Albert Gallatin
peace secured, the promise of a boundless commerce. To protect commerce
there must be a national power somewhere. Since the peace the government
had gained neither the affection of its own citizens nor the respect of
foreign powers.
The federal Constitution was adopted September 17, 1787. The first State
to summon a convention of ratification was Pennsylvania. No one of the
thirteen original States was more directly interested than herself. The
centre of population lay somewhere in her limits, and there was
reasonable ground for hope that Philadelphia would become once more the
seat of government. The delegates met at Philadelphia on November 2. An
opposition declared itself at the beginning of the proceedings.
Regardless of the popular impatience, the majority allowed full scope to
adverse argument, and it was not until December 12 that the final vote
was taken and the Constitution ratified, without recommendations, by a
majority of two to one. In this body Fayette County was represented by
Nicholas Breading and John Smilie. The latter gentleman, of Scotch-Irish
birth, an adroit debater, led the opposition. In the course of his
criticisms he enunciated the doctrines which were soon to become a party
cry; the danger of the Constitution "in inviting rather than guarding
against the approaches of tyranny;" "its tendency to a consolidation,
not a confederation, of the States." Mr. Gallatin does not appear to
have sought to be a delegate to this body, but his hand may be traced
through the speeches of Smilie in the precision with which the
principles of the opposition were formulated and declared; and his
subsequent course plainly indicates that his influence was exerted in
the interest of the dissatisfied minority. The ratification was received
by the people with intense satisfaction, but the delay in debate lost
the State the honor of precedence in the honorable vote of
acquiescence,--the Delaware convention having taken the lead by a
unanimous vote. For the moment the Pennsylvania Anti-Federalists clung
to the hope that the Constitution might yet fail to receive the assent
of the required number of States, but as one after another fell into
line, this hope vanished.
One bold expedient remained. The ratification of some of the States was
coupled with the recommendation of certain amendments. Massachusetts led
the way in this, Virginia followed, and New York, which, in the language
of the day, became the eleventh pillar of the federal edifice, on July
26, 1788, accompanied her ratification with a circular letter to the
governors of all the States, recommending that a general convention be
called.[1]
The argument taken in this letter was the only one which had any chance
of commending itself to popular favor. It was in these words: "that the
apprehension and discontents which the articles occasion cannot be
removed or allayed unless an act to provide for the calling of a new
convention be among the first that shall be passed by the next
Congress." This document, made public at once, encouraged the
Pennsylvania Anti-Federalists to a last effort to bring about a new
convention, to undo or radically alter the work of the old. A conference
held at Harrisburg, on September 3, 1788, was participated in by
thirty-three gentlemen, from various sections of the State, who
assembled in response to the call of a circular letter which originated
in the county of Cumberland in the month of August. The city of
Philadelphia and thirteen counties were represented; six of the
dissenting members of the late convention were present, among whom was
Smilie. He and Gallatin represented the county of Fayette.
Smilie, Gallatin's earliest political friend, was born in 1742, and was
therefore about twenty years his senior. He came to the United States in
youth, and had grown up in the section he now represented. His
popularity is shown by his service in the state legislature, and during
twelve years in Congress as representative or as senator. In any
estimate of Mr. Gallatin, this early influence must be taken into
account. The friendship thus formed continued until Smilie's death in
1816. From the adviser he became the ardent supporter of Mr. Gallatin.
Blair McClanachan, of Philadelphia County, was elected chairman of the
conference. The result of this deliberation was a report in the form of
a series of resolutions, of which two drafts, both in Mr. Gallatin's
handwriting, are among his papers now in the keeping of the New York
Historical Society. The original resolutions were broad in scope, and
suggested a plan of action of a dual nature; the one of which failing,
resort could be had to the other without compromising the movement by
delay. In a word, it proposed an opposition by a party organization. The
first resolution was adroitly framed to avoid the censure with which the
people at large, whose satisfaction with the new Constitution had grown
with the fresh adhesions of State after State to positive enthusiasm,
would surely condemn any attempt to dissolve the Union formed under its
provisions. This resolution declared that it was in order to _prevent_ a
dissolution of the Union and to secure liberty, that a revision was
necessary. The second expressed the opinion of the conference to be,
that the safest manner to obtain such revision was to conform to the
request of the State of New York, and to urge the calling of a new
convention, and recommended that the Pennsylvania legislature be
petitioned to apply for that purpose to the new Congress. These were
declaratory. The third and fourth provided, first, for an organization
of committees in the several counties to correspond with each other and
with similar committees in other States; secondly, invited the friends
to amendments in the several States to meet in conference at a fixed
time and place. This plan of committees of correspondence and of a
meeting of delegates was simply a revival of the methods of the Sons of
Liberty, from whose action sprung the first Continental Congress of
1774.
