A School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster

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[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United
States_, Vol. I., pp. 281-295, 304-329, 331-340; Fiske's _Critical
Period of American History_, pp. 168-186.]

%171. Congress proposes Amendments.%--Of the many defects in the
Articles, the Continental Congress was fully aware, and it had many a
time asked the states to make amendments. One proposed that Congress
should have power for twenty-five years to lay a tax of five per cent on
all goods imported, and use the money to pay the Continental debts.
Another was to require each state to raise by special tax a sum
sufficient to pay its yearly share of the current expenses of Congress.
A third was to bestow on Congress for fifteen years the sole power to
regulate trade and commerce. A fourth provided that in future the share
each state was to bear of the current expenses should be in proportion
to its population.

But the Articles of Confederation could not be amended unless all
thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never did consent, none
of these amendments were ever made.

%172. The States attempt to regulate Trade and fail.%--In the
meantime the states attempted to regulate trade for themselves. New York
laid double duties on English ships. Pennsylvania taxed a long list of
foreign goods. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island passed
acts imposing heavy duties on articles unless they came in American
vessels. But these laws were not uniform, and as many states took no
action, very little good was accomplished.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_,
Vol. I., pp. 246-259, 266-280; Fiske's _Critical Period of American
History_, 134-137, 145-147.]

%173. A Trade Convention called to meet at Annapolis,
1786.%[2]--Under these conditions, the business of the whole country
was at a standstill, and as Congress had no power to do anything to
relieve the distress, the state of Virginia sent out a circular letter
to her sister states. She asked them to appoint delegates to meet and
"take into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States."
Four (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) responded, and
their delegates, with those from Virginia, met at Annapolis in
September, 1786.

[Footnote 2: The report of this Annapolis convention is printed in
_Bulletin of Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State_,
No. 1, Appendix, pp. 1-5.]

CHAPTER XIII

MAKING THE CONSTITUTION

%174. Call for the Constitutional Convention.%--Finding that it could
do nothing, because so few states were represented, and because the
powers of the delegates were so limited, the convention recommended that
all the states in the Union be asked by Congress to send delegates to a
new convention, to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, "to take into
consideration the situation of the United States," and "to devise such
further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the
Constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of
the Union."

%175. The Philadelphia Convention.%[1]--Early in 1787 Congress
approved this movement, and during the summer of 1787 (May to September)
delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island sent none), sitting in secret
session at Philadelphia, made the Constitution of the United States.

[Footnote 1: All we know of the proceedings of this convention is
derived from the journals of the convention, the notes taken down by
James Madison, the notes of Yates of New York, and a speech by Luther
Martin of Maryland. They may be found in Elliot's _Debates_, Vol. IV.]

[Illustration: Independence Chamber[2]]

[Footnote 2: The room where the Constitution was framed.]

%176. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans%.--The story of that
convention is too long and too complicated to be told in full.[1] But
some of its proceedings must be noticed. While the delegates were
assembling, a few men, under the lead of Madison, met and drew up the
outline of a constitution, which was presented by the chairman of the
Virginia delegation, and was called the "Virginia plan." A little later,
delegates from the small states met and drew up a second plan, which was
the old Articles of Confederation with amendments. As the chairman of
the New Jersey delegation offered this, it was called the "New Jersey
plan." Both were discussed; but the convention voted to accept the
Virginia plan as the basis of the Constitution.

[Footnote 1: For short accounts, read "The Framers and the Framing of
the Constitution" in the _Century Magazine_, September, 1887, or
"Framing the Constitution," in McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp.
106-149, or Thorpe's _Story of the Constitution_, Chautauqua Course,
1891-92, pp. 111-148.]

%177. The Three Compromises.%--This plan called, among other things,
for a national legislature of two branches: a Senate and a House of
Representatives. The populous states insisted that the number of
representatives sent by each state to Congress should be in proportion
to her population. The small states insisted that each should send the
same number of representatives. For a time neither party would yield;
but at length the Connecticut delegates suggested that the states be
given an equal vote and an equal representation in the Senate, and an
unequal representation, based on population, in the House. The
contending parties agreed, and so made the first compromise.

