Part 3

In this sudden transformation where was the sovereignty? It was declared that the _United_ Colonies are and _of right_ ought to be free and independent States. It was never declared that the _separate_ Colonies were so _of right_. Plainly they never were so _in fact_. Therefore there was no separate sovereignty either of right or in fact. The sovereignty anterior to Independence was in the mother country; afterwards it was in the people of the United States, who took the place of the mother country. As the original sovereignty was undivided, so also was that sovereignty of the people which became its substitute. If authority were needed for this irresistible conclusion, I might find it in the work of the great commentator, Mr. Justice Story, and in that powerful discourse of John Quincy Adams entitled “The Jubilee of the Constitution,” in both of which the sovereignty is accorded to the People, and not to the States. Nor should I forget that rarest political genius, Alexander Hamilton, who, regarding these things as a contemporary, declared most triumphantly that “the Union had complete sovereignty”; that “the Declaration of Independence was the fundamental constitution of every State”; and, finally, that “the union and independence of these States are blended and incorporated in one and the same act.”[20] Such was the great beginning of national life.

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A beautiful meditative poet, whose words are often most instructive, confesses that we may reach heights we cannot hold:--

“And the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain.”[21]

Our nation found it so. Only a few days after the great Declaration in the name of “the People,” Articles of Confederation were brought forward in the name of “the States.” Evidently these were drawn before the Declaration, and they were in the handwriting of John Dickinson, then a delegate from Pennsylvania, whom the eldest Adams calls “the bell-wether of the aristocratical flock,”[22] and who had been the orator against the Declaration. Not unnaturally, an opponent of the Declaration favored a system which forgot the constituent sovereignty of the people, and made haste to establish the pretensions of States. These Articles were not readily adopted. There was hesitation in Congress, and then hesitation among the States. At last, on the 1st of March, 1781, Maryland gave a tardy adhesion, and this shadow of a government began. It was a pitiful sight. The Declaration was sacrificed. Instead of “one people,” we were nothing but “a league” of States; and our nation, instead of drawing its quickening life from “the good people,” drew it from a combination of “artificial bodies”; instead of recognizing the constituent sovereignty of the people, by whose voice Independence was declared, it recognized only the pretended sovereignty of States; and, to complete the humiliating transformation, the national name was called “the style,” being a term which denotes sometimes title and sometimes copartnership, instead of unchangeable unity. Such an apostasy could not succeed.

Even before the adoption of this denationalizing framework, its failure had begun. The Confederation became at once a byword and a sorrow. It was not fit for war or peace. It accomplished nothing national. It arrested all the national activities. Each State played the part of the feudal chieftain, selfishly absorbing power and denying it to the Nation. Money could not be collected even for national purposes. Commerce could not be regulated. Justice could not be administered. Rights could not be assured. Congress was without coercive power, and could act only through the local sovereignty. National unity was impossible, and in its stead was a many-headed pretension. The country was lapsing into chaos.

From Boston, which was the early home of the Revolution, had already proceeded a cry for Nationality. A convention of delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, with Thomas Cushing as President, assembled at Boston in August, 1780, where, among other things, it was recommended “that the Union of these States be fixed in a more solid and permanent manner, that the powers of Congress be more clearly ascertained and defined, and that the important _national_ concerns of the United States be _under the superintendency and direction of one supreme head_,” and the word _Nation_ is adopted as the natural expression for our unity.[23] But the time had not yet come for this fulfilment.

