of the world, because it had no power to secure the faith of its national obligations. For want of an uniform system of duties and imposts, and by conflicting commercial regulations in the different states, the commerce of the whole country was prostrated and well-nigh ruined. Private indebtedness was almost universal, and there was no business or industry to provide for its liquidation. Bankruptcy and distress were the rule rather than the exception. The government was loaded with an enormous debt, and had no authority to provide for the payment of either principal or interest, whence its credit was paralyzed. The currency of the country had hardly a nominal value." § 75. "The states themselves were objects of jealous hostility to each other. The mouth and lower waters of the Mississippi were controlled by Spain, who prohibited their navigation; and whilst the Eastern States were urgent that her claims should be acknowledged for the sake of advantages to their commerce, the whole Western valley, with its dependencies, was on the verge of separation from the East, in order to maintain, at all hazards, the rights of way to the ocean on that father of floods. The internal peace of the country was threatened, and a civil war seemed inevitable from the discontent of the officers of the revolution, for whose sacrifices and necessities Congress, in open breach of the public faith, yet from sheer inability, had failed to make any compensation or provision. Nothing but the personal influence of Washington over the officers themselves averted this calamity. In some of the states rebellion was already raising its horrid front, threatening the overthrow of all regular government and the inauguration of universal anarchy. It is difficult for us to conceive of the panic which Shays's rebellion in Massachusetts spread throughout the country, and of the peril to which the whole fabric of society was exposed from organized bands of ten or fifteen thousand armed men bent on cancelling, at the point of the bayonet, all public and private indebtedness, and excited to madness with lust of plunder. Ah! what a picture of general gloom and distress, of patriot anguish and despair, is presented in the contemporary history of the confederate government." SECTION III. PROCEEDINGS WHICH DIRECTLY LED TO THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. §76. The alarming results of the policy which had, for a while, abandoned the idea of one nationality, and taken up that of independent state sovereignty, were producing their legitimate effects upon the people. It was seen that something must be done, and that at once; for the wheels of government had actually stopped, and society would ere long become disintegrated. What to do, what measures to adopt, was as yet involved in doubt and dispute. An amendment to the Articles of Confederation, which, it will be remembered, would require the assent of Congress and of the legislature of every state, was at first suggested. The public acts of Congress and of the various legislatures at the time, point to this remedy; show conclusively that those who managed the public affairs were prepared to take no further step than the mere reforming and enlarging the existing government. This fact is important to be noticed; for it is, in many respects, the key to the subsequent action of the constitutional convention and of the people. § 77. Let us take a rapid review of the proceedings of the various legislative bodies, which terminated in the ratification. of the present Constitution. On the 21st of January, 1786, the legislature of Virginia adopted a resolution and appointed commissioners "who were to meet such as might be appointed by the other states of the Union, at a time and place to be agreed on, to take into consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative situation and trade of the said states; to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial relations may be necessary to their common interest, and their permanent harmony; and to report to the several states such an act relative to this great object, as, when unanimously ratified by them, will ena ble the United States, in Congress assembled, effectually to provide for the same." 1 Four states only, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, responded to this call; and their delegates, together with those of Virginia, met at Annapolis in September, 1786. Deeming their numbers too small, and their powers too limited for any permanent good, they separated after making a report to the several states and to Congress, in which they recommend that the states should appoint commissioners, "to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday of May next, to take into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the federal gov ernment adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as, when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every state, will effectually provide for the same." 2 §78. After some delay, Congress acted upon this suggestion, and on the 21st day of February, 1787, passed a resolution, wherein, after reciting the power given in the Articles of Confederation to amend the same, and the existence of defects demanding a remedy, they recommend that "a convention of delegates, who shall have been appointed by the several states, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations. and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the states, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government, and the preservation of the Union." 3 § 79. The Convention thus recommended by Congress met at the time and place appointed, and was composed of delegates from twelve states. Rhode Island alone refused to be represented. This Convention proceeded to do, and did accomplish, what they were not authorized to do by the resolution of Congress that called them together. That resolution plainly contemplated amendments to the Articles of Confederation, to be submitted to and passed by the Congress, and afterwards ratified by all the state legislatures, in the manner pointed out by the existing organic law. But the Convention soon became convinced that any amendments were powerless to effect a cure; that the disease was too deeply seated to be reached by such tentative means. They saw that the system they were called to improve must be totally abandoned, and that the national idea must be reëstablished at the centre of their political society. § 80. It was objected by some members, that they had no power, no authority, to construct a new government. They certainly had no authority, if their decisions were to be final; and no authority whatever, under the Articles of Confederation, to adopt the course they did. But they knew that their labors were only to be suggestions; and that they as well as any private individuals, and any private individuals as well as they, had a right to propose a plan of government to the people for their adoption. They were, in fact, a mere assemblage of private citizens, and their work had no more binding sanction than a constitution drafted by Mr. Hamilton, in his office, would have had. The people, by their expressed will, transformed this suggestion, this proposal, into an organic law, and the people might have done the same with a constitution submitted to them by a single citizen. This point, that the Convention had no authority for the work they actually did, that they were mere volunteers, is one of great importance, and has not received the attention it deserves from those writers who have expounded the fundamental law. § 81. On the 17th of September, 1787, the Convention completed their labors, laid the proposed Constitution before Congress, and advised "that it should be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in each state by the people thereof, under a recommendation of its legislature, for their assent and ratification."1 The Constitution itself provided that, when ratified by at least nine states, it should become established in the states so ratifying the same." The Convention also enforced their recommendation by a letter addressed to Congress and through them to the country, from which some extracts will be interesting. "In all our deliberations we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, — the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each state in the Convention to be less rigid, on points of inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected; and thus, the Constitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable." § 82. What was the real meaning of all these proceedings? The Convention knew that they were not amending the Articles of Confederation; for in that case the proposed alterations must be submitted to Congress, and then to the state legislatures, and approved by all; but in no instance would any direct reference to the people be necessary. They knew, on the contrary, that they were proposing a new government, and that in creating this government, neither they, nor Congress, nor the legislatures of the states, had the slightest power, the smallest voice; that such a creation was the work of the people alone, of the nation in its imperial capacity, by virtue of imperial powers which existed in them indissoluble and incommunicable, above and beyond all existing forms, all congresses, legislatures, and state organizations. To the people, then, they appealed. But the people could only express their will by voting, and to vote requires some organized method. The Convention itself could not provide means for taking, ascertaining, and publishing this vote, for they were, in fact, a mere body of volunteers, without any power except 1 Resolution of Convention, Elliot's Debates, Vol. 1, p. 16. |