Henry Knox

by Mark Puls

  On September 26, 1786, approximately 500 renegades under Daniel Shays, a former captain during the Revolution and a veteran of Bunker Hill, stormed the state supreme court and demanded that it close its doors.

  Knox was embarrassed that the national army could not provide help in reining in the unrest—or even to fully protect its own armory at Springfield. Rumors spread that Shays planned to seize the arsenal of weapons. The Massachusetts governor called up 4,000 state militiamen, who were placed under the command of General Lincoln. The state was bankrupt; donations for the effort had to be coughed up by local businessmen and affluent citizens. The troops were hastily sent to Springfield, where the armory housed 1,300 barrels of powder, 7,000 muskets, and 200 tons of shot and shell. Knox reported from Hartford to Congress on Sunday, October 1, that the number of renegades had quickly swelled to 1,200, and were armed with bayonets, muskets, and even sticks.16

  The rebels marched to Springfield, where they intimidated the state supreme court from sitting. Knox wrote an urgent note to Congress on October 3, reporting that the national armory was in danger and that the insurgents had formed ranks: "They were embodied in a military manner, and exceedingly eager to be led to action, but the prudence of their leader prevented an attack on the government troops.“17

  It seemed to Knox as if the fabric of society was unraveling. According to intelligence, Shays was gaining sympathetic support in the neighboring states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. Many people welcomed the possibility of annihilating all debts. Throughout the crisis, Knox sent regular reports to Mount Vernon to keep Washington abreast of the situation. Writing on October 23, he stated that the country could no longer wait and that a stronger constitution had become absolutely necessary to prevent lawlessness from spinning out of control. If Americans thought that liberty and reason would elevate them above the shortcomings of human nature, they had been sadly mistaken: "Our government must be braced, changed or altered to secure our lives and property. We imagined that the mildness of our government and the wishes of the people were so correspondent that we were not as other nations, requiring brutal force to support the laws."

  Congressional delegates led by Alexander Hamilton decided to use an economic conference slated for May 1787 to overhaul the Articles of Confederation. Knox pressed Washington's sense of duty and patriotism in admonishing him to support the convention and changes to the Articles: "Every friend to the liberty of his country is bound to reflect, and step forward to prevent the dreadful consequences which shall result from a government of events.“18

  Washington became alarmed as he read Henry's words. He quoted extensively from Knox's letter in a November 5 note to Virginia congressman James Madison, lamenting that the British had apparently been correct in scoffing: "Leave them [Americans] to themselves, and their government will soon dissolve.“19

  Knox, characteristically, took it upon himself to come up with a solution, and created a blueprint for a new constitution, which he sent to Washington in a letter written Sunday, January 14, 1787, offering it for consideration at the Philadelphia convention: "Where I to presume to give my own judgment, it would be in favor of the convention, and I sincerely hope it may be generally attended."

  Knox's "Plan for a General Government" resembled to a remarkable degree the eventual outline of the U.S. Constitution. Knox seemed almost prescient in his ability to anticipate the country's next step and offer sound suggestions that would closely reflect the eventual remedy. He already believed that the Articles of Confederation could not merely be altered to solve the nation's problems; the present form of government needed to be swept away and a completely new plan formulated. He told Washington that it was not premature to begin thinking of a new constitution even before the Philadelphia convention convened: "It would be prudent to form the plan of a new house before we pull down the old one."

  In laying out his solution, Knox acknowledged that an ideal American constitution should establish a democratic republican government but that the federal government needed the power to oversee the state governments and set the course for the entire country.

  His proposed a federal government that would consist of three branches: an executive, a legislative, and a judiciary. The legislature would be bicameral, with House members serving one- to three-year terms and senators serving five- to seven-year terms. The executive would be chosen to a seven-year term by the House and the Senate, and could be impeached by House members and tried in the Senate. The judiciary would be chosen by the executive and serve for life during good behavior.

  Knox thought that the sovereignty of the United States should reside with the federal government: "The laws passed by the general government to be obeyed by the local [state] governments."

  He realized that his proposal for a powerful central government was a drastic step, but he believed the time for half-measures had long passed. To Washington, he stated: "To attempt to establish less will be to hazard the existence of republicanism, and to subject us either to a division of the European powers, or to a despotism arising from high-handed commotions.“20

  Knox was aware of Washington's desire to remain out of politics and continue a life of tranquil seclusion as a Mount Vernon planter. But Henry believed that the crisis caused by the weak national government had become too serious to ignore. "There may indeed arise some solemn occasions in which you may conceive it to be your duty again to exert your utmost talents to promote the happiness of your country," he admonished Washington.

  Shays's men closed in on the Springfield armory on Thursday, January 25. Shays appeared outside, shouting his demand for military stores and provisions for his men. The troops inside the armory threatened to fire, and Shays ordered his men to seize the arsenal. When the rebels came within 300 yards, a shot was fired over their heads. When they stepped within 100 yards of the arsenal, the soldiers lowered the sight of a cannon and fired a blast of grapeshot directly into the throng.

