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042 - Chapter 31 - Part 3 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section forty two. A History of the Rise, Progress, in
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Evolution, Volume three by Mersey Ochus Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or the volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. History of the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Ofvolution, Volume three by Mercy Ochus Warren,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one, Part three. A convention was appointed by
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  Speaker 1: the several States to meet at Annapolis in the state
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  Speaker 1: of Maryland in the year one thousand, seven hundred and
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  Speaker 1: eighty six for these salutary purposes, but the work was
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  Speaker 1: too complicated. The delegates separated without doing anything, and a
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  Speaker 1: no convention was called the next year to meet at
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  Speaker 1: Philadelphia with the same design, but without any enlargement of
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  Speaker 1: their powers. They however, framed a new constitutional government and
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  Speaker 1: center for the consideration and adoption of the several States,
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  Speaker 1: and though it was thought by many to be too
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  Speaker 1: strongly marked with the features of monarchy, it was, after
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  Speaker 1: much discussion adopted by a majority of the states. We
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  Speaker 1: must consult the human heart, says the Marquis b Carria,
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  Speaker 1: for the foundation of the rights of our sovereign and people.
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  Speaker 1: If we look into history, we shall find that laws
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  Speaker 1: which are or ought to be conventions between men and
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  Speaker 1: a state of freedom have been, for the most part
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  Speaker 1: the work of the passions of a few, or the
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  Speaker 1: consequences of a fortuitous, temporary necessity, not dictated by a
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  Speaker 1: cold examiner of human nature, who knew how to collect
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  Speaker 1: at one point the actions of a multitude, and had
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  Speaker 1: this only end in view the greatest happiness of the
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  Speaker 1: greatest number. It was thought by some who who had
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  Speaker 1: been recently informed of the secret transactions of the Convention
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  Speaker 1: at Philadelphia, that the greatest happiness of the greatest number
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  Speaker 1: was not the principal object of their contemplations. When they
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  Speaker 1: ordered their doors to be locked, their members inhibited from
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  Speaker 1: all communications abroad, and when proposals were made that their
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  Speaker 1: journals should be burnt lest their consultations and debate should
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  Speaker 1: be viewed by the scrutinizing eye of a free people. Footnote.
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  Speaker 1: This convention was composed of some gentlemen of the first
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  Speaker 1: character and abilities, of some men of shining talents and
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  Speaker 1: doubtful character. Some of them were uniform republicans, others decided monarchists,
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  Speaker 1: with a few Neutrals ready to join the strongest party.
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  Speaker 1: It was not strange that there was much clashing a
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  Speaker 1: debate where such dissension opinions existed. But after some modification
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  Speaker 1: and concession, a constitution was formed, which, when the amended
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  Speaker 1: mis took place immediately on its adoption. The government of
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  Speaker 1: the United States stood on the basis which rendered the
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  Speaker 1: people respectable abroad and safe at home. And a footnote,
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  Speaker 1: these extraordinary movements appeared to them that resulted the passions
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  Speaker 1: of a few. It is certain that truth, whether more
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  Speaker 1: philosophical or political, shrinks not from the eye of investigation.
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  Speaker 1: The ideas of royalty or anything that wore the appearance
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  Speaker 1: of regal forms and institutions were generally disgusting to Americans,
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  Speaker 1: in particularly so to many characters who early came forward
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  Speaker 1: and continued to the end of the conflict steadfast in
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  Speaker 1: opposition to the Crown of Britain. They thought that, after
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  Speaker 1: America had encountered the power and obtained a release from
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  Speaker 1: foreign bondage, and had recently overcome domestic difficulties and discontents,
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  Speaker 1: and even quieted the spirit of insurrection in their own states,
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  Speaker 1: that the Republicans system for which they had fought, should
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  Speaker 1: not be hazarded by vesting any man or body of
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  Speaker 1: men with powers that might meditate with the principles which
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  Speaker 1: had been cherished with London enthusiasm by a large majority
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  Speaker 1: of the inhabitants throughout the Union. Republicanism the idol of
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  Speaker 1: some men, and independence the glory of all, were thought
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  Speaker 1: by many to be in danger, dwindling into theory. The
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  Speaker 1: first had been defaced for a time by a degree
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  Speaker 1: of anarchy, and fears were now awakened that the last
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  Speaker 1: might be annihilated by views of private ambition. The people
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  Speaker 1: were generally to satisfy with the high pertensions of the
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  Speaker 1: officers of the army, whose equality of conditions previous to
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  Speaker 1: the war was, with few exceptions, on the same grade
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  Speaker 1: with themselves. The assumption of an appropriate rank was disgusting,
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  Speaker 1: and a set of men who had, most of them
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  Speaker 1: been taken from mechanic employment or the sober occupations of agriculture.
