The People and the Constitution
WHEN the national government of the United States was established under the new Constitution, the total population of the republic, exclusive of the Indians, was 3,929,827. Of this number, 757,365 persons were of African descent, 697,879 being born slaves. The number of Indians then on our domain, is unknown.
The dominant Caucasian race in our land, about three millions and a quarter in number, had, through long years of political discussion and actual war, been trained to the endurance of personal hardships, the assertion of individual rights, and the maintenance of the political and social franchises incident to the exercise of local self-government. They had been educated for free citizenship in a school of independent thinkers, and by constant attrition had formed habits of self-reliance, mental and physical. The judgment of this people was brought to bear upon the new Constitution before and after its ratification; and when a majority had declared it to be the supreme law of the land, the minority patriotically acquiesced in the momentous decision, not however without most decided manifestations of disapproval at first, especially by the more excitable part of the population.
When, early in the summer of 1788, the ratification of the Constitution was assured, its friends, in some places, prepared to mingle demonstrations of joy on that account with the usual methods of celebrating the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This was attempted, on the 4th of July, in Providence, R. I., when a thousand men, led by a judge of the supreme court, came in from the country and compelled the citizens to strike from their programme all allusion to the Constitution. In Albany both parties celebrated "Independence day" together, but after dinner the friends of the Constitution formed a procession that was escorted by several military companies. The opposite party interfered with them, and a sharp fight ensued, in which stones and clubs, swords and bayonets, were used, and a few persons were seriously wounded. There were also some riotous demonstrations in New York, after the great "Federal procession," in which, as in Philadelphia, many industries were practically exhibited as the line moved through the streets-mechanics of all kinds with tools at work and banners flying-followed by a great banquet and illuminations. But there were temporary ebullitions of feeling that suddenly assumed the features of a mob spirit.
When, in the spring of 1789, the new government went into operation in the City of New York, after the inauguration of Washington as the first President of the republic, there was a general readiness manifested by thinking men of all creeds in politics and religion to try the "experiment," as the new order of things was deemed to be, fairly and fully. They saw clearly that it was a momentous experiment to attempt, without a precedent, to adjust the machinery of a government, political and social, that was the embodiment of the ideas of local self-rule and of national union, so as to secure perfect harmony, and to avoid all friction. They saw that it required the highest type of statesmanship to accomplish that delicate and difficult task; therefore, in the elections of their executive and legislative representatives, the people put forth their honest efforts to secure the best men for the respective offices. So judicious was their choice, that when Washington stood before their representatives face to face, in the old Federal Hall in New York, to deliver his inaugural address, he was constrained to say that in them he saw the surest pledges that the foundations of "the national policy would be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the pre-eminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world." He continued: "I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love of my country can inspire; since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public propriety and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people."