Dark Bargain

by Lawrence Goldstone

When the Stamp Act was passed in 1765, Sherman was one of the first to insist that Parliament had no legal right to enact measures pertaining to the colonies, yet when emotions began to rise, Sherman called for moderation. He voiced public disapproval of the Sons of Liberty, finding their radicalism distasteful. Instead of being branded a loyalist for his refusal to join public demonstrations, however, Sherman's prestige grew, and eventually he was designated to represent Connecticut in the first Continental Congress. Never an ardent nationalist, his focus was always on reform and orderly change. Still, in 1774 he wrote that "no laws bind the people but such as they consent to be governed by," predating Jefferson's similar assertion by two years.18

  After his death, found among his papers was a plan for government reform that was either written just before or in the early days of the Philadelphia convention. It reveals that Sherman, like Ellsworth, did not go to Philadelphia with the aim of overturning the Articles of Confederation, but simply to augment the powers of Congress to include (not surprisingly) control over foreign and interstate commerce, the power to levy and collect taxes, the establishment of a supreme national tribunal, and to make laws passed by Congress binding on the states. Other than denying individual states the right to issue bills of credit—which would certainly have included paper money—Sherman was an unlikely proponent of a radical new Constitution.

  Yet, according to John Adams, Sherman's early vision, while remaining essentially republican, foresaw the Great Compromise of which he and Ellsworth were to be the authors. "We ought not to vote according to Numbers," Sherman said on August 1, 1776. "We are Representatives of States not Individuals . . . The Vote should be taken two Ways. Call the Colonies and call the Individuals, and have a Majority of both."19

  Despite his quirky demeanor, Sherman became one of the most respected voices in Congress, thought of as a man who would consider a problem objectively, then render a thoughtful and honest judgment. He served on the committee to create the Articles of Confederation and was one of the five members chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence. His influence was no less in his home state. Concurrent with his tenure in Congress, Sherman served on the Governor's Council, was a sitting judge, and was the mayor of New Haven. In 1783, he was one of two men chosen to redraft Connecticut's legal code.

  Roger Sherman

  As Sherman's influence grew, however, his fortune shrank. He had "invested almost all his property in the revolutionary cause, and he was almost ruined by the depreciation of his securities after the war."20 In addition, two of his sons turned out to be failures in business, William losing the store in New Milford, which was sold for nonpayment of taxes in 1786. Sherman's financial situation became so precarious that on more than one occasion he was forced to write plaintive letters to Connecticut's governor asking for back pay so that he might avoid complete collapse. By early 1787, his financial position had stabilized, although he was dependent on the redemption of his securities for recovery.

  As the convention began, Connecticut, commercially squeezed between Massachusetts and New York, should have been a classic "small state." Other than Maryland (and Rhode Island, which refused to send anyone at all), Connecticut was the last state to appoint delegates, waiting until mid-May to even take up the question. When the General Assembly finally appointed a delegation, it consisted of two men who were considered moderate republicans, Ellsworth and William Samuel Johnson, and one rabid republican, Erastus Wolcott.21 When Wolcott declined to serve, Sherman was appointed in his place.

  In a letter dated June 3, 1787,, during the early days of the convention, a Connecticut archnationalist, Jeremiah Wadsworth, wrote to his friend, Massachusetts delegate Rufus King, to warn him about Sherman. "I am satisfied with the [delegation]—except Sherman, who, I am told, is disposed to patch up the old scheme of Government . . . he is as cunning as the Devil, and if you attack him, you ought to know him well; he is not easily managed, but if he suspects you are trying to take him in, you might as well catch an Eel by the tail."22

  *On the other hand, any man who invested in shipping—as Ellsworth also did—was casting a vote for regionalism.

