Difficulties of
Ratification

Resolved, That it be a standing instruction to all such delegates as may hereafter be elected to represent this state in the general government, to exert their utmost abilities and influence to effect an alteration of the Constitution, conformably to the aforegoing resolutions.1

South Carolina was the eighth of the States to ratify, but the Constitution made the ratification of nine a prerequisite to its going into effect. With the ratification of New Hampshire on June 21, 1788, the people of nine States had pledged their faith to the Constitution, and it had become the government of each of the nine and of the Union composed of the nine. The influence of Massachusetts, to which New Hampshire belonged for a long time, was very marked upon that State during the colonial period, and the influence of Massachusetts did not cease with the Revolution, as the adoption by New Hampshire of the State Constitution and of the Constitution of the United States amply disclosed. When the Convention met in New Hampshire in February, 1788, the opponents of adoption were in a slight majority. The friends of the new government, however, were able to adjourn until June, by which time the members were more favorably disposed, so that, after four days' debate, the Constitution was ratified by a vote of 57 to 47, with a series of amendments, as in the case of Massachusetts.

The action of New Hampshire inspired the supporters of the Constitution. with confidence as well as hope, as it would be less difficult for the States in doubt as to the Constitution to join the more perfect Union when formed. than to refuse to take part in its formation. It is, however, doubtful whether the Union would have been formed and the government under the Constitution have gone into effect in 1789 with chances of success unless New York, in a way the dividing line between the eastern and the middle States, and especially if Virginia, the great dominion to the South, had not decided for better or for worse to unite themselves with their sister States. Had the latter State not done so, the world might have lost the perfect type and model of a chief executive which the American people found in Washington, who, as a Virginian, could not have been President of the Union in which Virginia was not represented.

However, Virginia ratified the Constitution on June 26, 1788, but five days after the favorable action of New Hampshire, before the action of that State was known and while it appeared that Virginia, in addition to proposing the Constitution, had by its adherence to the Union made it operative.

The struggle in Virginia was a struggle of giants. The ratification was opposed by Patrick Henry, the most famous of American orators, who was appointed a member of the Federal Convention but who declined to accept, saying somewhat inelegantly but forcibly that he "smelt a rat."

1

It was also opposed by George Mason, a member of the Convention, who refused to sign, primarily because Congress was not restrained by a twothirds vote in matters of navigation and because of a lack of a bill of rights, and of whom Mr. Madison said "that he possessed the greatest talents for debate of any man he had ever seen, or heard speak." It was a herculean task for the quiet, studious and unimpressive Madison to stem and to overcome the tide of such opposition. He was supported without the Convention by General Washington and within the Convention by Edmund Randolph who had refused to sign the Constitution largely because he felt it should be submitted for revision to a second convention which he now saw to be impossible. Mr. Madison was also aided by John Marshall, a young and vigorous man of thirty-two, destined years later to expound the Constitution from the Bench and to make the more perfect Union even more perfect through a series of masterly decisions. Yet Mr. Madison, insisting that the Constitution be read in its entirety and that each clause be considered in relation to all of its parts instead of in isolation, was able to show that the Constitution did create a more perfect Union of States, just as we today believe that it has created the most perfect Union of States ever known.

The vote, however, on June 25, 1788, was close, 89 delegates voting for its ratification and 79 against. The ratification was accompanied by a bill of rights of twenty articles, and the bill itself by twenty other amendments, which were to be presented to the Congress for adoption as amendments to the Constitution. If George Mason could not bend to his will the delegates of the Philadelphia Convention and impose upon them in express terms a bill of rights, he was irresistible in Virginia, to which State he had given a bill of rights prefixed to its Constitution, which is today a model; and if the advocates of amendment to the Constitution, as it was ultimately framed in Philadelphia, failed to impress their fellow delegates with the justness of their views, the Convention of Virginia stood squarely for amendment. And in order that the spirit in which the Constitution was adopted might be known and understood by their countrymen, the Convention accompanied it with the following declaration, which may at least be taken as evidence that the Virginians had no intention of degrading the State into a province:

We, the delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected in pursuance of a recommendation from the General Assembly, and now met in Convention, having fully and freely investigated and discussed the proceedings of the Federal Convention, and being prepared as well as the most mature deliberation hath enabled us, to decide thereon,-Do, in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known, that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them, whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted John P. Kennedy, Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, 1849, Vol. I, p. 354.

Contest in
New York

thereby remains with them, and at their will; that, therefore, no right, of any denomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by the Congress, by the Senate or House of Representatives, acting in any capacity, by the President, or any department or officer of the United States, except in those instances in which power is given by the Constitution for those purposes; and that, among other essential rights, the liberty of conscience, and of the press, cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by any authority of the United States. With these impressions, with a solemn appeal to the Searcher of all hearts for the purity of our intentions, and under the conviction that whatsoever imperfections may exist in the Constitution ought rather to be examined in the mode prescribed therein, than to bring the Union into danger by a delay with a hope of obtaining amendments previous to the ratifications,-We, the said delegates, in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, do, by these presents, assent to and ratify the Constitution recommended, on the 17th day of September, 1787, by the Federal Convention, for the government of the United States, hereby announcing to all those whom it may concern, that the said Constitution is binding upon the said people, according to an authentic copy hereto annexed, in the words following.

