46. GW to AH, 4 March 1783, HP 3:277–79.
47. To the Officers of the Army, 15 March 1783, WW 26:222–23.
48. Henry Knox to Gouverneur Morris, 21 February 1783, PRM 7:448; AH to GW, 17 March 1783, HP 3:292; AH to GW, 24 March 1783, HP 3:304–5.
49. GW to AH, 31 March 1783, HP 3:310.
50. Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and the American Character (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1979), 341–51, recovers this poignant moment, as does Fleming, Perils of Peace, 298–322. See GW to Theodore Bland, 4 April 1783, WW 26:285, for the quotation.
51. RM to AH et al., 14 April 1783, HP 3:323–24.
52. RM to President of Congress, 24 January 1783, PRM 7:368; RM to Horatio Gates, 28 January 1783, PRM 7:378.
53. Kenneth Bowling, “New Light on the Philadelphia Mutiny of 1783,” PMHB 101 (1977): 419–35; see also Fleming, Perils of Peace, 290–91.
54. Report on Conference with the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania, 20 June 1783, HP 3:399–400; Resolutions on Measures to Be Taken in Consequence of the Pennsylvania Mutiny, HP 3:401–2.
55. AH to JM, 29 June 1783, HP 3:408–9.
56. AH to Nathanael Greene, 10 June 1783, HP 3:376.
57. AH to JJ, 25 July 1783, HP 3:416–17.
CHAPTER 3: THE DOMAIN
1. Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution (Bloomington, Ind., 1957), 212–13, claims that “the greatest victory in the annals of American diplomacy was won at the outset by Franklin, Jay and Adams.”
2. See Walter Stahr, John Jay (New York, 2006), 171, for the exchange between the French and English negotiators. While Jay’s contributions to the American founding have hardly gone unnoticed, my keen sense is that his significance has not been fully appreciated. The ongoing publication of his papers by the University of Virginia Press, just begun, will most likely move him to the first rank of founders. Stahr’s solid biography is a first step in that direction.
3. Aranda Notes, JP 2:270–72. See also Richard Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers in the Search for American Independence (New York, 1965), 309–10.
4. JJ to Robert Livingston, 17 November 1782, LDC 6:11–49.
5. DA 3:37–38, 81, 85; JA to James Lloyd, 6 February 1815, Works 10–115.
6. The sketch is based on my reading of JP, volumes 1–3; Stahr, John Jay, 1–212; and Richard Morris, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries (New York, 1973), 150–88.
7. JJ to Sarah Jay, 21 and 29 July 1776, JP 1:305–7. During the British occupation of New York, Jay organized a spy network to expose covert loyalists and intercept British intelligence, leading the CIA to name a conference room in his honor as “America’s first counter-intelligence chief.”
8. Willi Paul Adams, The First State Constitution: Republican Ideology and the Making of the State Constitution in the Revolutionary Era (Lantham, Md., 2001), 1–24.
9. JJ to Egbert Benson, 26 August 1782, JP 2:326.
10. JJ to Lafayette, 3 January 1779, LDC 11:409; JJ to AH, 28 September 1783, HP 3:459–60.
11. JJ to Samuel Huntington, 6 November 1780, LDC 4:133–39.
12. JCC 15:1052–53.
13. William Ellery to Francis Dana, 3 December 1783, LDC 21:177; David Howell to William Greene, 5 February 1784, LDC 21:341.
14. Deed of the Virginia Cession, 1 March 1784, TJP 6:578.
15. Plan for Government of the Western Territory, 3 February–23 April 1784, TJP 6:580–616; JCC 26:118–20, 246–47, 255–60, 274–79.
16. TJP 6:604. See also Dumas Malone, Jefferson the Virginian (Boston, 1948), 412–14, and, old but still valuable, Thomas Perkins Abernethy, Western Lands and the American Revolution (Charlottesville, Va., 1937), 274–310.
17. TJ to Thomas Hutchins, 24 January 1784, LDC 21:305–6.
18. GW to James Duane, 7 September 1783, LDC 21:101–4. For the Ordinance of 1784, see Merrill Jensen, The New Nation: The History of the United States During the Confederation (New York, 1950), 350–59, and Peter Onuf, Statehood and Union: A History of the Northwest Ordinance (Bloomington, Ind., 1992), 4–5. See also Virginia Delegates to Benjamin Harrison, 1 November 1783, LDC 21:128–29, for the chaotic consequences of unregulated migration.
19. Wilcomb Washburn, ed., The American Indian and the United States: A Documentary History, 4 vols. (New York, 1973), 4:2267–77, for the treaties. Reginald Horseman, Expansion and American Indian Policy, 1783–1812 (East Lansing, Mich., 1967), is the standard work. Two books by David K. Richter recover the Native American perspective on American policy, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America (Cambridge, Mass., 2001), and Before the Revolution: America’s Ancient Pasts (Cambridge, Mass., 2011).