  Three men were killed and another lay wounded. The insurgents fled, retreating to Pelham.

  Knox returned to New York to await intelligence reports. He threw himself into the cause of promoting a new constitution and rounding up support for the Philadelphia convention, writing to prominent leaders urging the necessity of changes and exploring legal means for replacing the Articles of Confederation. To Massachusetts congressman Stephen Higginson, he wrote on Sunday, January 28, that the "poor, poor federal government is sick almost unto death." Some politicians questioned the legality of the upcoming convention and pointed out that it had no authority to change the Articles of Confederation. Only Congress had a public mandate from voters.

  Knox suggested to Higginson that the convention and new constitution could be established legally by following the steps that both Congress and the Articles had to become the law of the land: The state legislatures could elect delegates to the convention and a new constitution could be sent to the states for ratification. Knox asked the rhetorical question: "Would not this, to all intents and purposes, be a government derived from the people and assented to by them as much as they assented to the confederation?“21

  In Massachusetts, Shays and his insurgents retreated to Worcester County and stopped at Petersham on Saturday, February 4. General Lincoln's militia caught up with them by 8 P.M. In a surprise attack, the next morning 150 rebels were taken prisoner as the renegades dispersed in all directions. Shays escaped.

  In Knox's updates to Washington, he reported the encouraging news. But he continued to pin his hopes for a long-term solution to the national troubles on the Philadelphia convention. Washington was uncertain, however, whether to attend and was concerned that the event might tarnish his reputation if it failed. He was among those who questioned the legality of the convention. Yet like Knox, Washington had little faith that the delegates were capable of fostering the kind of fundamental changes needed to steady the national government. He did offer his opinion on Knox's plan for a federal government; he thought it ce
rtainly represented a more effective constitution than Articles of Confederation but that Knox was perhaps overly optimistic and far reaching. Washington believed that state leaders would never give up any of their power and submit to the authority of a central government. To Knox, he wrote in early February: "The System on which you seem disposed to build a national government is certainly more energetic, and I dare say, in every point of view more desirable than the present one."

  After Shays fled to Vermont, the insurgency was soon broken. Many of the rebels returned to their homes, and Lincoln's militia restored order. Knox informed Congress on Monday, February 12, that "the rebellion in Massachusetts is in a fair train of being speedily and effectually suppressed.“22

  Two days later, he sent a letter to Benjamin Lincoln congratulating him on his handling of the Shays crisis and urging his friend to support the Philadelphia convention and a new constitution. "The convention will be at liberty to consider more diffusively the defects of the present system than Congress can, who are the executors of a certain system.“23

  On February 21, Congress sanctioned the Philadelphia convention to be held beginning on May 14, and recommended that state legislatures choose delegates to attend for the purpose of revising or amending the Articles of Confederation and that the changes would be sent back to the states for approval. This was the plan that Knox had supported.

  As the date for the convention approached, Washington felt mounting pressure to attend. Uncertain where his duty lay, he turned to Knox and a close circle of advisors. In a letter to Knox written Thursday, March 8, he asked: "Inform me confidentially what the public expectation is on this head, that is, whether I will, or ought to be there? You are much in the way of obtaining this knowledge, and I can depend upon your friendship, candor, and judgment in the communication of it, as far as it shall appear to you.“24

  Knox realized that Washington would be compelled to sit as the convention's president and, therefore, the success or failure of the proceedings would be attributed to him. But Knox told Washington in a letter of Monday, March 19, that without his approbation, the convention would lack credibility in the eyes of the public. "Your attendance will be grateful, and your non-attendance chagrining; that your presence would confer on the assembly a national complexion, and that it would more than any other circumstance induce a compliance to the propositions of the convention.“25

  By attending the convention and risking failure in Philadelphia, Washington was putting at stake the honor and fame that he had sacrificed so much to achieve during the war. Realizing this, Henry carefully crafted his appeal by prodding Washington with an almost irresistible temptation: "It would be circumstance highly honorable to your fame, in the judgment of the present and future ages, and doubly entitle you to the glorious epithet—Father of Your Country."

  This is believed to be the first time that anyone of significance referred to George Washington as the "father of his country." It is likely that Knox was drawing parallels between Washington and other historical figures who had been given paternal homage, such as Cicero in 64 B.C. and Peter the Great in 1721.26

  To Knox's satisfaction, Washington informed him in a letter dated Friday, April 27, that he would attend the convention. Knox was genuinely concerned for the fate of his country, but his own personal fortunes were also completely tied up in the success of the nation and its government. He was deeply in debt, in part because he and Lucy loved to entertain and were unable to curtail their spending. As one of the handful of individuals who held a national office, he needed the federal government to become effective for his own prosperity. The waning state of the confederation troubled him on a visceral level; an American collapse threatened all that he had worked for during the agonizing hardships of the war, the sacrifice he made in giving up his most energetic youthful years to public duty as well as the promise of a future basking in the honors due a leader of a new nation.