  PART III

  * * *

  Supreme Law of the Land

  8. PHILADELPHIA: THE CONVENTION BEGINS

  As he had done the year before in Annapolis, Madison arrived quietly in Philadelphia ten days early, the first out-of-state delegate to make an appearance. He checked into Mary House's Boarding House, the most elegant in town. Mary House, a widow, also owned the famed Indian Queen Tavern, a block and a half away*

  Washington arrived a week later. He rode into the city escorted by senior officers and regular soldiers of the old Continental army, who had been joined by civilians on horseback. As he proceeded through the streets, church bells throughout the city pealed forth in his honor.1 He too had originally taken rooms at Mary House's, but had been persuaded by Robert Morris to instead be his guest for the duration of his stay.

  At the time of the convention, Philadelphia was the nation's largest city, with about forty thousand residents. It had been devastated during the British occupation and, in 1787, was just beginning to recover from the effects. As in New York, the British had quartered troops and horses in public buildings and many still reeked of human and animal waste. Smashed windows had not yet been repaired and broken pavement turned the streets to muddy swamps after even a moderate rainfall.2 Mindful of the momentous gathering to be held at the State House, city officials had sand poured on Chestnut Street so that the arriving delegates would not have to walk through ankle-deep muck.

  Philadelphia was also the most diverse city in the nation. Quakers, German Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Native Americans, and a small, thriving Jewish population mixed freely. There was an active antislavery society, known as the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes Held in Bondage, which drafted a letter to the convention on May 23,1787, urging an end to the slave trade.3 Its president was Benjamin Franklin. The letter was also published in local newspapers.

  Despite Philadelphia's diversity, the class system was in full bloom. Five percent of its citizens owned 50 percent of the wealth, while at least half the city lived in poverty. Public services, except in the wealthiest sections, were virtually nonexistent. Rotting garbage and animal carcasses lay festering about, especially in the boisterous waterfront section, aptly named Helltown. The Quaker influence notwithstanding, drunkenness, brawling, disease, and prostitution were rampant.

  Despite this, Philadelphia's intellectual tradition was strong and its populace, along with Boston's, was perhaps the most politically astute in the United States. In 1784, the Pennsylvania Packethzd become the first daily newspaper in the country, and the city had two other newspapers that were published at least twice weekly. Philadelphians prided themselves on civic awareness and were eager to follow the coming events closely. This eagerness, as much as any other factor, prompted the delegates to keep the proceedings secret.

  The State House in Philadelphia

  Pennsylvania had its delegation substantially in place, since all but one of its eight appointees lived in the city. The men were an odd mix. As far as the public was concerned, the leader was the renowned Franklin, who, at eighty-one, was, in one historian's words, "approaching senility."4* The real force behind Pennsylvania's delegates, however, was a man who, after the opening session, would not utter a word during the entire four months, Washington's host, the notorious former superintendent of finance, Robert Morris.

  The son of a Scottish nail maker, Morris had crossed the Atlantic without a cent at age thirteen in 1747, and then used a sparkling financial mind to become, at least on paper, the wealthiest man in America. With his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, to whom he was not related, Robert Morris almost single-handedly kept America afloat during the war by finagling accounts, begging loans, wheedling credit, and eventually pledging his own fortune as collateral. Robert Morris fiercely favored
a national government largely because it would provide one central location for a speculator to co-opt, cajole, and bribe potential associates to gain financial and regulatory advantage.5

  Another of the Pennsylvania delegates, James Wilson, was one of the great legal theorists at the convention, and also happened to be Robert Morris's attorney. He was generally assumed to speak for Morris, especially if the matter might somehow concern money. Wilson, who had also been born in Scotland, slipstreamed behind Morris's speculations and ultimately suffered the same fate. By 1790, he was penniless and heavily in debt. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1789 but eventually could not hear cases in a number of states for fear of being thrown into debtors' prison.6

  Robert Morris's old assistant, Gouverneur Morris, although appointed by Pennsylvania, was actually a New Yorker, raised on a sprawling estate still called the Morrisama section of the Southeast Bronx in New York City. He arrived soon after Madison and stayed at Mrs. Dailey's Boarding House, also one of the nicest in Philadelphia.

