Franklin & Washington
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123.George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, February 7, 1788, ibid., 6:96 (Washington added about the proposed federal government, “No objection ought to be made against the quantity of Power delegated to it”). Franklin also never questioned the powers granted to Congress and, at the Convention, proposed increasing them by adding the power to cut canals, which opened into a general discussion of congressional power to charter corporations (including banks) that ultimately ended in leaving these powers unstated and thus perhaps implied.
124.Marquis de Lafayette to George Washington, February 4, 1788, ibid., 6:85.
125.George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, April 28, 1788, ibid., 6:244–45. Noting how selection by independent electors guarded against “bribery and undue influence in the choice of President,” Washington commented on term limits and the power of impeachment, “There cannot, in my Judgement, be the least danger that the President will by any practicable intrigue ever be able to continue himself one moment in office, much less perpetuate himself in it—but in the last stage of corrupted morals and political depravity.” Of course, Washington could not foresee how the system would evolve under partisan government.
126.Farrand, September 17, 1787, 2:642. Franklin opened his speech by saying, “I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them.” Ibid., 2:641. Echoing Franklin, Washington soon wrote, “There are somethings in the new form, I will readily acknowledge, wch never did, and I am persuaded never will, obtain my cordial approbation.” G. Washington to Randolph, January 8, 1788, 6:18. Addressing his remarks to Washington at the Convention, Franklin stated, “I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best.” Farrand, September 17, 1787, 2:643.
127.Ibid., September 17, 1787, 2:642. Regarding the compromises, three days later, Franklin wrote about the Constitution, “The Forming of it so as to accomodate all the different Interests and Views was a difficult task.” B. Franklin to Mecom, September 20, 1787, 46:---. After further reflection, Franklin observed about the need for compromise in such settings, “The wisest must agree to some unreasonable things, that reasonable ones of more consequence may be obtained.” B. Franklin to du Pont de Nemours, June 9, 1788, 46:---. Echoing Franklin’s view that authority conferred on the president might lead to tyranny, Washington wrote privately to Lafayette that it would happen only “in the last stage of corrupted morals and political depravity” but added, “When a people shall have become incapable of governing themselves and fit for a master, it is of little consequences from what quarter he comes.” G. Washington to Lafayette, April 28, 1788, 6:245.
128.Benjamin Franklin to Count Castiglione, October 14, 1787, PBF, 46:---.
129.Regarding the novelty of a people framing their own form of government, see, e.g., George Washington to John Lathrop, June 22, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:349 (“a new phenomenon in the political & moral world”); George Washington to Edward Newenham, August 29, 1788, ibid., 6:387–88 (a “novel & astonishing Spectacle”).
130.Benjamin Franklin to Rodolphe-Ferdinand Grand, October 22, 1787, PBF, 46:---.
131.Farrand, September 17, 1787, 2:666–67 (letter to Congress, emphasis added).
132.Regarding the rapid publication of Franklin’s speech, Max Farrand wrote, “Franklin seems to have sent copies of this speech in his own handwriting to several of his friends, and one of these soon found its way into print.” Ibid., 2:614n1. Characterizing it as “insinuating persuasive,” Maryland delegate James McHenry cynically observed that whatever happened to the Constitution, Franklin’s speech “guarded the Doctor’s fame.” Ibid., September 17, 1787, 2:649.
133.Ibid., 2:648.
134.Ibid., 2:649.
135.Writing in his private diary on the body’s closing day, Washington depicted the work of the Convention as “momentous.” George Washington, “Journal,” September 17, 1787, in DGW 5:185.
136.Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, November 4, 1787, PBF, 46:---.
Chapter Seven: Darkness at Dawn
1.George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, February 7, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:95 (calling it “little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different states . . . should unite in forming a system of national Government”). One noted historian would use this point in the title for her book about the Convention: Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September, 1787 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1966).
2.A Confederationalist, “To the Editor,” Pennsylvania Evening Herald, October 27, 1787, 2.
3.“The Grand Constitution,” Columbian Herald, November 8, 1787, 4.
4.“From a Correspondent,” Pennsylvania Packet, September 22, 1787, 3.
5.“Assembly Proceedings,” September 17, 1787, in DHRC, 2:58.
6.“Assembly Proceedings,” September 18, 1787, in ibid., 2:60.
