184 CHAPTER9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776-1790

Articles of Confederation. The absence of a bill of rightsalarmed the antifederalists. But the federalists gavethem solemn assurances that the first Congress wouldadd such a safeguard by amendment, and ratificationwas then secured in Massachusetts by the rather narrowmargin of 187 to 168.

Three more states fell into line. The last of these wasNew Hampshire, whose convention at first had con-tained a strong antifederalist majority. The federalistscleverly arranged a prompt adjournment and then wonover enough waverers to secure ratification. Nine

ATLANTICOCEAN

D Federalist majorityD Antifederalist majorityD Evenly divided

The Struggle over RatificationThis mottled map shows thatfederalist support tended to clusteraround the coastal areas, whichhad enjoyed profitable commercewith the outside world, includingthe export of grain and tobacco.Impoverished frontiersmen,suspicious of a powerful newcentral government under theConstitution, were generallyantifederalists.

states-all but Virginia, New York, North Carolina, andRhode Island-had now taken shelter under the "newfederal roof," and the document was officially adoptedon June 21, 1788. Francis Hopkinson exulted in his song"The New Roof":

Huzza! my brave boys, our work is complete;The world shall admire Columbia's fair seat.

But such rejoicing was premature so long as the fourdissenters, conspicuously New York and Virginia, dug intheir heels.

Ratifying the Constitution 185

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A Triumphant Cartoon It appeared in the Massachusetts Centinel on August 2,1788.Note the two laggards, especially the sorry condition of Rhode Island .

. .'

The Four Laggard StalesProud Virginia, the biggest and most populous state,provided fierce antifederalist opposition. There thecollege-bred federalist orators, for once, encounteredworthy antagonists, including the fiery Patrick Henry.He professed to see in the fearsome document thedeath warrant of liberty. George Washington, JamesMadison, and John Marshall, on the federalist side, lentinfluential support. With NewHampshire about to ratify,the new Union was going to be formed anyhow, andVirginia could not very well continue comfortably as anindependent state. After exciting debate in the stateconvention, ratification carried, 89 to 79.

New Yorkalso experienced an uphill struggle, bur-dened as it was with its own heavily antifederalist stateconvention. Alexander Hamilton at heart favored amuch stronger central government than that underdebate, but he contributed his sparkling personalityand persuasive eloquence to whipping up support forfederalism as framed. He also joined John Jayand JamesMadison in penning a masterly series of articles for theNewYorknewspapers. Though designed as propaganda,these essays remain the most penetrating commentaryever written on the Constitution and are stillwidely soldin book form as The Federalist. Probably the mostfamous of these is Madison's Federalist No. 10, whichbrilliantly refuted the conventional 'wisdom of the daythat it was impossible to extend a republican form ofgovernment over a large territory.

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794), aprominent antifederalist, attackedthe proposed constitution in 1788:"Tis really astonishing that the samepeople, who have just emerged froma long and cruel war in defense ofliberty, should now agree to fix anelective despotism upon themselvesand their posterity."

The same year, prominent Patriot PatrickHenry (1736-1799) agreed that the proposedconstitution endangered everything theRevolution had sought to protect:"This constitution is said to havebeautiful features; but when I cometo examine these features, Sir, theyappear to me horridly frightful:Among other deformities, it has anawful squinting; it squints towardsmonarchy: And does not this raiseindignation in the breast of everyAmerican? Your President mayeasily become King: Your Senateis so imperfectly constructed thatyour dearest rights may be sacrificedby what may be a small minority; ...Where are your checks in thisGovernment?"

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186 CHAPTER9 The Confederationand the Constitution, 1776-1790

The First Coin Authorized by Congress, 1787The Fugio cent was minted by a private companyand remained in circulation until the 1850s.The wordFugio n fly") and the sundial show that time flies;"Mind Your Business" urges diligence.

New York finally yielded. Realizing that the statecould not prosper apart from the Union, the conventionratified the document by the close count of 30 to 27.At the same time, it approved thirty-two proposedamendments and-vain hope-issued a call for yetanother convention to modify the Constitution.

Last-ditch dissent developed in only two states. Ahostile convention met in North Carolina, then adjournedwithout taking a vote. Rhode Island did not even sum-mon a ratifying convention, rejecting the Constitution bypopular referendum. The two most ruggedly individualistcenters of the colonial era-homes of the "otherwiseminded" -thus ran true to form. They were to changetheir course, albeit unwillingly,only after the new govern-ment had been in operation for some months.

