ON THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 157 
above those of the separate thirteen states. You will 
remember that the year 1786 was one in which civil 
war was threatened in many quarters, and something 
approaching civil war actually existed in Massachusetts. 
The opposition between North and South was feeble 
compared to what it afterward became, yet there was 
real danger that the Kentucky settlements would secede 
from the Union and be followed by the Southern states. 
The jealousy between large and small states was 
more bitter than it is now possible for us to realize. 
War seemed not unlikely between New York and 
New Hampshire, and actually imminent between New 
York and her two neighbours, Connecticut and New 
Jersey. It was in a solemn mood that our statesmen 
assembled in Philadelphia, and the first question to be 
settled, one that must be settled before any further 
work could be done, was the way in which power was 
to be shared between the states and the general gov- 
ernment. 
It was agreed that there should be two houses in the 
federal legislature, and Virginia, whose statesmen, led 
by George Washington and James Madison, were tak- 
ing the lead in the constructive work of the moment, 
insisted that both houses should represent population. 
To this the large states assented; while the small 
states, led by New Jersey, would have nothing of the 
sort, but insisted that representation in the federal 
legislature should be only by states. Such an arrange- 
ment would have left things very much as they were 
under the old federation. It would have left Congress 
a mere diplomatic body representing a league of 
sovereign states. If such were to be the outcome of 
the combination, it might as well not have met. 