20. Philip Schuyler to President of Congress, 29 July 1781, JCC 13:601–7.
21. Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775–82 (New York, 2001).
22. Quoted in editorial note, TJ to Francis Hopkinson, LDC 21:363.
23. The Jefferson quotation is in LDC 21:494; Benjamin Harrison to GW, 8 January 1784, PWCS 1:22–23; Jacob Read to GW, 13 August 1784, LDC 21:768.
24. Henry Knox to GW, 23 November 1784, PWCS 2:144.
25. GW to Benjamin Harrison, 10 October 1784, PWCS 2:92.
26. American Museum (February 1787), 1:160.
27. Ibid., 238.
28. David Howell to Jonathan Arnold, 21 February 1784, LDC 21:381.
29. For Washington’s worries that Congress would mishandle westward expansion, see GW to Richard Henry Lee, 15 March 1785, PWCS 2:437–40.
30. Don Juan Miralles to José de Galvez, 28 December 1778, LDC 11:381–83, for Jay’s unflattering opinion of Spanish power on the North American continent.
31. JJ to JA, 14 October 1785, JP 4. The editors of Jay Papers graciously gave me access to the unpublished correspondence being prepared for publication at the University of Virginia Press; therefore, citations lack pagination for the fourth volume.
32. JJ to John Lovell, 10 May 1785, JP 4.
33. Circular to the Governors or Presidents of the States, 29 January 1785, ibid.; JJ to Richard Henry Lee, 23 January 1785, JP 4.
34. Report to Congress, 13 September 1786, JP 4, for Jay’s position on the debt and loyalist issues.
35. Report on State Laws, 13 October 1786, JP 4; JJ to JA, 1 May 1786, JP 4; JJ to GW, 27 June 1786, PWCF 4:130–32; Charles F. Hobson, “The Recovery of British Debts in the Federal Court of Virginia,” VMHB 94 (1984): 176–79.
36. JJ to JA, 1 November 1786, JP 4.
37. Gardoqui: Notes of a Conference with John Jay, 4 February 1786, JP 4.
38. JCC 29:657–58, for the instructions to Jay; Report to Congress, 3 August 1786, JP 4.
39. JJ to Diego de Gardoqui, 4 October 1785, JP 4, for the diplomatic refusal to accept gifts for Sarah Jay; Report to Congress, 3 August 1786, JP 4; JJ to Richard Henry Lee, 15 August 1786, JP 4.
40. JJ to Diego de Gardoqui, 10 May 1786; Gardoqui to JJ, 25 May 1786, JP 4.
41. Charles Pinckney, Speech in Congress, 10 August 1786, JP 4. The French chargé d’affaires, Louis Guillama Otto, recorded the debate quite fully in Otto to Vergennes, 10 September 1786, JP 4.
42. JJ to John Hancock, 29 May 1786, JP 4, for Jay’s insistence on complete secrecy during his negotiations with Gardoqui. James Monroe to Patrick Henry, 12 August 1786, JP 4, for Monroe’s conspiratorial theory.
43. James Monroe to Benjamin Harrison, 26 March 1784, LDC 21:460–61, for Monroe’s estimate of Virginia’s debt.
44. Proceeding in Congress, 31 August 1786, JP 4; Charles Pinckney to JJ, 1–3 September 1786, JP 4.
45. GW to Henry Lee, Jr., 18 June 1786, PWCS 4:117–18.
46. JJ to GW, 27 June 1786, JP 4.
47. JJ to JA, 18 August 1786, JP 4.
48. JJ to GW, 16 March 1786, JP 4.
49. GW to JJ, 18 March 1786, JP 4.
CHAPTER 4: THE COURTING
1. GW to Lafayette, 10 May 1786, PWCS 4:42.
&n
bsp; 2. Unsubmitted Resolution Calling for a Convention, July 1783, HP 3:420–26.
3. John Francis Mercer to JM, 26 November 1784, MP 8:152–53; William Grayston to JM, 28 May 1786, MP 9:61–66.
4. JM to James Monroe, 19 March 1786, MP 8:505.
5. JM to TJ, 12 August 1786, MP 9:96; JM to TJ, 12 August 1786, MP 8:502–3. See also JM to James Monroe, 14 March 1786, MP 8:497–98.
