114 JAMES MADISON

every. word of the Constitution from its first to its
last. " Give me leave," cried Patrick Henry in
his opening speech, " to demand what right had
they to say ' We the people ' instead of ' We the
States ' ? " He began at the beginning. It was
the gage of the coming battle ; the defenders were
challenged to show that any better union than that
already in existence was needed, and that in this
new Constitution a better union was furnished.

As month after month passed away while the
Constitution was before the people for adoption,
the anxiety of the Federalists grew, lest the requi-
site nine States should not give their assent. But
when eight were secured there was room to hope
even for unanimity, if Virginia should come in as
the ninth. Should she say Yes, the Union might
be perfect ; for the remaining States would be
almost sure to follow her lead. But should she
say No, the final result would be doubtful, even if
the requisite nine should be secured by the acquies-
cence of one of the smaller States. This answer
could not, of course, depend altogether upon one
man, but it did depend more upon Madison than
upon anybody else.

The convention was in session nearly a month.
At the end of a fortnight he was not hopeful.
" The business," he wrote to Washington, "is in
the most ticklish state that can be imagined. The
majority will certainly be very small, on whatever
side it may finally lie ; and I dare not encourage
much expectation that it will be on the favorable



ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION 115

side." But his fears stimulated rather than dis-
couraged him. He was always on his feet ; always
ready to meet argument with argument ; always
prompt to appeal from passion to reason; quick
to brush aside mere declamation, and to bring the
minds of his hearers back to a calm consideration
of how much was at stake, and of the weight of the
responsibility resting on that convention. Others
were no less earnest and diligent than he ; but he
was easily chief, and the burden and heat of the
day fell mainly upon him. Probably when the
convention assembled the majority were opposed
to the Constitution ; but its adoption was carried
at last by a vote of eighty-nine to seventy-nine.
Thenceforth opposition in the remaining States was
hopeless.

New Hampshire — though the fact was not
known in Virginia — preceded that State by a
few days in accepting the Constitution, so that the
requisite nine were secured before the convention
at Richmond came to a decision. But it was her
decision, nevertheless, that really settled, so far as
can be seen now, the question of a permanent
Union. Had the vote of Virginia been the other
way it is not likely that Hamilton would have
carried New York, or that North Carolina and
Rhode Island would have finally decided not to
be left in solitude outside. What the history of
the nine united States only, with four disunited
States among them, might have been, it is impossi-
ble to know, and quite useless to conjecture. The



116 JAMES MADISON

conditions which some of the States attached to the
act of adoption, the addition of a Bill of Rights,
proposed amendments to the Constitution, and the
suggestion of submitting it to a second conven-
tion, were matters of comparatively little moment,
when the majority of ten delegates was secured at
Richmond. These were questions that could be
postponed. " The delay of a few years," Madison
wrote to Jefferson, " will assuage the jealousies
which have been artificially created by designing
men, and will at the same time point out the faults
which call for amendment."

Immediately after the adjournment of the Rich-
mond Convention he returned to New York, where
the confederate Congress was still in session.
That body had little to do now but decide upon
the time and place of the inauguration of the new
government. Madison had entered upon his thirty-
eighth year, and we get an interesting glimpse of
him as he appeared at this time of his life to an
intelligent foreigner. *' Mr. Warville Brissot has
just arrived here," he wrote to Jefferson in August,
1788. This was Brissot de Warville, a Frenchman
of the new philosophy, — whose head, nevertheless,
his compatriots cut off a few years later, — then
traveling in America to observe the condition and
progress of the new republic. His tour extended
to nearly all the States ; he met with most of the
distinguished men of the country ; and he made a
careful and intelligent use of his many opportuni-
ties for observation. On his return to France he



ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION 117

wrote an entertaining volume, — " New Travels in
the United States of America," — still to be found
in some old libraries. What he says of Madison
is worth repeating, not only for the impression he
made upon an observant stranger, but as the evi-
dence of the contemporary estimate of his charac-
ter and reputation, which De Warville must have
gathered from others.