But the decision to have representation according to population at once
raised the question, Shall slaves be counted as population? This divided
the convention into slave states and free (see p. 186), and led to a
second compromise, by which it was agreed that three fifths of all
slaves should be counted as population, for the purpose of apportioning
representation.

A third compromise sprang from the conflicting interests of the
commercial and the planting states. The planting states wanted a
provision forbidding Congress to pass navigation acts, except by a
two-thirds vote, and forbidding any tax on exports; three states also
wished to import slaves for use on their plantations. The free
commercial states wanted Congress to pass navigation laws, and also
wanted the slave trade stopped, because of the three-fifths rule. The
result was an agreement that the importation of slaves should not be
forbidden by Congress before 1808, and that Congress might pass
navigation acts, and that exports should never be taxed.

%178. The Election of President.%--Another feature of the Virginia
plan was the provision for a President whose business it should be to
see that the acts of Congress were duly enforced or executed. But when
the question arose, How shall he be chosen? all manner of suggestions
were made. Some said by the governors of the states; some, by the United
States Senate; some, by the state legislatures; some, by a body of
electors chosen for that purpose. When at last it was decided to have a
body of electors, the difficulty was to determine the manner of electing
the electors. On this no agreement could be reached; so the convention
ordered that the legislature of each state should have as many electors
of the President as it had senators and representatives in Congress, and
that these men should be appointed in such way as the legislatures of
the states saw fit to prescribe.

%179. Sources of the Constitution.%--An examination of the
Constitution shows that some of its features were new; that some were
drawn from the experience of the states under the Confederation; and
that others were borrowed from the various state constitutions. Among
those taken from state constitutions are such names as President,
Senate, House of Representatives, and such provisions as that for a
census, for the veto, for the retirement of one third of the Senate
every two years, that money bills shall originate in the House, for
impeachment, and for what we call the annual message.[1]

[Footnote 1: On the sources of the Constitution, read "The First Century
of the Constitution" in _New Princeton Review,_ September, 1887,
pp. 175-190.]

The features based directly on experience under the Articles of
Confederation are the provisions that the acts of Congress must be
_uniform_ throughout the Union; that the President may call out the
militia to repel invasion, to put down insurrection, and to maintain the
laws of the Union; that Congress shall have _sole_ power to regulate
_foreign trade_ and _trade between the states._ No state can now coin
money or print paper money, or make anything but gold or silver legal
tender. Congress now has power to lay taxes, duties, and excises. The
Constitution divides the powers of government between the legislative
department (Senate and House of Representatives); the executive
department (the President, who sees that laws and treaties are obeyed);
and the judicial department (Supreme Court and other United States
courts, which interpret the Constitution, the acts of Congress, and the
treaties).

The new features are the definition of treason and the limitation of its
punishment; the guarantee to every state of a republican form of
government; the swearing of state officials to support the Federal
Constitution; and the provision for amendment.

Among other noteworthy features are the creation of a United States
citizenship as distinct from a state citizenship, the limitation of the
powers of the states; and the provision that the Constitution, the acts
of Congress, and the treaties are "the supreme law of the land."

%180. Constitution submitted to the People.%--The convention ended
its work, and such members as were willing signed the Constitution on
September 17, 1787. Washington, as president of the convention, then
sent the Constitution to the Continental Congress sitting at New York
and asked it to transmit copies to the states for ratification. This was
done, and during the next few months the legislatures of most of the
states called on the people to elect delegates to conventions which
should accept or reject the Constitution.

%181. Ratification by the States.%--In many of these conventions
great objection was made because the new plan of federal government was
so unlike the Articles of Confederation, and certain changes were
insisted on. The only states that accepted it just as it was framed were
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, and Maryland.
Massachusetts, South Carolina, New Hampshire, New York, and Virginia
ratified with amendments. (For dates, see p. 176.)