The formation of such an organization would surely have led to
disturbance, perhaps to civil war. During the progress of the New York
convention swords and bayonets had been drawn, and blood had been shed
in the streets of Albany, where the Anti-Federalists excited popular
rage by burning the new Constitution. But the thirty-three gentlemen who
met at Harrisburg wisely tempered these resolutions to a moderate tone.
Thus modified, they recommended, first, that the people of the State
should acquiesce in the organization of the government, while holding in
view the necessity of very considerable amendments and alterations
essential to preserve the peace and harmony of the Union. Secondly, that
a revision by general convention was necessary. Thirdly, that the
legislature should be requested to apply to Congress for that purpose.
The petition recommended twelve amendments, selected from those already
proposed by other States. These were of course restrictive. The report
was made public in the "Pennsylvania Packet" of September 15. With this
the agitation appears to have ceased. On September 13 Congress notified
the States by resolution to appoint electors under the provisions of the
Constitution. The unanimous choice of Washington as president hushed all
opposition, and for a time the Anti-Federalists sunk into
insignificance.
The persistent labors of the friends of revision were not without
result. The amendments proposed by Virginia and New York were laid
before the House of Representatives. Seventeen received the two thirds
vote of the House. After conference with the Senate, in which Mr.
Madison appeared as manager for the House, these, reduced in number to
twelve by elimination and compression, were adopted by the requisite two
thirds vote, and transmitted to the legislatures of the States for
approval. Ratified by a sufficient number of States, they became a part
of the Constitution. They were general, and declaratory of personal
rights, and in no instance restrictive of the power of the general
government.
In 1789, the Assembly of Pennsylvania calling a convention to revise the
Constitution of the State, Mr. Gallatin was sent as a delegate from
Fayette County. To the purposes of this convention he was opposed, as a
dangerous precedent. He had endeavored to organize an opposition to it
in the western counties, by correspondence with his political friends.
His objections were the dangers of alterations in government, and the
absurdity of the idea that the Constitution ever contemplated a change
by the will of a mere majority. Such a doctrine, once admitted, would
enable not only the legislature, but a majority of the more popular
house, were two established, to make another appeal to the people on the
first occasion, and, instead of establishing on solid foundations a new
government, would open the door to perpetual change, and destroy that
stability which is essential to the welfare of a nation; since no
constitution acquires the permanent affection of the people, save in
proportion to its duration and age. Finally, such changes would sooner
or later conclude in an appeal to arms,--the true meaning of the popular
and dangerous words, "an appeal to the people." The opposition was begun
too late, however, to admit of combined effort, and was not persisted
in; and Mr. Gallatin himself, with practical good sense, consented to
serve as a delegate. Throughout his political course the pride of
mastery never controlled his actions. When debarred from leadership he
did not sulk in his tent, but threw his weight in the direction of his
principles. The convention met at Philadelphia on November 24, 1789, and
closed its labors on September 2, 1790. This was Gallatin's
apprenticeship in the public service. Among his papers are a number of
memoranda, some of them indicating much elaboration of speeches made, or
intended to be made, in this body. One is an argument in favor of
enlarging the representation in the House; another is against a plan of
choosing senators by electors; another concerns the liberty of the
press. There is, further, a memorandum of his motion in regard to the
right of suffrage, by virtue of which "every freeman who has attained
the age of twenty-one years, and been a resident and inhabitant during
one year next before the day of election, every naturalized freeholder,
every naturalized citizen who had been assessed for state or county
taxes for two years before election day, or who had resided ten years
successively in the State, should be entitled to the suffrage, paupers
and vagabonds only being excluded." Certainly, in his conservative
limitations upon suffrage, he did not consult his own interest as a
large landholder inviting settlement, nor pander to the natural desires
of his constituency.
In an account of this convention, written at a later period, Mr.
Gallatin said that it was the first public body to which he was elected,
and that he took but a subordinate share in the debates; that it was one
of the ablest bodies of which he was ever a member, and with which he
was acquainted, and, excepting Madison and Marshall, that it embraced as
much talent and knowledge as any Congress from 1795 to 1812, beyond
which his personal knowledge did not extend. Among its members were
Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence and president
of the Continental Congress, Thomas Mifflin and Timothy Pickering, of
the Revolutionary army, and Smilie and Findley, Gallatin's political
friends. General Mifflin was its president.
But mental distraction brought Mr. Gallatin no peace of heart at this
period, and when the excitement of the winter was over he fell into a
state of almost morbid melancholy. To his friend Badollet he wrote from