Wednesday, August 12, 1789. Today, in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin Bache turns twenty years old. He spends much time at the bedside of his eighty-four-year-old grandfather, transcribing the last chapter of Ben Franklin’s autobiography.1584
Sunday, August 23, 1789. Today, in France, the French Constituent Assembly sets forth principles to guide a new French constitution. As I write in my history,
It was on the twenty-third that the majority completed the decrees which were to form the foundation of a constitution for France and condensed them for general information in the following important nineteen resolutions—1st. That all power originally was derived from the people, and would continue to flow from that source alone … 4th. That the national assembly shall be permanent. 5th. That the national assembly shall be composed of only one chamber. 6th. That the return [term] of the deputies to the national assemblies shall be for two years … 10th. The king can refuse his assent to any act of the legislative body. 11th. In that case where the king shall interpose his negative, that negative shall be considered only as suspensive. 12th. The negative of the king shall cease to exist on the election of the national assembly which next follows that in which the law was proposed. 5th. No tax or contribution in kind, or in money, can be levied … by any other means than by an express decree of the assembly …1585
Thursday, August 27, 1789. Today, in Paris, a majority of the new French Constituent Assembly adopts a “Declaration of the Rights of Man” which the Marquis de Lafayette drafted with the help of U.S. Minister to France Thomas Jefferson.1586 From the “Rights of Man” (as I report in my history):
1st. Men are born and always continue free and equal in respect of their rights; civil [i.e., any] distinctions, therefore, can only be founded on public utility …
3dly. That the people composing the nation are essentially the source of all sovereignty …
6thly. The law is an expression of the will of the community; all citizens have a right to concur, either personally or by their representatives in its formation …
10thly. No man ought to be molested on account of his opinions, not even of his religious opinions …
11thly. The unrestrained communication of thought and opinions being one of the most precious rights of man, every citizen may speak, write, and publish freely …1587
The Constitution of the United States of America has yet to have such a Declaration or Bill of Rights to limit the power of government.
Friday, August 28, 1789. Today, in Paris, U.S. Minister to France Thomas Jefferson writes Congressman James Madison:
Their declaration of rights is finished … I think they will … take up [the plan] of the constitution … [O]urs has been professedly their model …
It is impossible to desire better dispositions toward [the United States] than prevail in this [French] assembly. Our proceedings have been viewed as a model for them on every occasion … and treated like that of the bible, open to explanation but not to question. I am sorry … anything should come from us to check it.
The placing them on a mere [equal] footing with the English will have this effect. When, of two nations, one has spent her blood and money to save us … while the other has moved heaven, earth, and hell to exterminate us in war … to place these two nations on a[n equal] footing is to give a great deal more to one than to the other, if the maxim be true that to make unequal quantities equal, you must add more to the one than the other. To say, in excuse, that gratitude is never to enter into the motives of national conduct is to revive a principle which has been buried … with its kindred principles of the lawfulness of assassination, poison, perjury, &c … I know but one code of morality for man whether acting singly or collectively …1588
Thursday, September 10, 1789. Today, the French Constituent Assembly votes 849 to 89 to have a single-chamber legislature (simply to represent the people) à la Franklin and refuses to have a second, “upper” chamber (like the British House of Lords) to represent nobility or property.1589
Friday, September 11, 1789. Today, the French Constituent Assembly votes (673 to 325) to subordinate the wishes of the King of France to the wishes of the single-chamber national legislature, making his veto of legislation subject to override by a simple majority vote in two succeeding legislatures.1590
Wednesday, September 16, 1789. Today, from New York, unaware that France has already decided on a single-chamber legislature, John Adams writes a French nobleman, Count Sarsfield:
We are very anxious about the state of Europe and that of France in particular. Will the States general claim authority to controul the Crown, or will they be contented to advise it? Mixed in one assembly with the commons, will not the nobles be lost? Out numbered and out acted on all occasions? If in earnest a constitution is to be established, you must separate the Nobles by themselves, and the Commons must be placed in another assembly … In short, your government must have three branches and your Executive and Legislative must be ballanced against each other, or you will have confusions. Let my acquaintance, the Marquis of Condorcet, say what he will …1591
Friday, September 18, 1789. Today, in New York, U.S. Senator William Maclay writes in his journal:
By this and yesterday’s papers France seems traveling to the birth of freedom. Her throes and pangs of labor are violent. God give her a happy delivery! Royalty, nobility, and vile pageantry, by which a few of the human race lord it over and tread on the necks of their fellowmortals, seem likely to be demolished with their kindred Bastille, which is said to be laid in ashes. Ye gods, with what indignation do I review the late attempt of some creatures among us to revive the vile machinery! O Adams, Adams, what a wretch art thou!1592
Saturday, September 26, 1789. Today, with lower-class mob violence (against bread shortages, salt prices, unsafe mining conditions, vestiges of aristocracy, etc.) continuing to increase in Paris and the rest of France, Thomas Jefferson leaves for the United States. He will receive and accept President Washington’s invitation to become the first U.S. Secretary of State.1593
Thursday, November 5, 1789. Today, in Philadelphia, an aged and ill Benjamin Franklin writes an English correspondent,
I hope the fire of liberty, which you mention as spreading itself over Europe, will act upon the inestimable rights of man, as common fire does upon gold; purify without destroying them; so that a lover of liberty may find a country in any part of Christendom.1594