" The name of Madison," he writes, " celebrated in
America, is well known in Europe by the merited eulo-
gium made of him by his countryman and friend, Mr.
Jefferson.

" Though still young, he has rendered the greatest
services to Virginia, to the American Confederation, and
to liberty and humanity in general. He contributed
much, with Mr. White, in reforming the civil and crim-
inal codes of his country. He distinguished himself
particularly in the convention for the acceptation of the
new federal system. Virginia balanced a long time in
adhering to it. Mr. Madison determined to it the mem-
bers of the convention by his eloquence and logic. This
republican appears to be about thirty-eight years of age.
He had, when I saw him, an air of fatigue ; perhaps it
was the effect of the immense labors to which he has
devoted himself for some time past. His look announces
a censor, his conversation discovers the man of learning,
and his reserve was that of a man conscious of his talents
and of his duties.

" During the dinner, to which he invited me, they
spoke of the refusal of North Carolina to accede to the
new Constitution. The majority against it was one
hundred. Mr. Madison believed that this refusal would



118 JAMES MADISON

have no weight on the minds of the Americans, and that
it would not impede the operations of Congress. I told
him that though this refusal might be regarded as a trifle
in America, it would have great weight in Europe ; that
they would never inquire there into the motives which
dictated it, nor consider the small consequence of this
State in the confederation ; that it would be regarded as
a germ of division, calculated to retard the operations of
Congress ; and that certainly this idea would prevent the
resurrection of American credit.

" Mr. Madison attributed this refusal to the attach-
ment of a great part of the inhabitants of that State to
their paper money and their tender act. He was much
inclined to believe that this disposition would not remain
a long time."

In October the Virginia Assembly met. Two
thirds of its members were opposed to the new
Constitution, and at their head was Patrick Henry,
his zeal against it not in the least abated because
he had been defeated in the late convention. The
acceptance of the Constitution by that representa-
tive body could not be recalled. But the Assembly
could, at least, protest against it, and was led by
Henry to call upon Congress to convene a second
national convention to do over again the w^ork o£
the first. The leo^islature was to elect senators for
the first Senate under the new government; and
it was also to divide the State into districts for
its representation in the lower house of Congress.
In ordinary fairness, as the State had, in a popular
convention, so recently accepted the Constitution,
the party then in the majority was entitled to at



ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION 119

least one of the representatives in the Senate.
But Henry nominated both, and coukl command
votes enough to elect them. In modern party
usage this would seem quite unobjectionable ; in-
deed, a modern politician who should not use such
an advantage for his party would be considered as
unfit for practical politics. But a hundred years
ago it was thought sharp practice, and a fair pro-
portion of Henry's partisans refused to be bound
by it. One of Henry's nominees was elected by a
majority of twenty over Madison ; but in the case
of the other that majority was reduced more than
half, and a change of five more votes would have
elected Madison.

He had, however, neither expected nor wished
to be sent to the Senate, while he did hope to be
elected to the House of Representatives. The
Senate was intended to be the more dignified body,
requiring in its members a certain style of living
for which wealth was indispensable. Madison had
not the means to give that kind of social suj^port
to official position ; but he could afford to belong
to that body where a member was not the less
respectable because his whole domestic establish-
ment might be a bachelor's room in a boarding-
house.

Virginia was, as he wrote to Washington, " the
only instance among the ratifying States in which
the politics of the legislature are at variance with
the sense of the people, expressed by their repre-
sentatives in convention." This had enabled Henry