The contest in New York was even more severe than in Virginia, and, indeed, than in any other State; for when the Convention met, the opponents of ratification were securely in the saddle under the presidency of George Clinton, Governor of the State, and under the leadership of Melancthon Smith, who, however, showed himself to be a man of principle and as such open to conviction. The friends of the Constitution, were, however, led in a masterly manner by Alexander Hamilton who, as is well known, took a rather insignificant part in the Philadelphia Convention, where he was outvoted by his two colleagues before they withdrew and where he apparently had little sympathy for any plan proposed by others and not much confidence in his own. Any constitution, however, was better to him than none. He loyally accepted the Constitution as drafted, as the best that could be got under the circumstances, and devoted his commanding abilities and his energy, which proved to be resistless, to its ratification by the State of which he was not a native but whereof he is today the most distinguished of a long line of distinguished citizens.

For Colonel Hamilton it was not enough to argue and debate, and by means thereof to produce conviction within the Convention. He felt the necessity of creating an atmosphere without, which should influence opinion within the Convention. For this purpose he planned a series of papers explaining and justifying the Constitution, to be issued at rapid intervals in the public press of the State. With him in the undertaking were associated John Jay, who contributed five articles, and Mr. Madison who wrote some twenty-nine. He himself wrote fifty-one of the eighty-five articles, which 'Elliot, Debates, Vol. I, p. 327.

Federalist

taken together form The Federalist, then a journalistic venture, today the The classic exposition of the Constitution.

But even the ability of Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and Robert R. Livingston within the New York Convention, with the aid of James Madison without its doors, might have proved unavailing had the stars in their courses not fought for the Constitution. The first week of the session in New York showed that two-thirds were opposed to ratification, but the news, welcome to Hamilton although distasteful to the majority, that the ninth State, New Hampshire, had ratified the Constitution, decided that the experiment was to be tried. On July 3d the news of the ratification by Virginia reached the members of the New York Convention. Should New York fail to adopt the Constitution it would be surrounded by the New England States on the East and New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the South, and it would be so far separated from Rhode Island and North Carolina, which had not then ratified the Constitution, that it could not well form a union. with them. In the end, Melancthon Smith, leader of the opposition, rose and stated that he would vote for the Constitution, and by a majority of three it was adopted by the Convention, “in confidence that the amendments which shall have been proposed to the said Constitution will receive an early and mature consideration," and "in full confidence" that a convention should be called and convened for proposing amendments.1

The amendments were very elaborate. Their character may be judged by the opening paragraphs of what may be considered the preamble to the act of ratification, in which it is stated:

That all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people, and that government is instituted by them for their common interest, protection, and security.

That the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are essential rights, which every government ought to respect and preserve.

That the powers of government may be reassumed by the people whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness; that every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by the said Constitution clearly delegated to the Congress of the United States, or the departments of the government thereof, remains to the people of the several states, or to their respective state governments, to whom they may have granted the same; and that those clauses in the said Constitution, which declare that Congress shall not have or exercise certain powers, do not imply that Congress is entitled to any powers not given by the said Constitution; but such clauses are to be construed either as exceptions to certain specified powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution.2

The adoption of the Constitution, however, even with express declarations and a series of recommendations, was a concrete victory for the cause

of union, inasmuch as it assured geographical unity and that the authority of the Government should extend from New Hampshire on the north to the south of Virginia. Rhode Island was on the outskirts and could not affect the Union; and North Carolina, between Virginia and South Carolina, could not resist propinquity, which affects even the union of States.

A Convention called in North Carolina adjourned August 4, 1788, without ratifying the Constitution, for the reasons stated in its resolution of August 1st of that month and year:

Resolved, That a declaration of rights, asserting and securing from encroachments the great principles of civil and religious liberty, and the unalienable rights of the people, together with amendments to the most ambiguous and exceptionable parts of the said Constitution of government, ought to be laid before Congress, and the convention of the states that shall or may be called for the purpose of amending the said Constitution, for their consideration, previous to the ratification of the Constitution aforesaid, on the part of the State of North Carolina.1

It is proper to say in this connection that the declaration of rights proposed by North Carolina consisted of twenty Articles, the amendments of twenty-six. The ratification, however, of eleven of the thirteen States, the formation of the Union and its successful operation without North Carolina and Rhode Island, caused the good people of the former State to bethink themselves, with the result that, on November 21, 1789, the people of North Carolina, assembled in convention, adopted and ratified "the said Constitution and form of government." And on May 29, 1790, the people of Rhode Island, in convention assembled, likewise adopted the Constitution, with a series of declarations in the nature of a bill of rights and of amendments almost as large as the State, which by this time had come to the conclusion that the Union was more necessary to it than it was to the Union. Thus through the long and narrow way of amendments and ratifications, the course of the Constitution was finally fashioned. State and Union came to their own. Divergent interests, at first seemingly irreconcilable, merged. The way opened for the United States of America.