Sunday, January 7, 1787. John Adams is not the only American with monarchical leanings. Today, New Yorker John Jay writes George Washington about the upcoming Federal Constitutional Convention:
What is to be done? …
Would the giving any further power to Congress do the business? I am much inclined to think it would not …
Large assemblies often misunderstand or neglect the obligations of character, honour, and dignity …
Shall we have a king? Not in my opinion while other experiments remain untried. Might we not have a governor-general limited in his prerogatives and duration? Might not Congress be divided into an upper and lower house—the former appointed for life, the latter annually—and let the governor-general … have a negative on their acts? Our government should in some degree be suited to our manners and circumstances, and they, you know, are not strictly democratical.1487
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1787
The Pennsylvania Gazette
BOSTON. January 16 … An A D D R E S S to the good people of the Commonwealth [of Massachusetts] …
It is now become evident that the object of the insurgents is to annihilate our present happy constitution, or to force the General Court [Massachusetts legislature] into measures repugnant … If the constitution is to be destroyed, and insurrection stalk unopposed by authority, individuals … will … meet force with force … I must conjure the good people of Massachusetts … to cooperate with government in every necessary action …
Given at the Council-chamber in Boston, the twelfth day of January, 1787 …
JAMES BOWDOIN
[Governor of Massachusetts]
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1787
The Pennsylvania Gazette
WORCESTER, [Massachusetts], January 25. Last Monday, Major General Lincoln, with the troops under his command, arrived in town, in order to protect the court of common pleas … These courts have been violently obstructed in their business by bodies of armed men ever since September last … General Shepherd, with 1200 of the militia of the county of Hampshire, in support of government is posted at Springfield …
Friday, February 9, 1787. Today, in Philadelphia, as if anticipating John Adams’ Defence, Benjamin Franklin, Tom Paine, and other republicans form the “Society for Political Enquiries” to counter monarchical influences.1488 Society president Ben Franklin will host the biweekly meetings at Franklin Court. Tom Paine writes its statement of purpose, including:
Accustomed to look up to those nations from whom we have derived our origin, [we have] … grafted on an infant commonwealth the manner of ancient and corrupted monarchies. In having effected a separate government, we have as yet effected but a partial independence. The Revolution can only be said to be complete when we shall have freed ourselves no less from the influence of foreign prejudices than from the fetters of foreign power … From a desire of supplying this deficency … it is now proposed to establish a society for mutual improvement in the knowledge of government …1489
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1787
The Pennsylvania Gazette
BOSTON. February 1. Copy of a letter from the Honorable General Shepherd to his Excellency the Governor [of Massachusetts], dated Springfield, [Massachusetts] January 26, 1787 …
The unhappy time has come in which we have been obliged to shed blood. [Daniel] Shays who was at the head of about 1200 men, marched yesterday afternoon about 4 o’clock towards the public buildings, in battle array …
I then ordered Major Stephens who commanded the artillery to fire upon them, he accordingly did … The fourth or fifth shot put the whole column into the utmost confusion. Shays made an attempt to display the column, but in vain … Had I disposed to destroy them, I might have charged upon their rear and flanks, with my infantry and two pieces, and could have killed the greater part of his whole army within twenty-five minutes …
John Adams’ Massachusetts constitution is safe! John Adams:
In justice to myself, I ought to say, that it was not the miserable vanity of justifying my own work [the Massachusetts constitution], or eclipsing the glory of Mr. Franklin’s, that induced me to write [my Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States].
I never thought of writing till the Assembly of Notables in France had commenced a revolution, with the Duke de la Rochefoucauld and Mr. Condorcet at their head, who I knew would establish a government in one assembly …
At the same time, every western wind brought us news of town and county meetings in Massachusetts, adopting Mr. Turgot’s ideas [of government by a single assembly], condemning my [Massachusetts] Constitution, reprobating the office of governor and the assembly of the Senate as expensive, useless, and pernicious, and not only proposing to toss them off, but rising in rebellion against them …
[I]n this view I wrote my defence of the American Constitutions. I had only the Massachusetts Constitution in view, and such others as agreed with it in the distribution of the legislative power into three branches, in separating the executive from the legislative power …1490
Thursday, February 22, 1787. Today, in Paris, the King of France convenes, for the first time since 1626, a meeting of an Assembly of Notables (144 members, including seven princes of the blood, the leading archbishops, seven dukes, eight marshals, nine marquis, nine counts, a baron, presidents of parliaments, etc.) to deal with the 3-4 billion livres of debt that has put France on the verge of bankruptcy. Former Finance Minister Turgot’s warning, in April of 1775, that France could not afford a protracted war for the independence of the United States has proved to be correct. The 1.225-billion-livre debt incurred in preparing for and fighting the “national war” has created a crisis.1491
Thomas Jefferson:
The [French Finance] Minister (Calonne) stated to them that the annual excess of expences beyond the revenue, when Louis XVI. came to the throne, was 37. millions of livres; that 440. millns, had been borrowed to reestablish the navy; that the American war had cost them 14440. millns. (256. mils. of Dollars) and that the interest of these sums, with other increased expences, had added 40 mllns. more to the annual deficit …1492
Monday, March 19, 1787. Today, General Henry Knox writes George Washington concerning the upcoming Constitutional Convention:
As you have thought proper, my dear Sir, to request my opinion respecting your attendance at the [federal constitutional] convention, I shall give it … I take it for granted that … you will be constrained to accept of the president’s chair. Hence the proceedings of the convention will more immediately be appropriated to you … Were the convention to propose only amendments and patchwork to the present defective confederation, your reputation would in a degree suffer. But, were an energetic and judicious system to be proposed with your signature, it would … doubly entitle you to the glorious republican epithet, The Father of your Country.1493
George Washington will attend and preside.
