12. In a message to the Maryland legislature, Martin later noted, "It might be proper to take slaves into consideration when taxes were to be apportioned because it has a tendency to discourage slavery; but to take them into account in giving representation tended to encourage the slave trade and make it in the interest of the states to continue that infamous traffic."
13. The younger Pinckney and Butler suggested on several occasions that the Lower South might end the slave trade on its own, if only the rest of the nation would leave them alone. In fact, South Carolina had only done so for short periods through economic self-interest. General Pinckney, as noted, took a different view in the South Carolina ratifying convention.
14. Debates of August 22 appear in Farrand, Records, ii:366-95.
15. Rowland, George Mason, i:273.
16. Incredibly, this speech is regularly cited by historians to demonstrate that a man whose fortunes and prestige were completely based on the plantation system, a man who never freed a single slave, was actually against the practice. Mason's address to the Virginia ratifying convention nine months later is far more reflective of his real views on the subject.
17. Ellsworth was even more unsparing after the convention. Writing as "a Landholder," he observed, "Mr. Mason has himself about three hundred slaves, and lives in Virginia, where it is found by prudent management they can breed and raise slaves faster than they want them for their own use and could supply the deficiency in Georgia and South Carolina; and perhaps Mr. Mason may suppose it more humane to breed than import slaves . . . but his objections are not on the side of freedom, nor in compassion to the human race who are slaves" (Ford, Essays, 164).
18. Farrand, Records, iii:210-11. Most historians acknowledge the existence of a deal. McDonald, however, insists that the quid pro quo for the extension of the slave trade was South Carolina's recognition of northern land claims, but as Luther Martin was present at the committee meetings, it would seem more correct to take his word rather than someone writing two centuries after the fact. In any event, General Pinckney confirmed at least part of Martin's statement in a speech to the South Carolina ratifying convention. Referring to the meetings of the committee of eleven, he noted, " 'Show some period,' said the members from the Eastern States, 'when it may be in our power to put a stop, if we please, to the importation of this weakness, and we will endeavor, for your convenience, to restrain the religious and political prejudices of our people on this subject' " (Elliot, Debates, iv:285).
19. Ibid., ii:400.
20. Debates of August 25 appear in Farrand, Records, ii:408-21.
21. Luther Martin later wrote in Genuine Information, "The design of this clause is to prevent the general government from prohibiting the importation of slaves, but the same reasons which caused them to strike out the word 'national,'and not admit the word 'stamps,' influenced them here to guard against the word 'slaves.' They anxiously sought to avoid the admission of expressions which might be odious in the ears of Americans, although they were willing to admit into their system those things which the expressions signified" (Farrand, Records, iii:210).
22. Debates of August 29 appear in Farrand, Records, n:445-56.
23. Madison made a point to explain what General Pinckney had in mind when he referred to "liberal conduct." "He meant permission to import slaves. An understanding on the two subjects of navigation and slavery had taken place between those parts of the Union, which explains the vote on the motion depending, as well as the language of Genl. Pinckney & others."
16. Closing the Deal: September
1. Ellsworth left Philadelphia in late August, but was unstinting in his support for ratification. Not only did he write the Landholder essays, but the Constitution was approved in the Connecticut ratifying convention under his leadership.
2. He had not been able to persuade the convention to allow full counting of slaves, but savvy politician that he was, Rutledge had likely viewed that more as a bargaining position than a genuinely obtainable goal.
3. Ellsworth would devote a number of his Landholder essays to merciless—and unfair—attacks on Gerry and his opposition to the new plan. These would engender a counterattack by Luther Martin, which in turn caused Ellsworth to go after Martin. Many of Gerry's criticisms—like Martin's—were steeped in the fear that the new Constitution would lead to a far more pernicious concentration of power in the central government than the delegates had in mind, a point of view that history has shown to be all too accurate.
4. Even before he left Philadelphia, Randolph noted that he might support ratification of the plan. On the final day, he noted "that he did not mean by this refusal to [sign] that he should oppose the Constitution without doors."
5. Farrand, Records, ii:403-4.
6. Whenever the delegates could not move past an issue, they appointed a committee, and if that group could not produce a result, another committee was appointed, sometimes a third, and even a fourth. Sometimes the members of one committee were completely different from those of a previous committee; sometimes only one or two members changed. Sometimes, as in the committees of eleven, one delegate was appointed by each state; sometimes, as in committees of five, the members were elected by the convention. That there were three separate committees with in days to deal with the presidency is an indication of how thorny the issue was for most of the delegates.
7. Farrand, Records, n:497.
8. Ibid., ii:559.
9. Ibid.
10. At one point, Madison noted, "the members very impatient & calling for the question."
17. Supreme Law of the Land
1. Not only deceptive, but illegal. Unanimous consent, not just the approval of nine states, was required for a change to the Articles of Confederation, and a new Constitution certainly qualified.
2. It was in a debate in the South Carolina legislature to authorize a ratifying convention that General Pinckney triumphed in January 1788.
3. In any case, the Pennsylvania Packet included the entire text in its issue of September 19.
4. This is one of American history's great misnomers, since a "federalist" would normally be someone who supported a weak central government.
5. Richard Henry Lee wrote to George Mason, "I availed myself of the Right to amend, & . . . called the ayes & nays to fix them on the journal. This greatly alarmed the Majority & vexed them extremely—; for the plan is, to push the business on with great dispatch, & with as little opposition as possible: that it may be adopted before it has stood the test of Reflection &due examination" (Smith, Letters of Delegates, xxiv:459).
6. Clymer was more active in those twelve days than he had been during the entire four months in convention.
7. McMaster and Stone, Pennsylvania, 64.
8. The entire Delaware delegation and all but one of New Jersey's representatives, including Paterson, signed the Constitution. William Houston, the only nonsigner from New Jersey, had left the convention due to illness, but signed the report to the New Jersey legislature.
9. That Hancock would fall for such a trick is amazing. Twelve years earlier he had been equally convinced that he was to be named commander of the Continental armies and was flabbergasted when Washington was chosen instead.
10. South Carolina's ratifying convention, unlike the legislative session that authorized it, was an easy victory for the federalists. Lowndes stayed home and on May 23,1788, the Constitution was approved by a vote of 149-73.
11. The vote was close and came only after ferocious campaigning by federalists both from New Hampshire itself and out of state. McDonald claims that a federalist victory was only assured after a lunch in which federalists got a number of their opponents so drunk that they missed the afternoon vote ( £ Pluribus Unum, 353-54).
12. John Roche noted, "The Federalist is probative evidence for only one proposition: that Hamilton and Madison were inspired propagandists with a genius for retrospective symmetry" (Levy, American Constitutional Law, 22).
13. Farrand, Re
cords, m:129.
14. Ibid.
15. Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, The Federalist 280-81.
16. Elliot, Debates, iii:452-53-17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. See McDonald, £ Pluribus Unum, 185-91.
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