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In the prevailing darkness, two voices made themselves heard, both speaking for National Unity on the foundation of Human Rights. The singular accord between the two, not only in sentiment, but also in language, and in date of utterance, attests concert. One voice was that of Congress, in an Address and Recommendations to the States on the close of the war, bearing date 18th April, 1783, where, urging “effectual provision” for the war debts, as demanded alike by national honor, and the honor of the cause in which they had been contracted, it was said, in words worthy of companionship with the immortal Declaration: “Let it be remembered that it has ever been the pride and boast of America that _the rights for which she contended were the rights of Human Nature_.”[24] The other voice was that of Washington, in a general order, also bearing date 18th April, 1783, announcing the close of the war, where, after declaring his “rapture” in the prospect before the country, he says: “Happy, thrice happy, shall they be pronounced hereafter who have contributed anything, who have performed the meanest office, in erecting this stupendous fabric of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of Independency, _who have assisted in protecting the rights of Human Nature_.”[25] This appeal was followed by a circular letter to the Governors, where, after announcing that it is for the United States to determine “whether they will be respectable and prosperous or contemptible and miserable _as a Nation_,” Washington proceeds to name first among the things essential to national well-being, if not even to national existence, what he calls “an indissoluble union of the States under one federal head”; and he adds, that there must be a forgetfulness of “local prejudices and policies,” and that “Liberty” must be at the foundation of the whole structure.[26] Soon afterwards appearing before Congress to surrender the trust committed to him as commander-in-chief, he hailed the United States as a “Nation,” and “our dearest country,”[27]--thus embracing the whole in his heart, as for seven years he had defended the whole by his prudence and valor.

An incident of a different character attested the consciousness of National Unity. The vast outlying territory, unsettled at the beginning of the war, and wrested from the British crown by the common blood and treasure, was claimed as a common property, subject to the disposition of Congress for the general good. One by one, the States yielded their individual claims. The cession of Virginia comprehended all that grand region northwest of the Ohio, fertile and rich beyond imagination, where are now prosperous States rejoicing in the Union. All these cessions were on the condition that the lands should “be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, and be settled and formed into distinct _republican States_.”[28] Here was a National act, with the promise of republican government, which was the forerunner of the guaranty of a republican government in the National Constitution.

The best men, in their longing for national unity, all concurred in the necessity of immediate action to save the country. Foremost in time, as in genius, was Alexander Hamilton, who was prompt to insist that Congress should have “complete sovereignty, except as to that part of internal police which relates to the rights of property and life among individuals and to raising money by internal taxes”; and still further, in words which harmonized with the Declaration of Independence, that “the fabric of the American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people.”[29] In kindred spirit, Schuyler announced “the necessity of _a supreme and coercive power_ in the government of these States.”[30] Hamilton and Schuyler were both of New York, which, with such representatives, took the lead in solemn resolutions, which, after declaring that “the situation of these States is in a peculiar manner critical,” and that “the present system exposes the common cause to a precarious issue,” concluded with a call for “a general convention of the States, specially authorized to revise and amend the Confederation.”[31] The movement ended in the National Convention. Other States followed, and Congress recommended it as “the most probable means of establishing in these States a firm National Government.”[32] Meantime, Noah Webster, whom you know so well as author of the popular Dictionary, in an essay on the situation, published at the time, proposed a new system of government, which should act directly on the individual citizens, and by which Congress should be invested with full powers of legislation within its sphere, and for carrying its laws into effect.[33] But this proposition involved nothing less than a National Government with supreme powers, to which the States should be subordinate.

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Here I mention three illustrious characters, who at this time lent the weight of their great names to the national cause,--Jay, Madison, and Washington,--each in his way without a peer. I content myself with a few words from each. John Jay, writing to John Adams, at the time our minister in London, under date of 4th May, 1786, says: “One of the first wishes of my heart” is “to see the people of America become _One Nation in every respect_; for, as to the separate Legislatures, I would have them considered, with relation to the Confederacy, _in the same light in which counties stand_ to the State of which they are parts, viz., merely as districts to facilitate the purposes of domestic order and good government.”[34] Even in this strong view Jay was not alone. Franklin had already led in likening the colonies to “so many counties.”[35] Madison’s desires were differently expressed. After declaring against “an individual independence of the States,” on the one side, and “a consolidation of the States into one simple republic,” on the other side, he sought what he called a “middle ground,” which, if varying from that of Jay, was essentially national. He would have “_a due supremacy of the National authority_, and leave in force the local authorities so far as they can be subordinately useful.”[36] Here is the definition of a Nation. Washington, in a letter to Jay, dated 1st August, 1786, stated the whole case with his accustomed authority. Insisting upon the importance of “a coercive power,” he pleads for national life: “I do not conceive we can exist long as _a Nation_ without having lodged somewhere a power which will pervade the whole Union in _as energetic a manner as the authority of the State governments extends over the several States_.” He then adds: “To be fearful of investing Congress, constituted as that body is, with _ample authorities for National purposes_, appears to me the very climax of popular absurdity and madness.”[37] Such were the longings of patriots, all filled with a passion for country. But Washington went still further, when, on another occasion, he denounced State sovereignty as “bantling,” and even “monster.”[38]