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1789
The Pennsylvania Gazette
HINTS for the Members of [the upcoming PENNSYLVANIA CONSTITUTIONAL] CONVENTION …
Of the Executive Branch. I. Your Executive should consist of a single person … But the value of this quality (unity) depends on II. The Duration of the appointment … putting [it] beyond the reach of every annual gust of folly and of faction …
Of the Legislative Branch … [E]stablish a legislature of two houses. The upper should represent the property, the lower the population of this State …
A FARMER
Saturday, November 21, 1789. Today, Pennsylvania opens a state constitutional convention to revise Ben Franklin’s Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776. With the new federal Constitution as their model, influential Pennsylvanians want to divide the Pennsylvania state legislature between an upper house to represent property and a lower house to represent the people. Despite illness, Ben Franklin publishes a pamphlet this month that argues for retaining his Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776:
I am sorry to see the Signs … of a Disposition among some of our People to commence an Aristocracy by giving the Rich a predominancy in Government, a Choice peculiar to themselves in one half of the Legislature to be proudly called the UPPER House, and the other Branch, chosen by the Majority of the People, degraded by the Denomination of the LOWER; and giving this upper House a Permanency of four Years and but two to the lower …1595
As Pennsylvanians prepare to abandon Franklinian democracy, Ben Franklin suffers gastrointestinal distress and takes to bed. During h
is remaining months, his grandson, Benny Bache, will remain at his bedside to transcribe his autobiographical recollections.1596
Friday, December 4, 1789. Today, from his bed, Ben Franklin writes his British friend David Hartley,
The Convulsions in France are attended with some disagreeable Circumstances; but if by the Struggle she obtains and secures for the Nation its future Liberty, and a good Constitution, a few Years’ Enjoyment of those Blessings will amply repair all the Damages their Acquisition may have occasioned. God grant that not only the love of liberty, but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man, may pervade all Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, “This is my Country.”1597
Sunday, December 6, 1789. Today, Benny Bache writes his future wife, Peggy Mar koe:
You may remember that, from the first of our more intimate Acquaintance with one another, I promised to make known … every Circumstance that might in the least tend to throw some light on my Character, disposition, Circumstances, Expectations, &c …
In conversing with a Friend of yours … [she] betrayed an idea that I was or was to be a Man of Fortune … By my conversation, I found my excellent Grand Father the Source of this ideal … on supposition of my being a Favorite with him …
The trouble [my Grand Father] took in my Education, the circumstance of my being under his care since seven years of age, etc. were undoubtedly Grounds for the supposition to people in General, but to those who are acquainted with Dr. F—– would rather give Rise to an opinion directly contrary; the true one that ought to be entertained by those who wish not to be disappointed. The profession [of printing] I have been brought up in and am intended for might have convinced many that I was never intended to be made a Man of Fortune, but rather to endeavor at becoming one …
The Position of the Building erected for containing my Printing Materials … might have also had an improper influence [in creating the false impression] …1598
Thursday, December 24, 1789. Today, the French Constituent Assembly takes a giant step toward religious freedom by decreeing non-Catholics (except Jews) the same civil rights (to vote, to hold office, to become a military officer, etc.) as Catholics.1599
Tuesday, February 2, 1790. Today, Vice President John Adams writes a Pennsylvania friend,
I congratulate you on the prospect of a new Constitution for Pensilvania. Poor France I fear will bleed for too exactly copying your old one.
When I see such miserable crudities approved [in France] by such Men as Rochefoucauld and Condorcet, I am disposed to think very humbly of human understanding. 1600
Monday, February 15, 1790. Today, as President of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, Benjamin Franklin submits a memorial against slavery to the United States Senate.1601 A Pennsylvania Senator records,
Attended in Senate. Our Vice-President [Mr. Adams] produced the petitions and memorials of the Abolition Society [against Slavery]. He did it rather with a sneer … Izard, in particular, railed at the society; called them fanatics, etc. Butler made a personal attack on Dr. Franklin, and charged the whole proceeding to anti-Federal motives; that the Doctor, when member of the [constitutional] convention, had consented to the Federal compact. Here he was acting in direct violation of it. The whole business was designed to overturn the Constitution …1602
Saturday, February 27, 1790. Today, Vice President John Adams writes Francis Adrian Vanderkemp, his Mennonist pastor friend from the Netherlands who translated Adams’ Defence of the Constitutions … into Dutch:
I can say for myself, and I believe for most others who have been called “Leading Men” in the late revolution, that we were compelled against our inclinations to cut off the hands which united us to England and that we should have been very happy to have had our grievances resolved, and our dependence continued …
I will candidly confess that an hereditary Senate without an hereditary Executive would diminish the Prerogatives of the president and the liberties of the people. But I contend that hereditary descent in both when controlled by an independent representation of the people is better than corrupted, turbulent and bloody elections; and the knowledge you have of the human heart will concur with your knowledge of the history of nations to convince you that elections of Presidents and Senators cannot be long conducted in a populous, oppulent, and commercial nation without corruption, sedition, and civil war.1603
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1790
The Pennsylvania Gazette
The CONSTITUTION of the Commonwealth of PENNSYLVANIA, as altered and amended by the CONVENTION … and by them proposed for the consideration of their constituents.
