The Making of the Constitution: Convention and State

This was the period of "Shays' Rebellion" in Massachusetts, in which the spirit and example of disobedience to law, exhibited for years by the local legislatures, broke out among a people. It created a profound impression. At home it seemed a herald of approaching anarchy; abroad it exalted the hopes of monarchists and was regarded as the knell of republicanism. The treason was easily subdued by a military force, under General Lincoln, called out by Governor Bowdoin. It was the first rising in arms against a government established by the people in this State, and thus far has proved the last. It had the effect to ripen the public mind for a general government.

Immediately after this event (November 9, 1786), Virginia appointed commissioners to the projected convention. Other States quickly followed, all the States electing delegates except Rhode Island.

The delegates elect were summoned to meet in Philadelphia on the fourteenth day of May [1787], in Independence Hall; but, a majority of the States not being then represented, those present adjourned from day to day until the twenty-fifth. They then organized into a convention, should appoint the governor of each State, who should have a negative on the laws to be passed by the legislature. This plan was not acted on. On the 19th of June the committee of the whole reported to the House that they did not assent to the resolutions offered by the Hon. Mr. Patterson, but submitted again the nineteen resolutions before reported. The first was, "That it is the opinion of this committee that a National Government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislature, judiciary, and executive."

This determination to frame a new government brought face to face in the Convention the antagonisms of American society: the errors of opinion and rooted prejudices; the local interests, jealousies, and ambitions of the people of the several States. The slavery question rose to fearful eminence. It was connected with the question of representation, or the mode in which the political power should be distributed. Madison, on the 30th of June, in an elaborate speech, delineated the great division of interests in the United States, as not being between the large and the small States, but as arising from their having or not having slaves. "It lay," he said, "between the Northern and Southern;" and he went on to show how certain arrangements "would destroy the equilibrium of interests between the two sections." In this he probed the cause of the passion that mingled in the debates. The storm was fearful. "I believe," Luther Martin said, "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 the strength of a hair;" and this is confirmed by a letter from Washington, who said that he almost despaired of seeing a favorable issue to the proceedings, and therefore repented of having had any agency in the business.

During this period Franklin made his well-known impressive speech on introducing a motion that prayers be said in the Convention. In another characteristic speech, on the wide diversity of opinion, he said that when a broad table is to be made, and the edges of planks do not fit, the artist takes a little from both and makes a good joint. In like manner, here, both sides must part with some of their demands, in order that they may join in some accommodating proposition. The work of healing commenced when the compromise was agreed to, fixing the basis of representation by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to serve for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons, and giving to each State one representative for every forty thousand inhabitants, and to each State an equal vote in the Senate.

After the adjustment of representation, there remained the difficulty of discriminating between the two spheres of power, local and general. The proposal of Hamilton to endow a central government with power to appoint the local governors met with little, if any, favor. The advocates of the old Articles made it their chief point to preserve to the States their importance; and Madison, the foremost advocate of the Virginia plan, said that "he would preserve the State rights as carefully as the trial by jury." The clear and profound George Mason said that, "notwithstanding his solicitude to establish a national government, he never would agree to abolish the State governments, or render them absolutely insignificant. They were as necessary as the general government, and he would be equally careful to preserve them. He was aware of the difficulty of drawing the line between them, but hoped it was not insurmountable." He also said he was sure "that, though the mind of the people might be unsettled on some points, yet it was settled in attachment to republican government." Local self-government, union, and republicanism were as laws inscribed on the tablets of the American heart; and it was the office of the able men of the Convention to devise for their wants the letter of a written constitution.