%182. "The New Roof."%--The Constitution provided that when nine
states had ratified, it should go into effect "between the states so
ratifying." While it was under discussion the Federalists, as the
friends of the Constitution were named, had called it "the New Roof,"
which was going to cover the states and protect them from political
storms. They now represented it as completed and supported by eleven
pillars or states. Two states, Rhode Island and North Carolina, had not
ratified, and so were not under the New Roof, and were not members of
the new Union. Eleven states having approved, nothing remained but to
fix the particular day on which the electors of President should be
chosen, and the time and place for the meeting of the new Congress. This
the Continental Congress did in September, 1788, by ordering that the
electors should be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that
they should meet and vote for President on the first Wednesday in
February, and that the new Congress should meet at New York on the first
Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth day of the month.
Later, Congress by law fixed March 4 as the day on which the terms of
the Presidents begin and end.[1]

[Footnote 1: The question is often asked, When did the Constitution go
into force? Article VII. says, "The ratification of the conventions of
nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this
Constitution between the states so ratifying the same." New Hampshire,
the ninth state, ratified June 21, 1788, and on that day, therefore, the
constitution was "established" between the nine.]

%183. How Presidents were elected%.--It must not be supposed that our
first presidents were elected just as presidents are now. In our time
electors are everywhere chosen by popular vote. In 1788 there was no
uniformity. In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia the people had a
complete, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire a partial, choice. In
Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia the
electors were appointed by the legislatures. In New York the two
branches of the legislature quarreled, and no electors were chosen.

As the Constitution required that the electors should vote by ballot for
two persons, such as had been appointed met at their state capitals on
the first Wednesday in February, 1789, made lists of the persons voted
for, and sent them signed and certified under seal to the president of
the Senate. But when March 4, 1789, came, there was no Senate. Less than
a majority of that body had arrived in New York, so no business could be
done. When at length the Senate secured a majority, the House was still
without one, and remained so till April. Then, in the presence of the
House and Senate, the votes on the lists were counted, and it was found
that every elector had given one of his votes for George Washington, who
was thus elected President. No separate ballot was then required for
Vice President. Each elector merely wrote on his ballot the names of two
men. He who received the greatest number of votes, if, in the words of
the Constitution, "such number be a majority of the whole number of
electors appointed," was elected President. He who received the next
highest, even if less than a majority, was elected Vice President. In
1789 this man was John Adams of Massachusetts.

[Illustration: Federal Hall, New York[1]]

[Footnote 1: From an old print made in 1797.]

[Illustration: G Washington]

%184. The First Inauguration.%--As soon as Washington received the
news of his election, he left Mount Vernon and started for New York. His
journey was one continuous triumphal march. The population of every town
through which he passed turned out to meet him. Men, women, and children
stood for hours by the roadside waiting for him to go by. At New York
his reception was most imposing, and there, on April 30, 1789, standing
on the balcony in front of Federal Hall (p. 171), he took the oath of
office in the presence of Congress and a great multitude of people that
filled the streets, and crowded the windows, and sat on the roofs of the
neighboring houses.[1]

[Footnote 1: Full accounts of the inauguration of Washington may be
found in _Harper's Magazine_, and also in the _Century Magazine_, for
April, 1889.]

SUMMARY

1. When independence was about decided on, Congress appointed a
committee to draft a general plan of federal government.

2. This plan, called Articles of Confederation, Maryland absolutely
refused to ratify till the states claiming land west of the Alleghany
Mountains ceded their claims to Congress.

3. New York and Virginia having ceded their claims, Maryland ratified in
March, 1781.

4. These cessions were followed by others from Massachusetts and
Connecticut; and from them all, Congress formed the public domain to be
sold to pay the debt.

5. The sale of this land led to the land ordinance of 1785 and the
ordinance of 1787, for the government of the domain and the new
political organism called the territory.