7.About Pennsylvania’s representation at the Convention, minority members of the assembly wrote, “We lamented at the time that a majority of our legislature appointed men to represent this state who were all citizens of Philadelphia, none of them calculated to represent the landed [or rural] interests of Pennsylvania, and almost all of them of one political party, men who have been uniformly opposed to [the state] constitution.” “The Address of the Seceding Assemblymen,” October 2, 1787, in ibid., 2:112.
8.“My Fellow Citizens,” Independent Gazetteer, November 17, 1787, 3. See also Centinel, “To the Freemen of Pennsylvania,” Independent Gazetteer, October 5, 1787, 2 (Pennsylvania federalists “flatter themselves that they have lulled all distrust and jealousy of their new plan by gaining the concurrence of the two men in whom America has the highest confidence”); “Northumberland, October 1787,” Pennsylvania Gazette, October 17, 1787, in DHRC, 2:179 (denying “that a WASHINGTON and his colleagues, whose interests and political salvation are inseparable from ours, would tender a constitution to their brethren fraught with such evils as is by that diabolical [anti-federalist] junto set forth”).
9.Centinel, “To the Freemen,” 2. The special interests that Centinel referred to in his essay were “the wealthy and the ambitious.” Centinel, it is now known, was Samuel Bryan, who lost his post as assembly clerk when the supporters of the old constitution lost control of that body in 1786.
10.“A Correspondent,” Independent Gazetteer, October 13, 1787, 2.
11.E.g., “A Federalist,” Independent Gazetteer, October 10, 1787, 3 (“Not even the immortal WASHINGTON, nor the venerable FRANKLIN escapes [Centinel’s] satire.”); “Mr. Printer,” Independent Gazetteer, October 10, 1787, 3 (condemning Centinel for depicting “Doctor Franklin as a fool from age, and General Washington as a fool from nature”).
12.One of the People, “To the Freeman of Pennsylvania,” The American Museum 2 (October 1787): 375. William Livingston was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention from New Jersey.
13.Gouverneur Morris to George Washington, October 30, 1787, PGW-CfS, 5:400.
14.The report first appeared in “Carlisle, January 2,” Carlisle Gazette, January 2, 1788, 3. It was reprinted eight days later in a newspaper that Washington generally read, the Pennsylvania Packet, and subsequently appeared in more than three dozen newspapers, from New Hampshire to Georgia.
15.George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, January 31, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:74.
16.E.g., James Madison to George Washington, December 26, 1787, ibid., 5:510.
17.One of the People, “For the Centinel,” Massachusetts Centinel, October 15, 1787, 34. In a similar manner though now omitting the still uncommitted Hancock, the same source wrote in November about supporting the Constitution, “To mention a WASHINGTON, a FRANKLIN, a MADDISON, a KING and a GORHAM, I think sufficient.” One of the People, Massachusetts Centinel, “Federal Constitution,” November 17, 1787, 69.
18.E.g., Nathan Dane to Henry Knox, December 27, 1787, DHRC, 5:527 (“since I arrived here [Bost
on] yesterday I find the elections of the province of Main and in the three Western Counties have not been so much in favor of the Constitution as supposed”); Edward Bangs to George Thatcher, January 1, 1788, ibid., 5:571.
19.James Madison to George Washington, February 3, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:83 (including transcription of a letter from Massachusetts Constitutional Convention delegate Nathanial Gorham).
20.Let Us Think on This, “Federal Constitution,” Massachusetts Centinel, November 10, 1787, 63.
21.“By Last Night’s Mail,” Massachusetts Gazette, October 19, 1787, 2.
22.E.g., “Extract of a Letter,” Massachusetts Gazette, January 25, 1788, 3 (“It is free from many of the imperfections with which it is charged,” the letter added regarding the Constitution).
23.“The Massachusetts Convention, Monday, 21 January 1788,” in DHRC, 6:1287 (Abraham White), 1296 (Amos Singletary), 1297 (Martin Kingsley).
24.Benjamin Lincoln to George Washington, January 27, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:68.
25.James Madison to George Washington, February 8, 1788, ibid., 6:101 (including transcription of a letter from Massachusetts Constitutional Convention delegate Rufus King).
26.James Madison to George Washington, February 1, 1788, ibid., 6:77 (including transcription of a letter from King).