6. Address at the Annapolis convention, 14 September 1786, HP 3:687.
7. Ibid., 689.
8. Leonard R. Richards, Shays’ Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle (Philadelphia, 2002).
9. JM to George Muter, 7 January 1787, MP 9:230–31.
10. GW to Henry Lee, 31 October 1786, PWCS 4:318. See also the multiple reports Washington received on Shays’ Rebellion, all exaggerated, in PWCS 4:240–41, 281–82, 297, 300–1, 417–18, 460–62.
11. Samuel Higginson to Henry Knox, 12 November 1786, LDC 9:155.
12. JM to Edmund Randolph, 25 February 1787, MP 9:299; Notes on Debates, 21 February 1787, LDC 9:291–92; Boston Independent Chronicle, 15 February 1787.
13. JM to GW, 8 November 1786, MP 9:166–67.
14. GW to JJ, 15 August 1786, PWCS 4:213.
15. GW to Lafayette, 8 December 1784, PWCS 2:175–76.
16. The quotation is from GW to Francis Hopkinson, 16 May 1785, PWCS 2:561–62. For other remarks on the aging process, see PWCS 3:50; 4:39–40, 150.
17. GW to JM, 18 November 1786, PWCS 5:382–83.
18. JM to GW, 7 December 1786, 24 December 1786, MP 9:199–200, 224–25.
19. JJ to GW, 7 January 1787, JP 4.
20. Edmund Randolph to GW, 6 December 1786, PWCS 4:445; JM to Edmund Randolph, 15 April 1787, MP 9:378.
21. GW to Edmund Randolph, 9 April 1787, PWCS 5:135–36; GW to Henry Knox, 25 February 1787, PWCS 5:52–53.
22. GW to AH, 3 March 1783, PWCS 1:276–77; GW to James Warren, 7 October 1785, PWCS 3:299; GW to JM, 30 November 1785, PWCS 3:420.
23. GW to Henry Knox, 5 December 1784, 28 February 1785, PWCS 2:170–72, 400; Henry Knox to GW, 14 January 1787, PWCS 5:518–23; GW to Henry Knox, 8 March 1787, PWCS 6:74–75.
24. David Humphreys to GW, 20 January 1787, PWCS 4:526–30; David Humphreys to GW, 24 March 1787, PWCS 5:102–4.
25. GW to Henry Knox, 27 April 1787, PWCS 5:157–59.
26. Henry Knox to GW, 19 March 1787, PWCS 5:95–98.
27. JM to GW, 18 March 1787, and GW to JM, 28 March 1787, PWCS 5:94–95, 114–17.
28. JJ to GW, 7 January 1787, PWCS 4:502–4.
29. JM to GW, 16 April 1787, PWCS 5:144–50. See also Notes on the Sentiments of Government of John Jay, Henry Knox, and James Madison, April 1787, PWCS 5: 163–66.
30. This sketch is based on my reading of the first nine volumes of MP. Among the biographies, I found the following most helpful: Jack N. Rakove, James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (Glenview, Ill., 1990), is the most succinct life story; Richard Brookhiser, James Madison (New York, 2011), is best on Madison as a career politician; Lance Banning, The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic (Ithaca, N.Y., 1995), sees him as a prominent political thinker; the introductory essay at the start of each section of correspondence in James Morton Smith, ed., The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence Between James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, 1776–1826, 3 vols. (New York, 1995), taken together, constitute a biography of considerable distinction; and finally, Drew R. McCoy’s The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy (Cambridge, U.K., 1989) just might be the wisest book of all. The quotation is from McCoy, Last of the Fathers, xiii.
31. This paragraph is heavily indebted to my earlier sketch of Madison’s character in Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (New York, 2000), 53–54.
32. JM to Edmund Randolph, 11 March 1783, MP 6:327.
33. JM to Richard Henry Lee, 25 December 1784, MP 8:201.
34. JM to James Monroe, 7 August 1785, MP 8:333–36.
35. JM to James Monroe, 9 April 1786, MP 9:25–26.
36. Notes on Debates, 19 February–26 April 1787, MP 1:275–76.
37. GW to TJ, 30 May 1787, PWCS 5:208.
CHAPTER 5: MADISON’S MOMENT
1. My interpretation of Madison’s way of thinking has been most influenced by Marvin Meyers, ed., The Mind of the Founder: The Political Thought of James Madison (Hanover, N.H., and London, 1981); Richard Brookhiser, James Madison (New York, 2011); and Drew R. McCoy, The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy (Cambridge, U.K., 1989).
2. JM to GW, 16 April 1787, MP 9:383.
3. JM to Edmund Randolph, 8 April 1787, MP 9:368.
4. Ibid., 370. See also JM to TJ, 15 March 1787, MP 9:317–22.
5. JM to Edmund Randolph, MP 9:369, 371.
6. For Madison’s surveys of the state delegations, see JM to Edmund Randolph, 11 March 1787, MP 9:307–8; JM to GW, 18 March 1787, MP 9:314–17. For the futile effort by Hamilton to enlarge the New York delegation, see “Remarks on a Motion that Five Delegates be Appointed to the Constitutional Convention,” 16 April 1787, HP 4:148.