The race for ratification, despite much apathy, wasclose and quite bitter in some localities. No lives werelost, but riotous disturbances broke out in NewYorkandPennsylvania, involving bruises and bloodshed. Therewas much behind-the-scenes pressure on delegateswho had promised their constituents to vote against theConstitution. The last four states ratified, not becausethey wanted to but because they had to. They could notsafely exist outside the fold.

A Conservative TriumphThe minority had triumphed-twice. Amilitant minorityof American radicals had engineered the militaryRevolution that cast off the unwritten British constitu-

Banner Paraded by the Society ofPewterers in New York City, 1788This silk banner was carriedby members of the Society ofPewterers in a parade in NewYorkCity, July 23, 1788,to celebratethe impending ratification of theUnited States Constitution byNew York State. The enthusiasmof these craftsmen for theConstitution confirms that notall federalists were well-to-do.

tion. Amilitant minority of conservatives-now embrac-ing many of the earlier radicals-had engineered thepeaceful revolution that overthrew the inadeq~ateconstitution known as the Articles of Confederation.Eleven states, in effect,had seceded from the Confedera-tion, leaving the two still in, actually out in the cold.

Amajority had not spoken. Onlyabout one-fourth ofthe adult white males in the country, chiefly thepropertied people, had voted for delegates to theratifying conventions. Careful estimates indicate thatif the new Constitution had been submitted to amanhood-suffrage vote, as in New York,it would haveencountered much more opposition, probably defeat.

Conservatism was victorious. Safeguards had beenerected against mob-rule excesses,while the republicangains of the Revolution were conserved. Radicals suchas Patrick Henry, who had ousted British rule, sawthemselves in turn upended byAmerican conservatives.The federalists were convinced that by setting the drift-ing ship of state on a steady course, they could restoreeconomic and political stability.

Yet if the architects of the Constitution were con-servative, it is worth emphasizing that they conservedthe principle of republican government through aredefinition ofpopular sovereignty.Unlikethe antifederal-ists, who believed that the sovereignty of the peopleresided in a single branch of government-the legisla-ture-the federalistscontended that everybranch-exec-utive, judiciary, and legislature-effectively representedthe people. By ingeniously embedding the doctrine ofself-rule in a self-limiting system of checks and balancesamong these branches, the Constitution reconciled thepotentially conflicting principles of liberty and order. Itrepresented a marvelous achievement, one that elevatedthe ideals of the Revolutioneven while setting boundariesto them. One of the distinctive-and enduring-paradoxes ofAmerican history was thus revealed: in theUnited States, conservatives and radicals alike havechampioned the heritage of republican revolution.

The New Constitution 187

Two Massachusetts citizens took oppositepositions on the new Constitution. JonathanSmith, a farmer unsympathetic to Shays'sRebellion of 1787, wrote,"I am a plain man, and I get my livingby the plow. I have lived in a part of thecountry where I have known the worthof good government by the want of it.The black cloud of Shays rebellion roselast winter in my area. It brought on astate of anarchy that led to tyranny ....When I saw this Constitution I foundthat it was a cure for these disorders.I got a copy of it and read it over andover.... I don't think the worse of theConstitution because lawyers, andmen of learning, and moneyed men

. "are fond of it. [They] are all embarkedin the same cause with us, and wemust all swim or sink together."

Amos Singletary (1721-1806), whodescribed himself as a "poor" man,argued against the Constitution:"We fought Great Britain-some said fora three-penny tax on tea; but it was notthat. It was because they claimed aright to tax us and bind us in all caseswhatever. And does not thisConstitution do the same? ... Theselawyers and men of learning andmoney men, that talk so finely andgloss over matters so smoothly, tomake us poor illiterate people swallowdown the pill. ... They expect to be themanagers of the Constitution, and getall the power and money into their ownhands. And then they will swallow upall us little folks, just as the whaleswallowed up Jonah!"

