put under the ban of the North. General Sullivan thus writes. to Washington: "The choice of minister of war was postponed to the first of October. This was a manœuvre of Samuel Adams and others from the North, fearing that, as I was in nomination, the choice would fall on me, who having apostatized from the true New England faith, by sometimes voting with the Southern States, am not eligible."

CHAPTER II.

FEDERAL CONVENTION.

Man, as the minister and interpreter of Nature, does and understands as much as his observations on the order of nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, and neither knows nor is capable of more.

The subtlety of nature is far beyond that of sense or of the understanding: so that the specious meditations, speculations and theories of mankind, are but a kind of insanity, only there is no one to stand by and observe it.-NOVUM ORGANON.

The wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff, and is limited thereby; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or profit.-ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

When you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you invariably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views.-DR. FRANKLIN.

On Friday, the 25th May, 1787, the Convention, professedly to reform, but as it proved to reconstruct, the Constitution, began its sessions at Philadelphia, and adjourned to the 17th September following, having been engaged in their arduous task something over three months. It was composed, for the most part, of the men under whose courageous counsels the country had passed through the travail of the Revolution; they had all taken part in public affairs, either on the theatre of State or Federal politics, and had brought with them much

2

of that knowledge which is acquired only in the school of experience.

The question of Representation chiefly engaged the attention, excited the animosities, and consumed the time of that great synod. Other parts of the Constitution were more readily agreed upon. Nor is this surprising; for the experience of the country had been instructive. It had satisfied every mind that the government of the confederacy was in some particulars defective; and had indicated those in which it needed reform. The consultation in consequence began with a number of conclusions which needed not the aid of argument. Had the Convention confined itself to reforms of this nature, the work would have been rapidly dispatched; but they undertook to re-cast the Constitution and to alter its frame, and this attempt produced new questions of the first moment to the country, and violent agitations which threatened on more than one occasion to dissolve the body.*

So soon as it was determined by the Convention to create a government of great powers, it is not wonderful that the adjustment of the question of representation should have been found to be attended with such difficulty and delay. Upon it depended the question of empire-what should be the relation which the two great sections, the North and South, were to occupy to the central power.

There are those who look back upon the Convention with a romantic eye, and regard the able men of whom it was composed as beings of a superior order, devising, under the enlightened influence of reason and justice, political institutions for themselves and their posterity. But this is only the idolatry of admiration. If we draw near, and through the medium by

* Luther Martin, in his address to the Maryland Legislature, says, with respect to the animosities engendered by the slavery discussion in the Convention: "I believe near a fortnight, perhaps more, was spent in the discussion of this business, during which we were on the verge of dissolution, scarce held together by a hair, though the public papers were announcing our extreme unanimity."

which it has reached us, attend to the grave debate, it will be discovered that they were men struggling, sometimes fiercely and sometimes unfairly, for particular objects and particular opinions which they wished the government to subserve and embody. The marvel is, not that jealousies and irritations should have arisen, but that they could have been composed. The business of the Convention was opened by Edmund Randolph, one of the delegates from Virginia, "a child of the Revolution," as on a subsequent occasion he styled himself. After giving an outline of the system which he wished to be adopted, he submitted a plan of government, which was taken as a basis on which to begin work. Mr. Charles Pinckney, a delegate from South Carolina, also submitted a plan of government, which is remarkable for the near resemblance which it bears to the Constitution, not only in phraseology, but in substance. These plans no otherwise concern us here except on account of the different bases of representation which they contained. That of Mr. Randolph provided: "That the right of suffrage in the National Legislature ought to be proportioned to the quotas of contribution, or the number of free inhabitants, as the one or the other rule may seem best in different cases. But Mr. Pinckney proposed to proportion representation in Congress according to the number of inhabitants taken in the gross. These two propositions respectively contain the extreme pretensions of the two sections. It will be discovered, in the course of this narration, what alterations each was in the end subjected to, and what expedient was resorted to, to bring these rival and jealous parties together. Of the first proposition it may be remarked, that it was at best but an ill-digested and double-headed project, and contained conclusive proof that its projector had not very maturely, certainly not very profoundly, considered the weighty question. It rested on alternatives which were based on opposite principles. If the first were adopted, and wealth or contribution made the measure of power, the government, in all its depart

ments, would pass under the dominion of the South; but if the other, the North would have the preponderance. But the crude suggestion so far abandoned just principles as to leave it to Congress to decide between the two-thus throwing upon Congress the responsible duty of the Convention, and conferring upon it, in that particular, an almost unlimited range of power. Alexander Hamilton, a deputy from New York, proposed to simplify Mr. Randolph's proposition, and proportion representatives to the number of free inhabitants alone; but sectional opposition being about to burst forth, the subject was laid over, it being evident that the most delicate and irritable part of the Constitution had been rudely touched.

It is naturally a subject of surprise, that the darling project of the North should have originated with a gentleman representing the largest and most influential member of the Southern community. It was calculated to excite surprise and spread consternation in the ranks of his friends. So important a defection, in the outset, was fraught with ill-omen to the success of the Convention; it can only be explained in the way above indicated, and that the distinguished gentleman was one of that small band who had been entangled in the mazes of the anti-slavery philosophy, then first lifting up its head. But at a later stage in the business, after the question. had been discussed in its political applications, and had come to be viewed solely as a question of sectional power, Mr. Randolph promptly abandoned his own offspring, and assumed his proper place in the Southern ranks. That sudden revulsion in the position of a leading character upon a subject of such engrossing importance, is extremely significant, and affords conclusive evidence of the attitude and complexion of parties. Such was the importance attached to negro slavery, as a political element, and so strong the bias of parties in respect to it, that Southern men, who were most averse from it, buried their prejudices, and rallied to its support. This prompt and thorough recantation places Mr. Randolph in the

most favorable light. Notwithstanding that he had all the severity of character which belonged to a leader in those bustling times, yet he was not of that bigoted and inflexible turn which would induce him to cling to a dangerous error, after that error had been exposed. Indeed, he appears to have been of a more flexible temper;-and when the alarm of sections was rung, he retraced his steps, and with Madison, Pinckney, and the clear-headed and ever-faithful George Mason, was among the most unflinching advocates of the South, and inflexible opponents of Northern ambition.

But the truce was of short duration. The business was at a stand. No progress could be made until a distribution of power had first been effected. Neither the South nor the North, neither the large States nor the small States, could say with what authorities they were willing to entrust the government, until it was first determined what measure of influence each was to wield. This, of itself, shows the supreme importance attached to that question. But the time had not. been thrown away. In private an adjustment had been agreed upon. This is evident from the direction from which the adjustment came. On the 11th of June, when the Constitution of the first branch of the Legislature was again taken up, Mr. Wilson, from Pennsylvania, a leader of great talents, seconded by Mr. Chas. Pinckney, from South Carolina, justly entitled from his abilities and activity to be esteemed a leader from the South, submitted a proposition that slaves should be admitted. into the representative basis in the proportion of five slaves to three freemen. From this, it is clear that a compromise had been effected, and that each party had receded from its extreme pretensions. The vote on that compromise reveals most strikingly the healing influences that had been at work. The States of New Jersey and Delaware alone voted against it. Their motive evidently was to keep the whole question open, so as to prevent any combination being made between the large States and the slave States; a combination which. was, nevertheless, afterwards effected, and to defeat which, in