ARTICLE I.
Sect. I. The legislative power of this commonwealth shall be vested in a General Assembly which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Sect. 2. The Representatives shall be chosen annually …
Sect. 5. The Senators shall be chosen for four years … and shall never be … more than one third the number of Representatives …
Sect. 22. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Governor … [I]f he shall not approve it, he shall return it … If two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill … [a]nd if approved by two-thirds of [the Senate] … it shall be a law …
ARTICLE II.
Sect. I. The Supreme Executive Power of the commonwealth shall be vested in a Governor … Sect. 3. The Governor shall hold his office during three years …
Sect. 7. He shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of this commonwealth …
Sect. 8. He shall appoint all officers …
By this new Pennsylvania Constitution of 1790, Pennsylvania’s government will now resemble the British model that Vice President John Adams so favors. Though Pennsylvania will not institute property qualifications for voters or for office holders, the larger constituencies and longer terms of office for Pennsylvania state senators and for the Pennsylvania governor (as for U.S. senators and for the U.S. President) will have the same effect. The larger a candidate’s constituency, the more wealth, reputation, and influence he must have to become known to his constituents. The longer an officeholder’s term of office, the less is he immediately accountable to the people and the more he becomes susceptible to wealthy interest groups. Though Pennsylvania continues to have a lower (“people’s”) house of representatives, with small voting districts and annual elections, this assembly will be subject to veto by an independent governor and by the state senate. Franklin’s vision of democratic government has died in Pennsylvania. Soon too will Franklin. Tom Paine:
The [Pennsylvania] Constitution formed by the [Pennsylvania] Convention of 1776, of which Benjamin Franklin (the greatest and most useful man America has yet produced) was president, had many good points in it which were overthrown by the [Pennsylvania] Convention of 1790 under the pretense of making the Constitution conformable to that of the United States …
Investing any individual, by whatever name or official title he may be called, with a negative over the formation of the laws is copied from the English Government, without ever perceiving the inconsistency and absurdity of it when applied to the representative system …
The complaint respecting the Senate is the length of its duration, being four years. The sage Franklin has said, “Where annual election ends, tyranny begins” …1604
Tuesday, March 16, 1790. Today, from Paris, Tom Paine writes:
With respect to the French revolution, be assured that every thing is going on right. Little inconveniences, the necessary consequences of pulling down and building up, may arise; but even these are much less than ought to have been expected. Our friend, the Marquis [de Lafayette] is … acting a great part. I take over with me to London the key to the Bastile, which the Marquis entrusts to my care as his present to General Washington and which I shall send by the first American vessel to New York. It will be yet some months b
efore the new Constitution will be completed, at which time there is to be a procession, and I am engaged to return to Paris to carry the American flag.1605
Saturday, March 27, 1790. Today, Vice President Adams writes Francis Adrian Vanderkemp, his friend from the Netherlands:
With all your compliments and elogiums of my “Defence [of the Constitutions of Government of the United States],” would you believe that neither the whole nor any part of it has been translated into French? … No! The popular leaders have views that one assembly may favor but three branches would obstruct. Such is the lot of humanity. A Demagogue may hope to overawe a majority in a single elective assembly, but may dispair of overawing a majority of independent hereditary Senators, especially if they can be reinforced in case of necessity by an independent executive …
Our experience in America corresponds … The last year, a writer in Boston under the signature of Laro attacked the Governor, Mr. Hancock in a course of Newspapers … [A]n accident might have blown up these coals to aflame, and produced broken heads …
In the national election this last year, there was a very subtle but a very daring intrigue … Letters were written to the southern states representing that the Northern States would not vote for Washington and … that Adams was likely to have a unanimous vote, and Washington not; the effect was that [the southern states did not vote for Adams and that] Adams had not even a majority for fear of his having unanimity. The tendency of these things to confusion is obvious …
I confess Sir I can think of no remedy, but another [Constitutional] Convention. When bribery, corruption, intrigue, maneuver, violence, force, shall render elections too troublesome and too dangerous, another Convention must be called, who may prolong the period of Senators from six years to twelve or twenty or thirty or forty or for life; or if necessary propose the establishment of hereditary Senators … Let the people of [a state] elect their number of Senators or authorize the President to appoint them to hold their places for life descendible to their Eldest male heirs … And if the election of President should become terrible, I can conceive of no other method to preserve liberty, but to have a national convention called for the express purpose of electing an hereditary President. These appear to me the only hopes of our posterity …1606
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