  Imperious and sarcastic, Gouverneur Morris was a fourth-generation aristocrat, and thus one of the few delegates with a pedigree to match the Southerners'. His older brother had been a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Over six feet tall, with a peg leg from a carriage accident, he was an intimate of Washington's and one of those rare men who was a match for him physically.

  He was also a study in contradictions. One of the strongest antislavery delegates, he came from a family of slaveowners—there were still twenty thousand slaves in New York at the time of the convention.7 Known as a committed democrat, Morris nonetheless had contempt for the common man. One of the most cerebral of the delegates, he was a notorious womanizer who had once, during the revolution, absented himself for two weeks at a crucial moment because he could not resist a woman's charms. He encouraged the story that he had actually lost his leg after jumping from a balcony to escape an irate husband.

  On May 14, 1787, the scheduled start date, only Pennsylvania and Virginia were represented. Although many states had appointed delegates, Madison must have wondered if the Philadelphia convention would suffer the same fate as the one in Annapolis. Rather than conduct any business, Washington, Madison, and the Pennsylvanians adjourned. Almost two weeks would pass before the delegates convened again.

  The next day Edmund Randolph arrived. Only thirty-four, Randolph was governor of Virginia. A member of a distinguished family that descended from Pocahontas, he had been an aide to Washington at twenty-two and a member of the Continental Congress by the time he was twenty-five. Although he had inherited a large estate with more than one hundred slaves, Randolph was so strapped for cash that he had been forced to borrow money from his brother-in-law to travel to Richmond after he was elected governor. He checked into Mary House's and immediately began to meet with Madison to draw up a strategy for the weeks to come.

  Two days later, Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, and Mason arrived. Mason took a room at the Indian Queen, and was pleasantly surprised at the low prices. "In this City the Living is Cheap," he wrote to his son. "We are very well accommodated, & have a good room to ourselves, & are charged only 25s. Penslva. Curr[enc]y a Day, including our Servants and Horses, exclusive of Club in Liquor, & extra Charges." Despite the low cost, he added, "I hope I shall be able to defray my Expences with my public Allowance."8 Soon after his arrival, Mason joined the daily meetings of Virginia delegates. 9

  Rutledge, rather than rent, became a guest of James Wilson, where the two powerful lawyers "began to lay plans for 'managing' the convention." Wilson had already spoken with Madison and with the two Morrises. Rutledge was doing some additional conspiring of his own "and his would be far more effective."10 Many of the arrangements and accommodations that later seemed to spring spontaneously from the debates had likely been first discussed in these early days, before the convention had its first full session.

  Charles Pinckney, who took rooms at an undisclosed inn, was considered something of a boy genius. Born in 1757, he was just reaching the age where he would ordinarily have been sent to Oxford when the political situation deteriorated just before the Revolution and he was kept home. He never seemed to get over it. As a result of not going to England, Pinckney lacked the seasoning of his cousin, the general, and, perhaps in compensation, became outspoken, impetuous, and egotistical, even by the standards of his fellow southerners.

  The day after the southerners arrived, Alexander Hamilton reached Philadelphia from New York. A single-minded nationalist, Hamilton was something of a northern Charles Pinckney—arrogant, impatient, and brilliant. He also took rooms at Mrs. Dailey's. When Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, and another guest, Massachusetts's Elbridge Gerry, were all present, Mrs. Dailey's would have been one of the liveliest places in Philadelphia. The other two members of New York's delegation, Robert Yates and John Lansing, both committed to opposing anything but a modest revision of the Articles, arrived soon afterward.*

  A number of delegates drifted in over the next two weeks. Three members of the Delaware delegation arrived, with instructions that they could only support a revision of the Articles and had to refuse to back any plan that altered the by-state voting formula. Ironically, the most important member of Delaware's delegation was a nationalist, John Dickinson, one of the Annapolis triumvirate. In deteriorating health, Dickinson did not arrive until the third session on May 29, just in time for the presentation of the Virginia Plan.