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188 CHAPTER9 The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776-1790

Chronology

1774 First Continental Congress calls for abolition 1783 Militaryofficersform Societyof the Cincinnatiof slave trade

1785 Land Ordinance of 17851775 Philadelphia Quakers found world's first

antislavery society 1786 Virginia Statute for ReligiousFreedomShays'sRebellion

1776 NewJersey constitution temporarily gives Meeting of five states to discusswomen the vote revision of the Articles of Confederation

1777 Articles of Confederation adopted by 1787 Northwest OrdinanceSecond Continental Congress Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia

1780 Massachusetts adopts first constitution 1788 Ratification by nine states guarantees a newdrafted in convention and ratified by government under the Constitutionpopular vote

1781 Articles of Confederation put into effect

VARYING VIEWPOINTS

The Constitution:Revolutionary or

Counterrevolutionary?

Although the Constitution has endured over twocenturies as the basis of American government,

historians have differed sharply over how to interpretits origins and meaning. The so-called NationalistSchool of historians, writing in the late nineteenthcentury, viewed the Constitution as the logical culmi-nation of the Revolution and, more generally, as acrucial step in the God -given progress of Anglo-Saxonpeoples. As described in John Fiske's The CriticalPeriod of American History (1888), the young nation,buffeted by foreign threats and growing internalchaos, with only a weak central government to leanon, was saved by the adoption of a more rigorousConstitution, the ultimate fulfillment of republicanideals.

By the early twentieth century, however, the pro-gressive historians had turned a more critical eye tothe Constitution. Having observed the SupremeCourt of their own day repeatedly overrule legislationdesigned to better social conditions for the masses,they began to view the original document as aninstrument created by elite conservatives to wrestpolitical power away from the common people. Forhistorians like Carl Becker and Charles Beard, theConstitution was part of the Revolutionary strugglebetween the lower classes (small farmers, debtors,and Laborers) and the upper classes (merchants,financiers, and manufacturers).

Beard's An Economic Interpretation of theConstitution of the United States (1913) argued that

the Articles of Confederation had protected debtorsand small property owners and displeased wealthyelites heavily invested in trade, the public debt, andthe promotion of manufacturing. Only a stronger,more centralized government could protect theirextensive property interests. Reviewing the eco-nomic holdings of the Founding Fathers, Bearddetermined that most of those men were indeeddeeply involved in investments that would increasein value under the Constitution. In effect, Beardargued, the Constitution represented a successfulattempt by conservative elites to buttress their owneconomic supremacy at the expense of less fortu-nate Americans. He further contended that theConstitution was ratified by default, because thepeople most disadvantaged by the new governmentdid not possess the property qualifications neededto vote=-more evidence of the class conflict under-Lyingthe struggle between the federalists and theantifederalists.

Beard'seconomic interpretation ofthe Constitutionheld sway through the 1940s. Historians like MerrillJensen elaborated Beard's analysis by arguing thatthe 1780swere not in fact mired in chaos, but ratherwere hopeful times for many Americans. In the 1950s,however, this analysis fell victim to the attacks of the"consensus" historians, who sought explanations forthe Constitution in factors other than class interest.Scholars such as Robert Brown and ForrestMcDonald convincingly disputed Beard's evidenceabout delegates' property ownership and refuted hisportrayal of the masses as propertyless and disfran-

Varying Viewpoints 189

chised. They argued that the Constitution derivedfrom an emerging consensus that the country neededa stronger central government.

Scholars since the 1950s have searched for newways to understand the origins of the Constitution.The most influential work has been Gordon Wood'sCreation of the American Republic (969). Wood rein-terpreted the ratification controversy as a struggleto define the true essence of republicanism.Antifederalists so feared human inclination towardcorruption that they shuddered at the prospect ofputting powerful political weapons in the hands of acentral government. They saw small governmentssusceptible to local control as the only safeguardagainst tyranny. The federalists, on the other hand,believed that a strong, balanced national governmentwould rein in selfish human instincts and channelthem .toward the pursuit of the common good.Alarmed by the indulgences of the state govern-ments, the federalists, James Madison in particular(especially in Federalist No. 10), developed thenovel ideal of an "extensive republic," a polity thatwould achieve stability by virtue of its great size anddiversity. This conception challenged the conven-tional wisdom that a republic could survive only ifit extended over a small area with a homogeneouspopulation. In this sense, Wood argued, theConstitution represented a bold experiment-thefulfillment, rather than the repudiation, of the mostadvanced ideas of the Revolutionary era-eventhough it emanated from traditional elites determinedto curtail dangerous disruptions to the social order.

For further reading, see the Appendix, For web resources, go to http://college.hmco.com.