  Without a stable government, his army pension was in jeopardy. American dollars would remain nearly worthless unless a federal government could back the currency and stabilize the economy. Knox seemed to internalize the national troubles. In April he wrote to Winthrop Sargent, his former artillery captain and fellow Cincinnati member, that he felt like "the most wretched man on earth . . . the poverty of the public is so great that all national operation might soon cease.“27

  Knox received regular updates from Constitutional Convention delegates working in the sequestered sessions of the secretive deliberations, including notes from George Washington, Elbridge Gerry, and Rufus King. On May 27, King notified Henry that Washington had been named president of the convention, as he had predicted.28

  In July, he received a letter from an exasperated King: "I wish it was in my power to inform you that we had progressed a single step since you left us.“29

  Henry and Lucy's life then took another downward spiral in August when their one-year-old daughter, Caroline, died from an infection. From Philadelphia, Washington wrote an August 19 letter of condolence: "[I] am sure, however severe the trial, each of you have fortitude enough to meet it. Nature, no doubt, must feel severely before calm resignation will over come it."

  In the same letter, he confessed that the deliberations at the Constitutional Convention were proving tedious: "By slow, I wish I could add and sure, movements, the business of the Convention progresses; but to say when it will end, or what will be the result, is more than I can venture to do.“30

  The slow process came to a successful conclusion by Monday, September 17, when delegates adjourned with a draft of a completely new Constitution.

  Knox received the news with joy. The proposed system for a federal government was not dissimilar to the plan that he had outlined in his letter to Washington earlier in the year. Although he did not believe the new Constitution was perfect, he believed that it would create a more vigorous government and cement the union. Much of the language of the draft had been composed by Pennsylvania's Gouverneur Morris, whom he had written four years earlier with the strong suggestion that just such a convention be held.

  Although Knox had not been a delegate to the constitutional convention, he had played a major role in rounding up support for the proceedings and sounding the alarm against the weak national government. Even before the peace treaty that had ended the American Revolution was signed, he had pressed prominent civil leaders with the need for a more vigorous central government. And perhaps most of important of all, he helped convince George Washington to take the risky step of attending the convention and supporting the move toward a new Constitution.

  In his private life, Knox believed that a remedy for his family's financial problems was near. He and Lucy cleared their claim on the Waldo patent, which provided them with thousands of acres of uncultivated land. His former army colleague Henry Jackson sent him news that this land contained many settlers, some of whom were willing to pay for their property and some who denied his right. Knox wrote a land agent who was about to embark to Europe with an offer that he was willing to sell well-timbered land, suitable for farming, on the St. George's River and Penobscot Bay at $2 an acre. He told the agent he could deliver perfect titles and to sell any amount, from a single acre up to 80,000 acres.

  On Tuesday, November 27, Lucy gave birth to a boy, whom Knox described as a "fine black-haired, black-eyed boy." He named his son after George Washington, and notified the child's namesake in a letter: "As an evidence of our respect and affection for you, which we hope will survive ourselves, we have done him the honor of giving him your name.“31

  Five states had ratified the Constitution—Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut—by the time the ratifying convention in Knox's home state of Massachusetts opened on Wednesday, January 9, 1788. Massachusetts emerged as the critical swing state, upon which the success or failure of the constitution rested. The size and influence of the state would likely sway delegates in ratifying conventions in New York, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.


  Knox wrote a stream of letters to influential leaders lobbying support for the constitution. He explained that landowners, or "Federalists," wanted a strong government to ensure stability to protect their homes and businesses, but that many former Shays men sat at the convention as "anti-Federalists" and opposed any viable government. Knox was exasperated by those who favored state rights over federal sovereignty. To Washington, he wrote: "Mr. Samuel Adams has declared that he will oppose it to the very great disgust of the people of Boston, his constituents. It is said Boston was about to take some spirited measures to prevent the effect of his opposition."

  Knox overstated Samuel Adams's opposition, however. As the debate progressed, Adams became persuaded of the imperative need for greater federal power and finally threw his support behind the Constitution. After delegates scrutinized and argued over the document line by line, paragraph by paragraph, for nearly a month, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the compact by a narrow margin of just 18 votes: 187 to 168. Church bells rang and cannons fired in celebration in Boston.

  An overjoyed Knox wrote to Washington on Thursday, February 14: "It may with great truth be asserted that no subject was ever more candidly debated.“32

  Knox continued to lobby support for the Constitution through his connections around the country, which provided him with greater knowledge of Federalist efforts than almost any other leader at the time. Even Washington was forced to ask Knox about the identity of the writers behind the Federalist Papers: "Pray, if it is not a secret, who is the author, or authors of Publius?“33

  Knox replied that the essays were the work of his former aide, Alexander Hamilton, along with James Madison and John Jay. Knox's passions were caught up in the prospective fate of the proposed Constitution. Rhode Island invoked his ire when he received news that the state had rejected ratification in a referendum on Monday, March 24, by the wide margin of 2,945 to 237. To Lafayette, he wrote on Saturday, April 26: "As to Rhode Island, no little State of Greece ever exhibited greater turpitude than she does. Paper money and tender law engross her attention entirely: this is, in other words, plundering the orphan and widow by virtue of laws.“34