120 JAMES MADISON

and a majority of his friends to elect senators wlio,
representing " the politics of the legislature," did
not represent " the sense of the people " in regard
to the national Constitution. But in the election
of members of the House of Representatives, the
sense of the people was to be again appealed to,
and a new way must be devised for asserting the
supremacy of legislative power. The cleverness
of Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, many years
later, under similar circumstances, introduced a
new word into the language of the country, and, it
was supposed at the time, a new device in Amer-
ican politics. But what has since been known as
"Gerrymandering" was really the invention of
Patrick Henry. This method of arranging coun-
ties into congressional districts in accordance with
their political affinities, without regard to their
geographical lines, Henry attempted to do with
Mr. Madison's own county. By joining it to dis-
tant counties it was expected that an anti-Federal
majority would be secured large enough to insure
his defeat. The attempt to elect him to the Senate
was, Madison wrote to Jeiferson, "defeated by
Mr. Henry, who is omnipotent in the present
legislature." He adds that Henry " has taken
equal pains, in forming the counties into districts
for the election of representatives, to associate with
Orange such as are most devoted to his politics,
and most likely to be swayed by the prejudices
excited against me." The scheme, however, was
unsuccessful, perhaps partly because of the indig-



ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION 121

nation which so dishonorable a measure to defeat
a political opponent excited throughout the State.
Madison entered upon an active canvass of his
district against James Monroe, who had been
nominated as a moderate anti-Federalist, and de-
feated him. It was winter time, and in the ex-
posure of some of his long rides his ears were
frozen. In later life he sometimes laughingly
pointed to the scars of these womids received, he
said, in the service of his country.

Thus Henry's " Gerrymander," like many an-
other useful and curious device, brought neither
profit nor credit to the original inventor. Had
Henry acted in the broader sj^irit of the modern
politician, who sees that he serves himself best
who serves his party best, he would have disposed
of every Federal county in the State as he dis-
posed of Orange. As it was, he only aroused a
good deal of indignation and defeated himself by
openly aiming to gratify his personal resentments.
Had he scattered his shot for the general good of
the party, he would, perhaps, have brought down
his particular bird.



CHAPTER X

THE FIRST CONGRESS

The confederate Congress, at its final session
in 1788, had fixed the time for the election of
President and Vice-President under the Constitu-
tion, and the time and place for the meeting of
the first Congress of the new government. The
day appointed was the first Wednesday of the fol-
lowing March, and, as that date fell on the fourth
of the month, a precedent was established which
has ever since been observed in the installation of
a new President. The place was not so easily
determined. The choice lay between New York
and Philadelphia, and the struggle was prolonged,
not because the question of the temporary seat
of government was of much moment, but because
of the influence the decision might have upon the
future settlement of the permanent place for the
capital.

No quorum of the new Congress was present at
New York on March 4, 1789, and neither house
was organized until early in April. On the 23d
AA^ashington arrived ; and on the 30th he took
the oath of office as first President of the United
States, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall,



THE FIRST CONGRESS 123

at tlie corner of Wall and Broad streets, a site
now occupied by another building used as the sub-
treasury. A week before, when the ceremonies
proper for such an occasion were a subject of
discussion in Congress, the question of fitting titles
for the President and Vice-President came up for
consideration. It was decided that when the Pre-
sident arrived the Vice-President should meet him
at the door of the senate chamber, lead him to
the chair, and then, in a formal address, inform
him that the two houses were ready to witness
the administration of the oath of office. "Upon
this," says John Adams in a letter written three
years afterward, " I arose in my place and asked
the advice of the Senate, in what form I should
address him, whether I should say ' Mr. Wash-
ington,' 'Mr. President,' 'Sir,' 'May it please
your Excellency,' or what else ? I observed that
it had been common while he commanded the
army to call him ' His Excellency,' but I was free
to own it would appear to me better to give him
no title but ' Sir,' or ' Mr. President,' than to put
him on a level with a governor of Bermuda, or one
of his own ambassadors, or a governor of any one
of our States."

Thereupon the question went to a conference
committee of both houses, who reported that no
other title would be proper for either President or
Vice-President, at any time, than those which were
given by the Constitution. To this report the
Senate disagreed and appointed a new committee.