27.George Washington to John Jay, March 3, 1788, ibid., 6:139.
28.Ibid; George Washington to Henry Knox, March 3, 1788, ibid., 6:140; James Madison to George Washington, February 15, 1788, ibid., 6:115.
29.For a classic portrayal of Hancock, including his dramatic wearing of regal purple during his service as the first president of the Continental Congress following independence, see Herbert S. Allan, John Hancock: Patriot in Purple (New York: Macmillan, 1948).
30.“Boston, February 21,” Independent Chronicle (Boston), February 21, 1788, 3. It was a common practice at such celebrations to make thirteen toasts to correspond with the number of states, but not to make them for those states.
31.“New-York, February 18,” The Daily Advertiser (New York), February 18, 1788, 2.
32.Rufus King to George Washington, February 6, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:93– 94. Lincoln sent Washington a similar letter on the same day: Benjamin Lincoln to George Washington, February 6, 1788, ibid., 6:94.
33.George Washington to Rufus King, February 29, 1788, ibid., 6:133. Writing to Madison three days later, Washington described the Massachusetts vote as “a severe stoke to the opponents of the proposed Constitution” that “will have a powerful operation on the minds of Men.” George Washington to James Madison, March 2, 1788, ibid., 6:136–37.
34.“The Massachusetts Convention, Monday, 4 February 1788,” in DHRC, 6:1417 (Thomas Thatcher).
35.The other three states were Georgia (January 2), Connecticut (January 9), and Maryland (April 28). In all four, the support of Washington and Franklin carried influence. E.g., an article in a leading South Carolina newspaper declared, “God grant that there may be wisdom and goodness enough still found among the majority to adopt, without hesitation, what a WASHINGTON, a FRANKLIN, a MADDISON, &c. so warmly recommended.” “Extract of a Letter,” Columbian Herald, December 6, 1787, 2. Washington directly intervened in the Maryland ratifying process by sending letters to key federalists, urging them to proceed rapidly with ratification as a means to advance prospects elsewhere. “Postponement of the question would be tantamount to the final rejection of it,” Washington advised James McHenry, and “would have the worst tendency imaginable,” he added to Thomas Johnson. In both letters, Washington noted his past reluctance to “meddle,” as he called it, in “this political dispute,” and attributed his change of heart to “the evils and confusions which will result from the rejection of the proposed Constitution.” George Washington to James McHenry, April 27, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:234; George Washington to Thomas Johnson, April 20, 1788, ibid., 6:218.
36.[Benjamin Franklin] to Editor, Federal Gazette (Philadelphia), April 8, 1788, in PBF, 47:---.
37.See, e.g., George Washington to Henry Knox, March 30, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:183; George Washington to John Langdon, April 2, 1788, ibid., 6:187; G. Washington to Jefferson, April 20, 1788, ibid., 6:218.
38.In a letter from this period, Washington observed that in terms of population and wealth, Virginia “certainly stands first in the Union,” but added that “Virginians entertain too high an opinion of the importance of their” state. George Washington to Bushrod Washington, November 9, 1787, PGW-CfS, 5:422.
39.George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, September 24, 1787, ibid., 5:339. In this letter, Washington wrote that “the political concerns of this Country are, in a manner, suspended by a thread” and that if the Convention had not agreed on the Constitution, “anarchy would soon have ensued.” Washington sent the same letter to two other former governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Nelson. Ibid., 5:240.
40.In October, Washington wrote, “It is highly probable that the refusal of our Governor and Colo. Mason to subscribe to the proceedings of the Convention will have a bad effect in this state.” George Washington to Henry Knox, October 15, 1788, ibid., 5:376.
41.As early as December 1787, Tobias Lear, Washington’s personal secretary, expressed this concern in a letter from Mount Vernon to Washington’s old friend, New Hampshire federalist John Langdon. “If I may be allowed to form an opinion of what would be his wish,” Lear wrote of Henry in a message that likely reflected Washington’s thinking as well, “it is to divide the Southern States from the others. Should this take place, Virginia would hold the first place among them, & he the first place in Virginia.” Tobias Lear to John Langdon, December 3, 1787, DHRC, 8:197. Madison regularly expressed this concern in letters to Washington and others, and it was often raised in Virginia newspapers. E.g., James Madison to Edmund Randolph, January 10, 1787, PJM, 10:355; A Freeholder, Virginia Independent Chronicle, April 9, 1788, in DHRC, 9:728.