  Connecticut's representatives did not arrive until the end of May. Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth took rooms at the somewhat out-of-the-way Mrs. Marshall's Boarding House. A good hike from the State House, Mrs. Marshall's was with in easy walking distance of the City Tavern, where delegates often met after hours, although Sherman himself, of course, did not imbibe.

  The Massachusetts contingent also arrived late, except for Rufus King, who rode down from New York. King was a shopkeeper's son who scrimped to go through law school, married an affluent shipper's daughter, and then moved to the city to become one of the major stockholders in the Bank of New York and a leading figure in New York society. Nathaniel Gorham, the son of a packet-boat captain who had amassed a sizable fortune privateering during the war, but had less success after it, arrived at about the same time as Ellsworth and Sherman. He saw the chance of rebuilding his fortune in the free movement of merchant vessels. Elbridge Gerry came to town the day after Gorham and stayed with friends while he awaited the arrival of his wife, after which he moved to Mrs. Dailey's. Quirky and utterly unpredictable, he was the son of a prosperous merchant and shipper, who took over the family business and invested heavily in western lands. His wife, Ann, whom he revered, was beautiful and about thirty years his junior.11

  Early in June, William Blount of North Carolina journeyed from New York as a replacement for the state's governor, who declined to attend. Blount was to play no role in the proceedings, but was nonetheless a fascinating character. Dark and good looking, he had amassed millions of acres speculating in what was to become Tennessee.12 Also in June, also as a replacement, Luther Martin came to Philadelphia. In a category of his own, dismissed by many as a drunken buffoon, Martin was an enormously successful lawyer who would serve as Maryland's attorney general for thirty years. Possessed of as keen a mind and as sharp a wit as any of the delegates in Philadelphia, and a ferocious defender of the rights of individual states, Martin was also one of the few delegates whose moral opposition to slavery could not be tempered by economic necessity.

  By May 25, a sufficient number of delegates had arrived for the convention to actually begin. Before the session was called to order, the nationalists had already outflanked their opponents. Most of the leading figures who wanted to scrap the Articles and replace them with a strong central government—Hamilton, Madison, Gouverneur Morris, James Wilson, Rutledge, the Pinckneys, and even Mason and Elbridge Gerry—were there. Washington, quickly and unanimously called to the chair, also favored a radical overhaul of the existing arrangement.13

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bsp; Some of the important states' rights proponents were present as well, but of these, only William Paterson of New Jersey could have been considered a heavyweight. 14 The lack of urgency exhibited by the republicans is understandable— there was, after all, little reason to believe that the Philadelphia convention would have any more success than the Annapolis convention, or even the sessions of the enfeebled Congress. Still, this left a vacuum that the nationalists— especially Madison, who had waited years for this opportunity and had come prepared after months of study and research with a detailed plan for a strong new national government—were all too willing to fill.15

  To open the session of May 29, Madison did precisely that.

  * About 20 percent of all the taverns in Philadelphia were run by women, as widows were given preference in obtaining licenses.

  *Other commentators were not so extreme, describing Franklin as frail but mentally alert. The truth seems to lie somewhere m between. At times, Franklin made insightful and incisive comments during the course of the debate; at other times he meandered or inserted minutiae into the proceedings. He had also taken to writing speeches that he wanted inserted into the record (even though there was no official record).

  *As a result, when Lansing and Yates were present, New York voted as a "small" state. Both left early in July. Hamilton, who thought it wrong that a single man should represent a state, would not cast a ballot on his own so, for the last two and a half months of the convention, New York did not vote at all.

  9. JUNE: THE COLLOQUIUM

  Dubbed the Virginia Plan, it was presented to the convention by Edmund Randolph. Although disingenuously called a "revision," the plan dispensed with the Articles entirely and replaced them with a government divided into legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The legislature would consist of two houses. Other details of just how the different branches were to be constituted or how their members chosen were generally left vague, and the specific powers of each branch were only loosely defined. Still, by delivering an authoritative plan up front, Madison and the nationalists had succeeded in seizing the agenda.