7. See, for example, Douglass Adair’s critique of Beard in Trevor Colbourn, ed., Fame and the Founding Fathers: Essays by Douglass Adair (New York, 1974), 3–26.
8. “Notes on Ancient and Modern Confederacies,” April–June, 1786, MP 9:3–24.
9. “Vices of the Political System of the United States,” MP 9:345–58.
10. Ibid., 354–55. See also David C. Hendrickson, Peace Pact: The Lost World of the American Founding (Lawrence, Kan., 2003), 211–19.
11. On the question of what representation meant for the revolutionary generation, see two books by Edmund S. Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1953), and Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (New York, 1988).
12. “Vices of the Political System of the United States,” MP 9:357–58.
13. In his skeptical attitude toward unbridled democracy, Madison was a typical late-eighteenth-century thinker. It is possible to discover the roots of democracy in the revolutionary era, and Gordon Wood has done so with considerable sophistication in The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York, 1992). But I would argue that the world of the founders remained decisively predemocratic, and that Madison’s analysis of state governments in the 1780s was a clear expression of those predemocratic values.
14. MP 9:357–59.
15. The scholarly literature on this subject is substantial, best synthesized in Larry D. Kramer, “Madison’s Audience,” Harvard Law Review 112 (January 1999): 611–99. See also Douglass Adair’s seminal essay “ ‘That Politics May be Reduced to a Science’: David Hume, James Madison, and the Tenth Federalist,” in Colbourn, Fame and the Founding Fathers, 107–23.
16. The Progressive School of historians interpreted the adoption of the Constitution as an elitist betrayal of the democratic impulses inherent in the American Revolution. It seems abundantly clear that, in the months before the Constitutional Convention, Madison believed that he was trying to rescue the American Revolution, not so much from democracy as from a fatal aversion to government itself. His novel argument about large-scale republics was a centerpiece of that rescue operation because it claimed that geography and demography would obviate the need for coercive government.
17. One can see Madison groping toward this pluralistic view of American society as a swirling collection of interest groups and factions in “Vices,” but his clearest and fullest expression of the idea came after the convention in a remarkable letter to Jefferson. See JM to TJ, 24 October 1787, MP 10:212–13.
18. David Hume, Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth (London, 1754), 7–20. For the Madison quotation and an excellent exegesis of the “filtration” argument, see F. H. Buckley, The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America (New York, 2014), 18–20.
19. TJ to Edmund Pendleton, 26 August 1776, JP 1:506–7.
20. Editorial note on “James Madison at the Federal Convention,” 27 May–17 September 1787, MP 10:3–10.
21. Madison’s version of their preconvention conversations is summarized in JM to TJ, 6 June 1787, MP 10:29–30.
22. “Virginia Plan,” 29 May 1787, MP 10:15–17.
23. Gaillard Hunt and James Brown Scott, eds., The Debates in the General Convention…Reported by James Madison (New York, 1920), 27–31. Hereafter cited as Debates.
24. My version of the debates in the convention draws upon Madison’s notes in Debates and on five secondary accounts by distinguished historians: Max Farrand, The Framing of the Constitution of the United States (New Haven, Conn., 1913), which is old and venerable; Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia (Boston, 1966), which lacks notes but possesses the most narrative verve; Jack N. Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (New York, 1996), which is not so much a narrative as a first-rate, topically organized analysis; Carol Berkin, A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution (New York, 2003), which is written with a nice edge and is the most succinct account; and finally Richard Beeman, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution (New York, 2009), which is a superb scholarly synthesis that also ranks up there with Bowen’s Miracle for readability.
25. Debates, 18–21. Buckley, Once and Future King, 13–14, called my attention to the implications of the one-state-one-vote decision, though I make more of it than he does.
26. Debates, 21.
27. In the summer of 2013 I spent two days taking the tour of Independence Hall multiple times and talking with tourists about their impressions. Three common features dominated their responses: this was sacred space; it was much smaller than they had imagined; and it was unbearably hot.
28. Beeman, Plain, Honest Men, 56–58. See also Berkin, Brilliant Solution, 211–61, for brief sketches of all the delegates.
29. George Bancroft, History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States of America, 2 vols. (New York, 1882), 2:284.
30. Richard Hofstadter, The Progressive Historians (New York, 1968), 15–20.
31. For the absolute dread of monarchy, see Hendrickson, Peace Pact, 40–47. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration defined the antimonarchical agenda for the revolutionary generation.
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