, in lieu of them, several amendments recommended by that commonwealth.

Failing in this, they addressed a letter to its Legislature, reciting their efforts to induce "radical amendments," declaring, that it was "impossible not to see the necessary tendency to consolidated empire in the natural operation of the Constitution, if no further amended, than is proposed."

"We have had the amendments upon the tapis, and referred them to a committee of one from each State. I hope much debate will be avoided by this mode; and, that the amendments will be more rational and less ad populum than Madison's. It is necessary to conciliate, and I would have amendments; but they should not be trash, such as would dishonor the Constitution, without pleasing its enemies."-Ames, i. 65.

This subject was brought before the General Assembly of Virginia at its next session; and resolutions were passed rejecting the third-eighth-eleventh and twelfth of the amendments proposed by Madison. As to the third, they declared, that, though analogous to some of those proposed by Virginia, it did not prohibit the rights of conscience from being violated or infringed; and, that the Journals of Congress showed, that they refused to allow any amendment declaratory of the right to instruct; that, it was 66 dangerous and fallacious;" that the eighth, failed in the object they desired, leaving to Congress its existing powers; that the eleventh, which was intended to guard against the extension of power "by implication," was greatly defective. And, as to the amendment, which declared, that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people; that, by the terms, or to the people, it is not declared, to the people of the respective States; but the expression applies to the people generally as citizens of the United States; and leaves it doubtf.l what powers are reserved to the State Legislatures. Unrestrained by the Constitution or by these amendments, Congress might assume those powers which properly belong to the respective States, and thus gradually effect an entire revolution." They urged "their countrymen not to be put off with amendments so inadequate," and rejected them.

Strong dissatisfaction had also been manifested with the official language of the President. Near the close of the first session of Congress, a resolution was passed directing him to recommend a day of thanksgiving to the people of the United States. The Proclamation,* among

*Dated October 3, 1789.

the causes of gratitude, spoke of the "NATIONAL CONSTI TUTION," lately instituted, and was addressed to the people of the United States. This was sharply censured. It was declared, "that the Proclamation ought to have been addressed by the President to the Executives of the States, recommending them to appoint a day for the people to assemble." In conformity with this suggestion, and with usage, Samuel Adams issued his proclamation appointing a day of thanksgiving, addressed to the people of Massachusetts.

These evidences of discontent produced in Madison a conviction that the Antifederalists must prevail.

On his return to Virginia, at the end of the first session of Congress, he saw his position. Other men had been preferred to the highest stations in the general government, the influence of his State was arrayed against him. The opposition to his Federal opinions was not soothed, but confirmed, and exasperated; Monroe, his recent competitor for a seat in the House of Representatives, was chosen to fill a vacancy in the Senate.

In the temper of mind produced by these events, Jefferson found Madison on his arrival in the United States. He landed in Virginia during the session of the Assembly which rejected the proposed amendments to the Constitution; and was welcomed by an address from that body, of which the power was in the hands of its opponents.

His attitude, while abroad, in reference to the Constitution, had been taken in respect to this state of things. He is seen, in his correspondence, to have been watching all its various chances, first condemning, then approving it, as those chances fell, or rose. At the time, Virginia was looking to an uniform system of taxation among the States in their commercial intercourse and regulations,

Jefferson wrote from Paris, "the politics of Europe render it indispensably necessary, that with respect to every thing external, we be one nation firmly hooped together." * Adverting to the consequent meeting at Annapolis, he writes, "I find by the public papers, that your commercial convention failed in point of representation. If it should produce a fuller meeting in May, and a broader reformation, it will still be well. To make us one nation as to foreign concerns, and keep us distinct in domestic ones, gives the outline of the proper division of powers, between the general and particular governments." H would then have organized the Federal head into "legislative, executive and judiciary." "The commercial Convention at Annapolis," he again wrote, "was not full enough to do business. They found, too, their appointments too narrow, being confined to the article of commerce." This is seen to have been the truth. But, when prefacing his Anas,‡ near the close of his life, he states, "Although at this meeting," (at Annapolis) " a difference of opinion was evident on the question of a republican or kingly government, yet so general, through the States, was the sentiment in favor of the former, that the friends of the latter confined themselves to a course of obstruction only, and delay, to every thing proposed. They hoped, that nothing being done, and all things going from bad to worse, a kingly government might be usurped, and submitted to by the people, as better than anarchy, and wars internal and external." By whom was the obstruction? By whom the delay? The previous narrative wholly disproves this statement, professed by him to have been made, on the information of members of the Convention.

* May, 1786.

+ December 16, 1786.

February 4th, 1818.