Tuesday, March 20, 1787. Today, in London, Abigail Adams writes her son, John Quincy Adams:
Your papa enjoys better Health than he has for many years … Before this reaches you, his Book will have arrived. I should like to know its reception. I tell him they will think in America that he is for sitting up a King. He says no, but he is for giving the Governors of every state the same Authority which the British king has under the true British constitution, balancing his power by the two other Branches …1494
Sunday, April 15, 1787. Tom Paine will shortly leave for France. Today, Ben Franklin writes a letter of introduction to the Duc de La Rochefoucauld:
I am glad to see that you are named as one of the general assembly to be convened in France. I flatter myself that great good may accrue to that dear nation from the deliberations of such an assembly …
I send herewith a volume of the transactions of our Philosophical Society, another for M. de Condorcet, and a third for the Academy …
The bearer of this is Mr. Paine, the author of a famous piece entitled Common Sense, published here, with great effect
. He is an ingenious honest man, and as such I beg leave to recommend him to your civilities.1495
Tuesday, April 17, 1787. Today, Ben Franklin writes the Marquis François-Jean de Chastellux (who served in the American Revolution with French General Rochambeau):
The newspapers tell us that you are about to have an assembly of Notables to consult on improvements of your government. It is somewhat singular that we should be engaged in the same project here at the same time, but so it is, and a convention for the purpose of revising and amending our constitution is to meet in this place next month. I hope both assemblies will be blessed with success, and that their deliberations and counsels may promote the happiness of both nations.
In the state of Pennsylvania, government, notwithstanding our parties, goes on at present very smoothly … Massachusetts has lately been disturbed by some disorderly people … Mr. Paine whom you know, and who undertakes to deliver this letter to you, can give you full information on our affairs.1496
Thursday, April 26, 1787. Today, one month before the Federal Constitutional Convention, Thomas Paine leaves for France.1497 He will not participate in America’s Constitutional Convention. For Paine, America’s revolution is complete, and France’s revolution is about to begin. He will arrive in France, just as he did in America, with letters of introduction from Benjamin Franklin.
Tuesday, May 8, 1787. Today, Ben Franklin writes a foundry customer, Francis Childs of New York, who has complained about the type fonts he has received from Franklin’s foundry:
You are always complaining of imperfections in the Founts … They were all cast after the best Rules of the Foundries in England … However, to oblige you … you shall have the Sorts you want if you send a List of them in Numbers. My grandson [Ben Bache] will cast them as soon as he has taken his Degree and got clear of the College; for then he purposes to apply himself closely to the Business of Letter founding, and this is expected in July next.1498
Sunday, May 12, 1787. Today, New Yorker John Jay writes John Adams with praise for Adams’ Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Against the Attack of M. Turgot:
Accept my thanks for the book you were so kind as to send me. I have read it with pleasure and with profit … A new edition of your book is printing in this city and will be published next week.1499
Friday, May 25, 1787. Today, in France, the Assembly of Notables (i.e., high clergy and nobility) adjourns without deciding the taxes to resolve France’s financial crisis. During its meeting, the French hero of the American Revolution the Marquis de Lafayette proposed that the common people (the “Third Estate”) join the clergy (the “First Estate”) and nobility (the “Second Estate”) to decide on any taxes that might be required.1500 The principle is new to France but not to America: no taxation without representation.
