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CHAPTER XI.

EXTRACTS FROM THE OBSERVATIONS MADE IN THE

CONVENTION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Ir would appear, from Mr. Elliot's Reports, that, with the single exception of a few observations made by Mr. McKean, no one is reported to have said any thing, saving Mr. James Wilson, of Philadelphia, a gentleman who had attended the national convention, and who, it appears, undertook to explain the reasons which induced that body to adopt the Constitution, as recommended; and, after answering the various questions and objections which, by his answers, are supposed must have been made, this convention adopted the Constitution without any amendments being proposed for after consideration.

Mr. Wilson began by saying,

"As I am the only member of that body who has the honor to be also a member of this, it may be expected of me that I should prepare the way for the deliberations of this assembly, by unfolding the difficulties which the late convention were obliged to encounter, by pointing out the end which they propose to accomplish, and by tracing the general principles which they have adopted for the accomplishment of that end.

"To form a good system of government for a single

city or State, however limited as to territory, or inconsiderable as to numbers, has been thought to require the strongest efforts of human genius. With what conscious diffidence, then, must the members of the convention have revolved within their minds the immense undertaking which was before them! Their views could not be confined to a small or single community, but were expanded to a great number of States, several of which contain an extent of territory, and resources of population, equal to those of some of the most respectable kingdoms on the other side of the Atlantic. Nor were even these to be the only objects to be comprehended within their deliberations. Numerous States yet unformed, myriads of the human race who will inhabit regions yet uncultivated, were to be effected by the result of their proceedings. It was necessary, therefore, to form their calculations on a scale commensurate to a large portion of the globe.

"For my own part, I have been lost in astonishment at the vastness of the prospect before us. To open the navigation of a single river was lately thought in Europe an enterprise adequate to imperial glory. But could the commercial scenes of the Scheldt be compared with those that, under a good government, will be exhibited on the Hudson, the Delaware, the Potomac, and the numerous other rivers that water and are intended to enrich the dominions of the United States?"1

Taking this enlarged view of the subject, and preparing the minds of his audience to learn that the foundations of the government, with all due consideration, were to be laid, not only for the generation then on the stage of action, but "mil

Elliot's Reports, vol. iii. p. 224.

lions yet unborn;" that they were laying the foundation of a government that was to have a bearing on many future generations, and that amid all the jarring interests that had exhibited themselves in the convention, yet, among them all, there was a "keen sense of freedom and independence," and this sense heightened by the "glorious" result of the "late struggle they had passed through; it would, it must, have produced an unequivocal condemnation in every honest mind in the assembly if he had, in the course of his remarks, given any intimation that, by adoption of that instrument, slavery, which is, and always was, in direct opposition to a "keen sense of liberty," should be by that instrument guaranteed to the South, perpetually fastened on the country, and that the people of his State would be liable, ever after, to be called on to fight in opposition to these principles, and that the "main object "1 for which they were called together was to devise ways and means by which slavery could be maintained and perpetuated on this continent. We opine, if such a statement had been made at that day, before any one of the northern conventions, Pennsylvania and the other northern States would have indignantly refused its adoption; they certainly could have done nothing. less. But, as slavery existed, and there was an interest manifested to have it continued a little while

1 Mr. Duncan, of Ohio, in his speech made in the house of representatives in 1840, and which was printed and widely circulated by the party to which he is attached, made an observation to this effect.

longer, this, together with other supposed difficulties, prevented their immediate action, or, rather, they thought they had gained a point; for, while in the Confederation, they could have none other than a moral right to prevent its continuance, in the Union they would have a legislative right to interfere, in addition to the moral. But, in combining and reconciling the jarring interest, either real or supposed, conciliation and forbearance was thought necessary to be practised, where the 'springs of opposition were so numerous and strong," and the difference of the "temper and disposition" was so great. was so great. He then says,

a warm and keen This sense has

"The citizens of the United States, however different in other respects, are well known to agree in one strongly marked feature of their character, sense of freedom and independence. been heightened by the glorious results of the late struggle against all the efforts of one of the most powerful nations of Europe. It was apprehended, I believe, by some, that a people so high spirited, would ill brook the restraints of an efficient government. I confess this consideration did not influence my conduct." He then observed, "He did, and thought his constituents would uphold him in giving his vote for what, upon the best consideration he could give, he thought was the right, not what might be most agreeable."

We quote the following passage, not because of its direct bearing on the subject under discussionthough it may have in some remote degree - but because it shows, in some measure, the opinions entertained at that time of all governments, and

because the question has been for the second time started in this country, that there should be no human government.1

"Permit me to add, in this place, that the science of even government itself seems yet to be almost in a state of infancy. Governments in general have been the result of force, of fraud, and of accident. After a period of six thousand years has elapsed since the creation, the United States exhibit to the world the first instance, so far as we can learn, of a nation unattacked by external force, unconvulsed by domestic insurrections, assembling voluntarily, deliberating fully, and deciding calmly, concerning that system of government under which they would wish that they and their posterity should live.” 2

But, if slavery was to be guaranteed to the South, and the ignorance of the unenlightened African was to be taken advantage of, and he made, in consequence of it, to be the "hewer of wood and drawer of water" for an indefinite number of ages, how shall the men of that day escape the charge of founding a government, at least for the colored man, on force, on fraud, and on accident? Those better acquainted with metaphysics than we are must answer, if they can reconcile justice, with the present system of slavery.

After speaking of the various kinds of govern

1 We here allude to the discussion on this subject now going on, and to the Rev. Mr. Eliot, the Indian missionary of the State of Massachusetts, who put forth a pamphlet denying the authority of human governments, but by persuasion was induced to suppress it. 2 Elliot's Reports, vol. iii. p. 227.

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