124 JAMES MADISON

This proposed that the President should be called
" His Hio'hness the President of the United States
and Protector of their Liberties." When wise men
are absurd they presume on their prerogative. The
Senate accepted the report, but the House had the
good sense to reject it, consenting, however, to
leave the question in abeyance. On these pro-
ceedings Mr. Madison thus commented in a letter
to Jefferson : —

" My last inclosed copies of the President's inaugural
speech, and the answer of the House of Representatives.
I now add the answer of the Senate. It will not have
escaped you that the former was addressed with a truly
republican simpHcity to George Washington, President
of the United States. The latter follows the example,
with the omission of the personal name, but without any
other than the constitutional title. The proceeding on
this point was, in the House of Representatives, spon-
taneous. The imitation by the Senate was extorted.
The question became a serious one between the two
houses. J. Adams espoused the cause of titles with
great earnestness. His friend, R. H. Lee, although
elected as a republican enemy to an aristocratic Con-
stitution, was a most zealous second. The projected
title was, His Highness the President of the United
States and the Protector of their Liberties. Had the
project succeeded, it would have subjected the Presi-
dent to a severe dilemma, and given a deep wound to
our infant government."

Washington has sometimes been accused of wish-
ing for the title of " His Highness," and of having



THE FIRST CONGRESS 125

suggested it. Had this been true, Madison would
have been certain to know it, and he was quite
incapable of asserting in that case that such a
title would have been to the President "a severe
dilemma." About Mr. Adams he was perhaps
mistaken, as he might easily have been, since he
was not a member of the Senate, and probably
heard only a confused report of how the question
was brought before that body. As Mr. Adams's
letter, quoted just now, shows, he regarded the
charge as a calumny and resented it. He gave
tkem, according to liis own statement, no other
opinion than that he preferred "Sir," or "Mr.
President," as a more proper address than " Excel-
lency," a title then, as now, pertaining to governors
of States. He probably took no further part in
the debate, but it is not impossible that he may in
private have avowed a preference for some other
and higher title than either "Mr. President" or
" Your Excellency." " For," he said in the explan-
atory letter to his friend, " I freely own that I
think decent and moderate titles, as distinctions
of offices, are not only harmless, but useful in
society ; and that in this country, where I know
them to be prized by the people as well as their
magistrates as highly as by any people or any
magistrates in the world, I should think some dis-
tinction between the magistrates of the national
government and those of the state governments
proper." A distinction might be proper enough if
there were to be any titles whatever ; but certainly



126 JAMES MADISON

they were the wiser who preferred good homespun
to threadbare old clothes. Had rags of that sort
been made a legal uniform, it is almost appalling to
reflect upon the absurdities to which the national
fondness for titles would have carried us.

From March 4 to April 1, though the House of
Representatives met daily, there were not members
enough present to make a quorum. The first real
business brought before the House, except that
relating to its organization, was introduced by
Madison, two days after the inauguration. It
was a proposition to raise a revenue by duties on
imports, and by a tonnage duty on all vessels,
American and foreign, bringing goods, wares, or
merchandise into the United States. The essential
weakness of the late Confederacy was, first of all,
to be remedied by uniform rules for the regulation
of trade. Revenue must be provided for the sup-
port of government, and that in a way which should
not be oppressive to the people. Commerce, Mr.
Madison said, " ought to be as free as the policy
of nations will admit," but government must be
supported, and taxes the least burdensome and
most easily collected are those derived from duties
on imports. He agreed, however, as he said on the
second day of the debate, with those who would so
adjust the duties on foreign goods as to protect
the " infant manufactories " of the country. With
little interruption this subject was debated for the
first six weeks of the opening session of the First
Congress. No other could have been hit upon to



THE FIRST CONGRESS 127

test so thoroughly the strength of the new bond
of union. It was to brush aside all those trade
regulations in the several States which each had
hitherto thought essential to its prosperity. Every
interest in the country was to be considered, and
their different, sometimes opposing, claims to be
reconciled.

