CONGRESS, U. S. 



255 



his common sense and powerful arguments 

 drove Lord Chief Justice Mansfield from his 

 opinions of constitutional law. They must 

 encounter first the opinions of the framers of 

 our Constitution, and their sentiments uttered 

 by such men as Alexander Hamilton, Fisher 

 Ames, James Madison, Luther Martin, Patrick 

 Henry, and other distinguished statesmen. 

 Yea, more, they must encounter the sentiments 

 delivered by Washington to Congress, by the 

 unanimous order of the Convention, when he 

 submitted the Constitution to Congress. In 

 his letter to the president of Congress, among 

 other reasons for its adoption, he says : 



It is obviously impracticable, in the Federal Gov- 

 ernment of these State*, to secure all rights of inde- 

 pendent sovereignty to each, and vet provide for the 

 interest and safety" of all. Individuals entering into 

 society must give" up a share of liberty to preserve 

 the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must de- 

 pend as well on situation and circumstance, as on 

 the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult 

 to draw with precision the line between those rights 

 which must be surrendered and those which may be 

 reserved ; and on the present occasion this difficulty 

 was increased by a difference among the several 

 States as to their situation, extent, habits, and par- 

 ticular interests. 



In all our deliberations on this subject we kept 

 steadily in our view that which appears to us the 

 greatest interest of every true American the con- 

 solidation of our Union in which is involved our 

 prosperitv. felicity, safety, perhaps our national ex- 

 istence. This important consideration, seriously and 

 deeply impressed on our minds, led each State in the 

 Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior mag- 

 nitude 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. 



" These are the sentiments uttered by Wash- 

 ington on behalf of the Convention which 

 adopted our Constitution. How worthy now, 

 in this dark day of our troubles, in the" midst 

 of a revolution brought on us by a disregard 

 of these sentiments, that we should emulate 

 the noble example here set us. Would that 

 these patriot sages were now here, in this their 

 country's day of trial, with their lessons of 

 wisdom, and to commend them to national 

 approval. 



When the Constitution was referred by Con- 

 gress to the various States for its adoption, we 

 find the same enlarged views taken, and often 

 by the same men who had been in the Conven- 

 tion, urging reasons why it should be adopted. 

 In the northern States the effort was to satisfy 

 the' people of the necessity there was for se*- 

 curing to the South their fights in slave prop- 

 erty, and that by the compromise the Xorth 

 received more than an equivalent in the ad- 

 vantages secured to their commerce and navi- 

 gation. The solemn compact between the 

 slaveholding and non-slaveholding States was 

 adopted by the unanimous votes of the States 

 then present in the Convention. The dissent 

 of a single State might have marred the whole 

 scheme of compromises so elaborately prepared 

 as a basis of the new Constitution, and remit- 



ted the States of the Confederacy to a condi- 

 tion little short of anarchy. 



" That the Constitution of 1787 was in troth 

 founded on a deliberately-formed scheme of 

 compromises and equivalents is a historical 

 fact denied by none in terms, but virtually and 

 practically by many who believe themselves to 

 be statesmen, but who are nevertheless poli- 

 ticians merely. The importance of this his- 

 torical fact justifies, if it does not demand, an 

 exhibition of the evidence, in part at least, by 

 which it is sustained. 



" Here are the declarations of Alexander 

 Hamilton to the Xew York convention, assem- 

 bled at Poughkeepsie, in June, 1788, to pass on 

 the new Constitution submitted to the States 

 by the General Convention assembled at Phila- 

 delphia. I read from Eliot's Debates, page 

 212. He said: 



In order that the committee may understand clear- 

 ly the principles upon which the Convention acted, I 

 think it necessary to explain some particular circum 

 stances. 



Sir, the natural situation of the country seems to 

 divide its interests into different classes. " There are 

 navigating and non-navigating States ; the northern 

 are properly the navigating States : the southern 

 appear to possess neither the means nor the spirit 

 of navigation. This difference of situation natural- 

 ly produces a dissimilarity of interests and views 

 respecting foreign commerce. It was the interest of 

 the northern States that there should be no restraints 

 on their navigation, and that they should have foil 

 power, bv a majority in Congress,"to make commer- 

 cial regulations in favor of their own and in restraint 

 of the navigation of foreigners. The southern Stetei 

 wished to impose a restraint on the northern, by re- 

 quiring that tico-third-s in Congress should be requi- 

 site to pass an act in regulation of commerce ; they 

 were apprehensive that the restraints of a navigation 

 law would discourage foreigners, and by obliging 

 them to employ shipping ot the northern States, 

 would probably enhance their freight. This being 

 the case, they" insisted strenuously on having this 

 provision ^ingrafted on the Constitution; and the 

 northern States were as anxious in opposins it. 



" Again 



Much has been said of the impropriety of repre- 

 senting men who have no will of their own. Whether 

 this be reasoning or declamation I will not presume 

 to say. It is the unfortunate situation of the south- 

 ern States to have a great part of their population, as 

 well as property, in blacks. The regulation com- 

 plained of was one result of the spirit ol' accommoda- 

 tion which governed the Convention, and without 

 this indulgence no Union could possibly have been 

 formed. And, sir, considering some ptemliar advan- 

 tages which we derive, it is entirely just that thev 

 should be gratified. The southern" States possess 

 certain staples, tobacco, rice, indigo, ic., which 

 must now be capital objects in treaties of commerce 

 with foreign nations ; and the advantages which 

 they necessarily procure in these treaties will be felt 

 throughout all the States. 



It became necessary, therefore, to compromise, or 

 the Convention would have dissolved without effect- 

 ing any thing. Would it have been wise and prudent 

 in that body, in this critical situation, to have de- 

 serted their country '? >*o. Every man who hears 

 me, every wise man in the United States, would 

 have condemned them. The Convention were obliged 

 to appoint a committee for accommodation. In this 

 committee the arrangement was formed as it now 

 stands, and their report was accepted. It was a 



