the interference of State government into the general government. Equality of representation cannot be established, if the second branch is elected by State legislatures. When we are laying the foundation of a building which is to last for ages, and in which millions are interested, it ought to be well laid. If the national government does not act on State prejudices, State distinctions will be lost. therefore move, that the second branch of the legislature of the national government be elected by, electors chosen by the people of the United States." 1

Much division prevailed on this point, and, as it will be perceived, the convention finally settled down upon the conclusion that the people, by districts in their several States, should choose their own representatives; making the government, if any thing, not quite so national as the proposition made by Mr. Wilson would have it, but yet much more so than by letting the legislatures of the State choose them.

Mr. Hamilton, while speaking of the senate, observed,

"This question has been considered in several points of view. We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism, or the extreme of democracy, but in moderate government." And, again, "There can be no truer principle than this, that every individual in the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government." "

Mr. Madison, in speaking of the manner in which the different States should vote in con

'Secret Proceedings, p. 165.

2 Secret Proceedings, p. 171. Secret Proceedings, p. 186.

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gress, said "he would exclude INCONSISTENT PRINCIPLES, in framing a system of government; 1 it was difficult to get defects amended; and cited the case of Virginia and the Dutch as examples, both of whom found defects in their system of government, and it was with difficulty they had them removed. He observed, "If there was any real danger, he would give the smaller States the defensive weapons. But there is none from that quarter. The great danger to our general government is the great southern and northern interest of the continent being opposed to each other. Look to the votes in congress, and most of them stand divided by the geography of the country, not according to the size of the States." As it was then, so it is now, and must continue to be, till slavery shall be done away. This great statesman, from the commencement, saw the danger, and spoke of it. State lines, in the great controversies of the country, have been obliterated, and the great interests of our land have been decided independently of them. The slave States, ever true to themselves, have kept constant watch over their supposed interests, and have wielded the power they have possessed with such despotic sway, that they have almost tempted the North "to come out from among them, and be separate." Mr. Yates and Mr. Lansing, members from New York, left the convention before it rose. "They

1 Secret Proceedings, p. 189.

2 In their letter to Gov. Clinton, they give two reasons for returning: "1st. The limited and well-defined powers under which they acted, and which could not, on any possible construction, embrace

had uniformly opposed the system, and, I believe, despairing of getting a proper one brought forward, or of rendering any real service, they returned no more."

"1

The number of those who signed the Constitution as proposed was thirty-nine. Ten delegates never attended, and sixteen did not sign that instrument, among whom were Elbridge Gerry and Caleb Strong, of Massachusetts. Rhode Island

sent no delegates.

General Washington, in his letter addressed to the president of congress, in submitting the constitution the convention had adopted, in his concluding remarks, says, "That it may promote the lasting welfare of the country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish."2 Has that wish been realized? Have the three million of slaves now in the country received any benefit arising from that instrument? None whatever; but daily, hourly, are we departing from the principles he here expressed; and our land, instead of becoming an abode of freedom and of happiness, is but the habitation of slavery and misery to a good portion of her population: thousands are groaning in their chains, and tens of thousands are bewailing their condition. They hear the exultation of freedom and of happiness;

an idea of such magnitude as to assent to a general constitution, in subversion to that of the State. 2d. A conviction of the impracticability of establishing a general government, pervading every part of the United States, and extending essential benefits to all." 1 Secret Proceedings, p. 36.

2 Secret Proceedings, p. 267.

but it passes them by : placed like Tantalus of old, the refreshing water of liberty rises to their lips, but they are never able to drink of its refreshing stream; and, unless some come to their relief, they must, for succeeding ages, die in their distress, without being able to say, "I was hungry, and ye gave me ineat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; naked, and ye clothed me; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me." But we trust they will not long have to make this complaint, but that the South, as well as the North, will, when they become sensible of the cruelties the South is practising, be induced to render to her citizens that justice they have a right to demand, and which she ought to give; and we shall find, when the word liberty is expressed in any of our public meetings, it will not be considered out of place, or any portion of the hearers manifest signs of discomfiture, as if its sound grated on their ears.

In giving the above extracts from the Secret Proceedings of the Convention, it will be observed there does not appear to be any thing on which we could at once make up a judgment. The observations of Mr. Martin explain more fully the inducements which actuated the different members than can be gathered from the debates; but, from what are given to the public, and we believe we have given all that was said directly upon the subject of slavery, either on the one side or on the other, we cannot but deduce the idea that liberty was to be the basis on which the government was to be founded. If other ideas were

advanced or insinuated, none dared openly to express them; and we have only to regret they have been expressed louder than a whisper since, and that it has been thought necessary to calculate the value of the Union, or, in other words, to establish an aristocracy upon the ruins of democracy, which must inevitably be the case, if slavery be much longer continued.

Mr. Edmund Randolph, in a letter addressed to the house of delegates of Virginia, upon the subject of adopting the Constitution, says, in speaking of the equality of suffrage, &c.

"I hope Virginia will be seconded by a majority of the States. I hope she will be seconded, first, in causing all ambiguities to be precisely explained; then in preventing the eligibility of the president, of his power of nominating the judiciary, and filling vacancies during the recess of congress; and, second, in taking from him the power of pardoning treason, in drawing the line between the powers of congress and of the individual States, in abridging the power of the senate, in incapacitating congress in determining their own salaries," and "in limiting and defining the judiciary power."

Whether he saw, in any of the powers he wished to restrain, any that would bear on the peculiar institutions of the South, or whether he thought them detrimental to liberty in general, we are not able to say; but this we think he might have seen in the powers given to the judiciary,—a power sufficient to curb the South in her prosecuting the slave system; and if he did, and was at all anxious this system should be continued, there were sufficient reasons for his anxiety on the subject.