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  Speaker 1: This jealousies were in diffused with regard to the offices
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  Speaker 1: of the old Army, the Cincinnati, and several other classes
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  Speaker 1: of men, whom they suspected as cherishing hopes and expectations
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  Speaker 1: of erecting a government too splendid for their taste and
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  Speaker 1: professions of Americans. They saw a number of young gentlemen
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  Speaker 1: coming forward, ardent and sanguine in the support of the
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  Speaker 1: principles of monarchy and aristocracy. They saw a number of
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  Speaker 1: professional characters too ready to relinquish former opinions and adopt
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  Speaker 1: new ones more congenial to the policy of courts than
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  Speaker 1: to the maxims of a free people. They saw some
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  Speaker 1: apotstate whigs in public employments, and symptoms of declension in others,
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  Speaker 1: which threatened the annihilation of the Darling opinion that the
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  Speaker 1: whole sovereignty in the republican system is in the people,
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  Speaker 1: that the people have a right to work men in
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  Speaker 1: altar or annulled the Constitution of Ramanum whenever they shall
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  Speaker 1: think it will better promote their own welfare, unhappiness to
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  Speaker 1: do it. This brought forward objections to the proposed constitution
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  Speaker 1: of government that under consideration. These objections were not the
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  Speaker 1: result of ignorance. They were made by men of the
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  Speaker 1: fir stabilities in every state, men who were sensible as
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  Speaker 1: the necessity of strong and energetic institutions and a strict
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  Speaker 1: subordination of obedience to law these judicious men were solicitous
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  Speaker 1: that everything should be clearly defined. They were jealous of
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  Speaker 1: each ambiguity in law or government, or the smallest circumstance
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  Speaker 1: that might have a tendency to curtail the republican's system
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  Speaker 1: or render ineffectual of the sacrifices they had made for
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  Speaker 1: the security of civil and religious liberty to themselves. They
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  Speaker 1: also wished for the transmission of the enjoyment of the
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  Speaker 1: equal rights of men to their latest posterity. They were
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  Speaker 1: of opinion that every article that admitted of doubtful construction
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  Speaker 1: should be amended before it became the supreme law of
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  Speaker 1: the land. They were now apprehensive of being precipitated without
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  Speaker 1: due consideration, into the adoption of a system that might
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  Speaker 1: bind them and their posterity in the chains of despotism.
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  Speaker 1: While they held up the ideas of a free and
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  Speaker 1: equal participation of the privileges of pure and genuine republicanism.
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  Speaker 1: Warm debates in favor for the consideration, and much energetic
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  Speaker 1: argument took place between gentlemen of the First Abilities and
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  Speaker 1: several of the State Conventions. The system was, however, ratified
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  Speaker 1: in Hayes' fair sufficient number of states to carry it
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  Speaker 1: into operation, and amendments left to the wisdom, justice, and
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  Speaker 1: decision of future generations, according as exigencies might require. This
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  Speaker 1: was not sufficient and to dissipate the apprehensions of gentlemen
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  Speaker 1: who had been uniformen, upright in their intentions, and immotively
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  Speaker 1: fixed in the principles of the revolution, and had never
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  Speaker 1: turned their eyes from the point of pursuit until the
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  Speaker 1: independence of America was acknowledged by the principal monarchs in Europe.
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  Speaker 1: But while the system was under discussion, strong objections were
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  Speaker 1: brought forward in the conventions of the several states. Those
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  Speaker 1: gentlemen who were opposed to the adoption of the new
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  Speaker 1: constitution in Toto observed that there was no feilar rights
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  Speaker 1: to guard against future innovations. They complained that the trial
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  Speaker 1: adjured in civil causes was not secured. They observed that
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  Speaker 1: some of the warmest partisans, who had been disposed to
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  Speaker 1: adopt without examination, had started at the discovery that this
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  Speaker 1: essential right was curtailed, That the powers of the executive
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  Speaker 1: and judiciary were dangerously blended, that the appellate jurisdiction of
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  Speaker 1: the Supreme Federal Court subjected the inhabitants of the United
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  Speaker 1: States by a litigious process that militated with the rights
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  Speaker 1: formerly claimed by the individual states, to be drawn from
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  Speaker 1: one end of the continent to the other for trial.
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  Speaker 1: They wished for a rotation in office, or some sufficient
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  Speaker 1: bar against the perpetuity of it in the same hands
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  Speaker 1: for life. They thought it necessary there should be this
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  Speaker 1: check to the overbearing influence of office, and that every
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  Speaker 1: man should be rendered ineligible at certain periods, to keep
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  Speaker 1: the mind in equilibrio and teach him the feelings of
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  Speaker 1: the governed, and better qualify him to govern in his turn.