New England was sure that, should the tax on
molasses be too high, the distilleries would be shut
up, and a great New England industry destroyed.
Nor would the injury stop there. The fisheries,
as well as the distilleries, would be ruined. For
three fifths of the fish put up for the West Indies
could find no market anywhere else ; and a market
existed there only because molasses was taken in
exchange. A prohibitory duty on that article,
or a duty that should seriously interfere with its
importation, would wellnigh destroy the fisheries.
What then would become of the nursery of Ameri-
can seamen ? With no seamen there would be no
shipbuilding. What sadder picture than this of a
New England without rum, without codfish, with-
out seamen, and without ships! One can easily
conceive that even in that restrained and dignified
First Congress there was no want of serious and
alarmed expostulation, and even some threatening
talk from such men as the tranquil Goodhue, the
thoughtful and scholarly Ames, and the impulsive
Gerry.

Then the South, for her part, was alarmed lest,
among other things, too high a tonnage duty should



128 JAMES MADISOX

leave lier tobacco, her rice and indigo, rotting In
the fields and warehouses for want of ships to take
them to market. She had no ships of her own and
coidd have none, and she Invited the ships of the
rest of the world to come for her products and
bring in return all she needed for her own con-
sumption. The picture of the possible ruin of New
Enoland was as nothlns; to that of the Southern
planter scanning the horizon with weary eyes in
vain for the sight of a sail, while behind him
was a dangerous crowd of hungry blacks with
nothing to do. That desolation seemed complete
to the southernmost States when it was also pro-
posed to levy a tax of ten dollars upon every slave
imported. In short, the whole subject bristled
with difficulties. The problem was nothing more
nor less than how to tax everything, and at the
same time convince everybody that the scheme
was for the general good, while nobody's special
interests were sacrificed. The " infant indus-
tries," to which Mr. Madison alluded, really re-
ceived no special consideration in the final adjust-
ment, and they were too feeble then even to cry for
nursing. They have grown stronger since, though
they are " infants " still ; and they should never
cease to be grateful to him who, however unwit-
tingly, gave them a name to live by for a hundred
years.

But the most remarkable part of the debate was
that upon the proposition of Mr. Parker of Vir-
ginia to impose a duty upon the importation of



THE FIRST CONGRESS 129

slaves. Could the progress of events have been
foreseen, that proposal might have been regarded
as meant to protect an " infant industry " of the
northernmost slave States. But the wildest imagi-
nation then could not conceive of the domestic
slave trade of a few years later, when a chief
source of the prosperity of Virginia would be her
perennial crop of young men and women to be
shipped for New Orleans and a market. But Mr.
Parker had no ulterior motive when he avowed his
regret that the Constitution had failed to prohibit
the importation of slaves from Africa, and hoped
that the duty he proposed would prevent, in some
degree, a traffic which he pronounced " irrational
and inhuman." It would have been difficult to
have found a Virginian of that day who would not
have taken down his shotgun on hearing that
there were miscreants prowling about his kitchen
doors in the hope of buying up the strongest
young people of his household for export to the
Southwest.

Judging from the imperfect report of the debate
upon the subject, it would seem that the bargain
relative to the slave trade, made in the Constitu-
tional Convention of two years before between
New England and the two southernmost States,
might still hold good. Or there may have been a
new bargain ; or, perhaps, both sides trusted to a
tacit recognition of the eternal fitness of things,
and made common cause where legislation threat-
ened at the same time the distillery and the



130 JAMES MADISON

slave-slilp.i At any rate, the extreme Southerners
expressed surprise at the audacity which would
disturb a compromise of the Constitution ; the ex-
treme Northerners deprecated it as quite uncalled
for in any consideration of the subject of revenue.
The principle of Mr. Parker's motion, Mr. Sher-
man of Connecticut thought, was to correct a moral
evil ; the principle of the bill before the House was
to raise a revenue. At some other time he would
be willing to consider the question of taxing the
importation of negroes on the ground of humanity
and policy; but it was a sufficient reason with
him for not admitting it as an object of revenue
that the burden would fall upon two States only.
Fisher Ames of Massachusetts could only take
counsel of his conscience. From his soul, he said,

^ Eleven years afterward, -when the question of prohibiting the