42.See, e.g., ibid.; George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, April 2, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:187; George Washington to John Armstrong, April 25, 1788, ibid., 6:226.
43.“The Virginia Convention, Wednesday, 4 June 1788,” in DHRC, 9:929–31 (Patrick Henry).
44.Harlow Giles Unger, Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2010), 212.
45.“The Virginia Convention, Wednesday, 4 June 1788,” in DHRC, 9:931–35 (Edmund Randolph).
46.James Madison to George Washington, June 4, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:313– 14. In April, Washington had reported not knowing the sentiments of the Kentucky members. G. Washington to Lincoln, April 2, 1788, ibid., 6:188.
47.Complaining about “the desultory manner in which [Henry] has treated the subject,” at this point, Henry Lee noted that Patrick Henry “seems to have discarded in a great measure, solid argument and strong reasoning, and has established a new system of throwing those bolts, which he has so peculiar a dexterity at discharging.” “The Virginia Convention, Monday, 9 June 1788,” in DHRC, 9:1072 (Henry Lee). Bushrod Washington made a similar comment in a June 7 letter to George Washington. Bushrod Washington to George Washington, June 7, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:316 (calling the debates “general and desultory” or random).
48.James Madison to George Washington, June 13, 1788, ibid., 6:326.
49.James Madison to George Washington, June 23, 1788, ibid., 6:351–52.
50.“The Virginia Convention, Tuesday, 24 June 1788,” in DHRC, 10:1498 (William Grayson).
51.James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, July 12, 1788, ibid., 10:1705.
52.George Washington to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, June 28, 1788, PGW-CfS, 6:361–62; George Washington to Tobias Lear, June 29, 1788, ibid., 6:364.
53.George Washington, “Journal,” June 28, 1788, in DGW, 5:351.
54.“PHILADELPHIA, July 4,” Massachusetts Gazette, July 15, 1788, 2–3.
55.Hugh Blair Grigsby, The History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788 (Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1890), 1:157n142. The difficulty in knowing exactly what terms Henry used even in his most quota
ble speeches is discussed in a 2018 article by John Rogosta, which quotes from Henry’s near contemporary biographer, William Wirt: “Even when Henry’s speeches were ostensibly recorded contemporaneously by stenographers—for example at Virginia’s convention for ratification of the Constitution or during the British Debts Case in federal court—it was reported that stenographers could not follow either ‘the captivating flights of Mr. Henry’s fancy, or those unexpected and overwhelming assaults which he made on the hearts of his judges.’” John A. Ragosta, “‘Caesar Had His Brutus’: What Did Patrick Henry Really Say?” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 126 (2018): 182–83 (quoting from Wirt’s 1817 biography). Even in 1788, using the “n word” in this setting would qualify as unexpected and overwhelming, but eyewitness accounts confirm it.
56.“The Virginia Convention, Tuesday, 24 June 1788,” in DHRC, 10:1476 (Patrick Henry).
57.Ibid.
58.“The Virginia Convention, Tuesday, 17 June 1788,” in ibid., 10:1341 (Patrick Henry). With respect to the vulnerability of slavery, George Mason agreed with Henry that Congress “might totally annihilate that kind of property” through taxation. Ibid., 10:1343 (George Mason).
59.“The Virginia Convention, Tuesday, 24 June 1788,” in ibid., 10:1503 (James Madison).
60.Ibid., 10:1483 (Edmund Randolph).
61.“The Virginia Convention, Tuesday, 17 June 1788,” in ibid., 10:1339 (James Madison).
62.“The Virginia Convention, Tuesday, 24 June 1788,” in ibid., 10:1483 (Edmund Randolph).
63.Farrand, May 29, 1787, 1:20–21 (text of Virginia Plan).
64.“The Virginia Convention, Tuesday, 24 June 1788,” in DHRC, 10:1504 (Patrick Henry). Earlier that day, Henry had said about Congress and emancipation under the Constitution, “They have the power in clear unequivocal terms.” Ibid., 10:1476. Henry was a slippery debater, but first saying the power was express and then (under pressure to prove it) saying it was implied represented a major gaffe. Before this sophisticated audience, Madison beat Henry at every turn.