6. The defects of the Articles made revision necessary, and produced
such distress that two conventions were called to consider the state of
the country. That at Annapolis attempted nothing. That at Philadelphia
framed the Constitution of the United States.

7. The Constitution was then passed to the Continental Congress, which
sent it to the legislatures of the states to be by them referred to
conventions elected by the people for acceptance or rejection.

8. Eleven having ratified, Congress in 1788 fixed a day in 1789 (which
happened to be March 4), when the First Congress under the Constitution
was to assemble.

9. The date of the first presidential election was also fixed, and
George Washington was made our first President.

/1776. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode
The Colonies adopt | Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Constitutions and --| Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North
become States. | Carolina, South Carolina.
|1777. New York, Georgia.
\1780. Massachusetts.

/Framed by Congress 1776-1777.
|Adopted by the states 1777-1781.
Articles of |In force March 1, 1781.
Confederation --|Kind of government.
|Defects. Result of the defects.
|Trade convention at Annapolis.
\Constitutional convention called.

/Proceedings of the convention.
|The three compromises.
Constitution of |Sources of the Constitution.
the United States.-|Original features.
|Derived features.
| Ratification by the states.
\The Constitution in force.

/Land claims of seven states.
|Demands for the surrender of \
|the western territory. |
The Territories. --|The cessions by the states. |--The Public
|Ordinance of 1785. | Domain.
|Ordinance of 1787. |
\Territorial government created./

The President. /Manner of electing.
\Inauguration of Washington.

The Congress. /Organization of the First
\under the Constitution.

/The Supreme Court
The Judiciary. --|The Circuit Court
\The District Court

/Secretary of State
The Secretaries. --|Secretary of Treasury
|Secretary of War
|The Attorney-general.
\Origin of the "Cabinet."

CHAPTER XIV

OUR COUNTRY IN 1790

%185. The States.%--What sort of a country, and what sort of people,
was Washington thus chosen to rule over? When, he was elected, the Union
was composed of eleven states, for neither Rhode Island nor North
Carolina had accepted the Constitution.[1] Vermont had never been a
member of the Union, because the Continental Congress would not
recognize her as a state.

[Footnote 1: The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below:
1. Delaware Dec. 7, 1787
2. Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787
3. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787
4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788
5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788
6. Massachusetts Feb. 7, 1788
7. Maryland April 28, 1788
8. South Carolina May 23, 1788
9. New Hampshire June 21, 1788
10. Virginia June 26, 1788
11. New York July 26, 1788
12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789
13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790]

[Illustration: The %UNITED STATES% March 4, 1789]

%186. Only a Part inhabited.%--Three fourths of our country was then
uninhabited by white men, and almost all the people lived near the
seaboard. Had a line been drawn along what was then the frontier, it
would (as the map on p. 177 shows) have run along the shore of Maine,
across New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, then south to the
Mohawk valley, then down the Hudson River, and southwestward across
Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then south along the Blue Ridge Mountains to
the Altamaha River in Georgia, and by it to the sea. How many people
lived here was never known till 1790. The Constitution of the United
States requires that the people shall be counted once in each ten years,
in order that it may be determined how many representatives each state
shall have in the House of Representatives; and for this purpose
Congress ordered the first census to be taken in 1790. It then appeared
that, excluding Indians, there were living in the eleven United States
3,380,000 human beings, or less than half the number of people who now
live in the single state of New York.

%187. How the People were scattered.%--More were in the Southern than
in the Eastern States. Virginia, then the most populous, contained one
fifth. Pennsylvania had a ninth, while in the five states of Maryland,
Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia were almost one half of the
English-speaking people of the United States. These were the planting
states, and, populous as they were, they had but two cities--Baltimore
and Charleston. Savannah, Wilmington, Alexandria, Norfolk, and
Richmond were small towns. Not one had 8000 people in it. Indeed, the
inhabitants of the six largest cities of the country (Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and Salem) taken together were
but 131,000.