Because the Assembly of Notables has declined to act, the king will be forced to convoke the Estates-General (including the Third Estate), so representatives of the common people will come to Paris. They will also begin a democratic revolution.1501
Today, in Philadelphia, representatives of thirteen United States of America meet in convention to decide upon a new federal Constitution. Though the deliberations of the convention are in secret, James Madison of Virginia records the debates:
Mr. ROBERT MORRIS … proposed George Washington Esq. late Commander in chief for president of the Convention …
The nomination came with particular grace from Penna. as Doctor Franklin alone could have been thought of as a competitor … [T]he state of the weather and of [Dr. Franklin’s] health confined him to his house.1502
Saturday, May 26, 1787. Today, Thomas Paine arrives at Havre-de-Grâce in France.1503
Monday, May 28, 1787. Today, in Philadelphia, four convicts from the Walnut-street prison carry the incapacitated eighty-two-year-old Benjamin Franklin to the Federal Constitutional Convention.1504
Thursday, May 31, 1787. Today, at the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, James Madison records:
The … Resolution “that the national Legislature ought to consist of two branches” was agreed to without debate or dissent, except that of Pennsylvania, given probably from complaisance to Doctor Franklin who was understood to be partial to a single House of Legislation.1505
Friday, June 1, 1787. Today, at the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, James Madison records:
The Committee of the whole proceeded to Resolution … “that a national executive be instituted, to be chosen by the national legislature …”
Mr. WILSON moved that the Executive consist of a single person …
A considerable pause ensuing and the Chairman asking if he should put the question, Doctor FRANKLIN observed that it was a point of great importance and wished that the gentlemen would deliver their sentiments on it before the question was put …
Mr. RANDOLPH strenuously opposed a unity in the Executive magistracy. He regarded it as the foetus of monarchy. We had, he said, no motive to be governed by the British Government as our prototype …
Mr. MADISON thought it would be proper, before a choice should be made between a unity and a plurality in the Executive, to fix the extent of the Executive authority …
Mr. SHERMAN was for the appointment [of the Executive] by the Legislature and for making him absolutely dependent on that body, as it was the will of that which was to be executed …1506
Saturday, June 2, 1787. Today, Benjamin Rush, a Pennsylvania delegate to the Federal Constitutional convention, writes Englishman Richard Price:
Mr. Adams’ book [Defence of the Constitutions …] has diffused such excellent principles among us that there is little doubt of our adopting a vigorous and compounded [two-chamber] federal legislature. Our illustrious minister in this gift to his country has done us more service than if he had obtained alliances for us with all the nations of Europe.1506a
Today, at the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, James Madison records:
Doct. FRANKLIN moved [that] … the Executive … receive no salary … [T]there will always be a party for giving more to the rulers … Generally indeed the ruling party carries its point, the revenues of princes always increasing … The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater the need the prince has of money to distribute among his partizans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance … I am apprehensive, therefore, perhaps too apprehensive, that the Government of these States may in future times end in a Monarchy. But this Catastrophe I think may be long delayed if, in our proposed System, we do not … [make] our posts of honor, places of profit. If we do, I fear that tho’ we do employ at first [for the Executive] a number [of people], and not a single person, the number will in time be set aside [and] it will only nourish the foetus of a King … [S]hall we doubt finding three or four men in all the U. States with public spirit enough … to preside [without pay] over our civil concerns and see our laws are duly executed?1507
Monday, June 4, 1787. Today, at the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, one hears John Adams in the voice of Alexander Hamilton. James Madison records:
Mr. HAMILTON move[s] … to give the Executive an absolute negative [veto] on the laws …
Doctor FRANKLIN said he was sorry to differ … He had had some experience of this check in the Executive on the Legislature, under the proprietary Government of Penn. The negative of the Governor was constantly made use of to extort money … When the indians were scalping the western people and notice of it arrived, the concurrence of the Governor in the means of self-defence could not be got till it was agreed that his Estate should be exempted from taxation … He was afraid; if a negative should be given as proposed, that more power and money would be demanded, till as last eno’ would be gotten to influence & bribe the Legislature into a compleat subjection to the will of the Executive …
Col. MASON observed … The probable abuses of a negative [veto] had been well explained by Dr
. F … The Executive may refuse its assent to necessary measures till new appointments shall be referred to him … We are not indeed constituting a British Government, but a more dangerous monarchy, an elective one …
Doctor FRANKLIN … [said] The first man put at the helm will be a good one. No body knows what sort may come afterwards. The Executive will always be increasing here, as elsewhere, till it ends in Monarchy.1508
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 1787
The Pennsylvania Gazette
[Adv. front pg., top left]
Just published, and to be sold by HALL and SELLERS; J. CRUKSHANK; and YOUNG and M’CULLOCH
(Price 7∫6 bound, or 6∫ in blue covers.)
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. By JOHN ADAMS, LL. D …
Member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston.
Monday, June 11, 1787. Today, at the Federal Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin delivers a speech on proportional representation:
I … think the Number of Representatives should bear some Proportion to the Number of the Represented, and that the Decisions should be by the Majority of members, not by the Majority of States …
[T]he present method of voting by States was submitted to originally by Congress under a Conviction of its Impropriety, Inequality, and Injustice …1509
Monday, June 18, 1787. Today, at the Federal Constitutional Convention, Alexander Hamilton echoes the ideas of John Adams. James Madison records:
Mr. HAMILTON had been hitherto silent on the business before the Convention … He was obliged therefore to declare himself … The members of Cong[res]s, being chosen by the States & subject to recall, represent all the local prejudices … It is ag[ain]st all the principles of a good Government to vest the requisite powers in such a body as Cong[res]s …
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