124 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



the federal Constitution. Ten of the thirteen states 

 had now ratified it, or one more than the number 

 necessary for putting it into operation. The laggards 

 were New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. 

 The latter state, isolated between her two stronger 

 neighbours, might be left out of account for the 

 moment, and so might North Carolina, for owing to 

 the slavery compromises South Carolina had become 

 intensely Federalist, a fact of cardinal importance in 

 the history of the next thirty years. But as for New 

 York, she could not for a moment be disregarded. 

 Though not yet one of the greatest states, her position 

 made her supremely important. It had been so in 

 the days of Stuyvesant, and of Frontenac, and of 

 Montcalm, and of Burgoyne ; and just so it was in the 

 days of George Clinton. If he could have carried his 

 point, our federal Union, cut in twain by the Mohawk 

 and Hudson valleys, would have had but a short life. 

 That he did not carry it was mainly due to Hamilton's 

 wonderful power of striking directly home at the sober 

 reason of his fellow-men. It is not so very often that 

 we see one man convince another by sheer argument. 

 When passions and prejudices are enlisted, it is seldom 

 that either side will budge an inch. The more they 

 argue the more obstinate they grow, and if the affair 

 gets settled, it is usually by some sort of compromise, 

 in which each side tries to comfort itself with the 

 belief that it has overreached the other. In the New 

 York convention of 1 788 there was no chance for com- 

 promise ; the question as to ratifying the constitution 

 must be answered with Yes or No ; and if the vote had 

 been taken at the beginning two-thirds of the members 

 would have voted No. At the head of the Anti-feder- 