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  Speaker 1: It was also observed by them that off sources of
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  Speaker 1: revenue formerly possessed by the individual states were now under
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  Speaker 1: the control of Congress. Subsequent measures were not yet realized. Banks, monopolies,
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  Speaker 1: and a funding system were projects that had never been
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  Speaker 1: thought of in the early stages of an infant republic,
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  Speaker 1: and had they been suggested before the present period, would
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  Speaker 1: have startled both the soldier and the peasant. The sober
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  Speaker 1: principal statesman and the judicious band of worthies who originated
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  Speaker 1: the system of freedom, digested it in the cabinet and
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  Speaker 1: conducted the public councils, which led to the independence of
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  Speaker 1: America with a firm, disinterested magnanimity, and an energy sel
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  Speaker 1: upont in. The courts of princes would have revolted at
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  Speaker 1: those ideas, Nor were they less alarmed at the contemplation
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  Speaker 1: of a president with princely powers, a six Tenniel senate
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  Speaker 1: by anny ill elections of representatives in the federal City,
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  Speaker 1: whose cloud capped towers might screen the state culfort from
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  Speaker 1: the hand of justice, while its exclusive jurisdiction bid in
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  Speaker 1: some future day protect the riot of standard armies en
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  Speaker 1: camped within its limits. These were prospects viewed by them
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  Speaker 1: with the utmost abhorrence. Indeed, the opinions of the gentlemen
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  Speaker 1: who formed the General Convention differed very widely on many
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  Speaker 1: of the articles of the new Constitution. Before it was
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  Speaker 1: sent abroad for the discussion of the people at large.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them seceded and retired without signing it. All
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  Speaker 1: others complied from a conviction of the necessity of accommodation
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  Speaker 1: and concession, lest they should be obliged to separate without
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  Speaker 1: any efficient measures that would produce the salutary purposes for
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  Speaker 1: which many characters of the Firstabilities had been convened. The
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  Speaker 1: philosophic doctor Franklin observed, when he lent his signature to
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  Speaker 1: the adoption of the new Constitution and its complexion, was
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  Speaker 1: doubtful that it might last to ages, involve one quarter
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  Speaker 1: of the globe, and probably terminate in despotism. He signed
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  Speaker 1: the Instrument for the consolate of the Government of the
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  Speaker 1: United States with tears and apologized for doing it at all.
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  Speaker 1: When the doubts and apprehensions he felt that his countrymen
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  Speaker 1: might not be able to do better even if they
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  Speaker 1: called a new convention. Many of the intelligent Yeo memory,
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  Speaker 1: and of the great bulk of independent landholders, who had
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  Speaker 1: tasted the sweets of mediocrity, equality and liberty, with every
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  Speaker 1: unconditional ratification of the new system, in silent anguish, folded
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  Speaker 1: the solemn page with the sigh and wept over the
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  Speaker 1: names of the native sons of America who had sold
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  Speaker 1: their lives to leave the legacy of freedom to their children.
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  Speaker 1: On this appearance of a consolidated government, which they thought
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  Speaker 1: required such important amendments, they feared that a dereliction of
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  Speaker 1: some of their choicest privileges might be sealed without duly
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  Speaker 1: considering the fatal consequences. Of too much precipitation, the right
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  Speaker 1: of taxation, and the command and of the military, says
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  Speaker 1: an ingenious writer, is the completion of despotism. The last
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  Speaker 1: of these was concerned to the hands of the President,
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  Speaker 1: and the first, they feared would be too much under
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  Speaker 1: his influence. The observers of human conduct was not insensible,
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  Speaker 1: and too much power bested in the hands of any
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  Speaker 1: individual was livel two abuses, either from his own passions
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  Speaker 1: or the suggestions of others of less upright and immaculine
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  Speaker 1: intentions than himself. Of thirteen state conventions to which the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution was submitted, those the Kinnecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,
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  Speaker 1: and Georgia ratified it unconditionally, and those in New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: New York, Viginuan, South Carolina in full confidence of amendments
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  Speaker 1: which they thought necessarily proposed to the First Congress. The
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  Speaker 1: other two of Rhode Island and North Carolina rejected. It
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  Speaker 1: is evident that a majority of the states were convinced
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  Speaker 1: that the Constitution as at first proposed endangered their liberties,
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  Speaker 1: and to the opposition in the federal and state conventions.
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  Speaker 1: Are the public indebted for the amendments and a vailioration
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  Speaker 1: of the Constitution, which have united all parties in the
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  Speaker 1: vigorous support of it, And that in a land of freedom, sovereignty,
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  Speaker 1: and independence, the great and important affairs of state will
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  Speaker 1: be finally subject to reason, justice, and soilen policy. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section forty two.