[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES FIRST
CENSUS, 1790/]

[Illustration: Boston in 1790[1]]

[Footnote 1: From the _Massachusetts Magazine_, November, 1790.]

%188. The Cities.%--And how different these cities were from those of
our day! What a strange world Washington would find himself in if he
could come back and walk along the streets of the great city which now
stands on the banks of the Potomac and bears his name! He never in his
life saw a flagstone sidewalk, nor an asphalted street, nor a pane of
glass six feet square. He never heard a factory whistle; he never saw a
building ten stories high, nor an elevator, nor a gas jet, nor an
electric light; he never saw a hot-air furnace, nor entered a room
warmed by steam.

In the windows of shop after shop would be scores of articles familiar
enough to us, but so unknown to him that he could not even name them. He
never saw a sewing machine, nor a revolver, nor a rubber coat, nor a
rubber shoe, nor a steel pen, nor a piece of blotting paper, nor an
envelope, nor a postage stamp, nor a typewriter. He never struck a
match, nor sent a telegram, nor spoke through a telephone, nor touched
an electric bell. He never saw a railroad, though he had seen a rude
form of steamboat. He never saw a horse car, nor an omnibus, nor a
trolley car, nor a ferryboat. Fancy him boarding a street car to take a
ride. He would probably pay his fare with a "nickel." But the "nickel"
is a coin he never saw. Fancy him trying to understand the
advertisements that would meet his eye as he took his seat! Fancy him
staring from the window at a fence bright with theatrical posters, or at
a man rushing by on a bicycle!

[Illustration: Philadelphia in 1800 (Arch Street)]

%189. Newspapers and Magazines.%--A boy enters the car with half a
dozen daily newspapers all printed in the same city. In Washington's day
there were but four daily papers in the United States! On the news
counter of a hotel, one sees twenty illustrated papers, and fifty
monthly magazines. In his day there was no illustrated paper, no
scientific periodical, no trade journal, and no such illustrated
magazines as _Harper's, Scribner's_, the _Century, St. Nicholas_. All
the printing done in the country was done on presses worked by hand.
To-day the Hoe octuple press can print 96,000 eight-page newspapers an
hour. To print this number on the hand press shown in the picture would
have taken so long that when the last newspaper was printed the first
would have been three months old!

[Illustration: A Franklin press]

[Illustration: A fire bucket [1]]

[Footnote 1: Original in the Pennsylvania Historical Society.]

%190. The Fire Service.%--the ambulance, the steam fire engine, the
hose cart, the hook and ladder company, the police patrol, the police
officer on the street corner, the letter carrier gathering the mail, the
district messenger boy, the express company, the delivery wagon of the
stores, have all come in since Washington died. In his day the law
required every householder in the city to be a fireman. His name might
not appear on the rolls of any of the fire companies, he might not help
to drag through the streets the lumbering tank which served as a fire
engine, but he must have in his hall, or beneath the stairs, or hanging
up behind his shop door, at least one leathern bucket inscribed with his
name, and a huge bag of canvas or of duck. Then, if he were aroused at
the dead of night by the cry of fire and the clanging of every church
bell in the town, he seized this bucket and his bag, and, while his
wife put a lighted candle in the window to illuminate the street, set
off for the fire. The smoke or the flame was his guide, for the custom
of indicating the place by a number of strokes on a bell had not yet
come in. When at last he arrived at the scene he found there no idle
spectators. Every one was busy. Some hurried into the building and
filled their sacks with such movable goods as came nearest to hand. Some
joined the line that stretched away to the water, and helped to pass the
full buckets to those who stood by the fire. Others took posts in a
second line, down which the empty buckets were hastened to the pump. The
house would often be half consumed when the shouting made known that the
engine had come. It was merely a pump mounted over a tank. Into the tank
the water from the buckets was poured, and it was pumped thence by the
efforts of a dozen men.

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