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The Constituent Convention, often called Federal, better called National, assembled at Philadelphia in May, 1787. It was a memorable body, whose deliberations have made an epoch in the history of government. Jefferson and John Adams were at the time abroad in the foreign service of the country, Samuel Adams was in service at home in Massachusetts, and Jay in New York; but Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Gouverneur Morris, George Mason, Wilson, Ellsworth, and Sherman appeared among its members. Washington, by their unanimous voice, became President; and, according to the rules of the Convention, on adjournment, every member stood in his place until the President had passed him. Here is a glimpse of that august body which Art may yet picture. Who would not be glad to look upon Franklin, Hamilton, and Madison standing in their places while Washington passed?

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On the first day after the adoption of the rules, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, opened the great business. He began by announcing that the “Confederation” produced no security against foreign invasion; that the “Federal Government” could not suppress quarrels or rebellion; that the “Federal Government” could not defend itself against encroachments from the States; and then, insisting that the remedy must be found in “the republican principle,” concluded with a series of propositions for a National Government, with a “National” Legislature in two branches, a “National” Executive, and a “National” Judiciary, the whole crowned by the guaranty of a republican government in each State. This series of propositions was followed the next day by a simple statement in the form of a resolution, where, after setting forth the insufficiency of “a union of the States merely Federal,” or of “treaties among the States as individual sovereignties,” it was declared “that _a National Government ought to be established_, consisting of a supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary.” Better words could not have been chosen to express the prevailing aspiration for national life. After ample debate, the resolution in this form was adopted. At a later stage, in seeming deference to mistaken sensibilities, the word “National” gave place to the term “the government of the United States”; but this term equally denoted National Unity, although it did not use the words. The whole clause afterwards found a noble substitute in the Preamble to the Constitution, which is the annunciation of a National Government proceeding directly from the People, like the Declaration of Independence itself.

From the beginning to the end of its debates, the Convention breathed the same patriotic fervor. Amidst all difference in details, and above the persistent and sinister contest for the equal representation of the States, great and small, the sentiment of Unity found constant utterance. I have already mentioned Madison and Hamilton, who wished a National Government; but others were not less decided. Gouverneur Morris began early by explaining the difference between “Federal” and “National.” The former implied “a mere compact, resting on the good faith of the parties”; the latter had “a complete and compulsive operation.”[39] Constantly this impassioned statesman protested against State pretensions, insisting that the States were originally “nothing more than colonial corporations,”[40] and exclaiming, “We cannot annihilate, but we may perhaps take out the teeth of the serpents.”[41] Wilson was a different character,--gentle by nature, but informed by studies in jurisprudence and by the education brought from his Scottish home. He was for a National Government, and did not think it inconsistent with the “lesser jurisdictions” of States, which he would preserve;[42] he would not “extinguish these planets,” but keep them “within their proper orbits for subordinate purposes.”[43] He was too much of a jurist to admit, “that, when the Colonies became independent of Great Britain, they became independent also of each other,” and he insisted that they became independent, “not individually, but unitedly.”[44] Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, was as strong on this point as Gouverneur Morris, insisting that “we never were independent States, were not such now, and never could be, even on the principles of the Confederation.”[45] Rufus King, also of Massachusetts, touched a higher key, when he wished that “every man in America” should be “secured in all his rights,” and that these should not be “sacrificed to the phantom of State sovereignty.”[46] Good words, worthy of him who in the Continental Congress moved the prohibition of Slavery in the national territories.[47] And Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, said, in other words of precious significance, that “every freeman has a right to _the same protection and security_,” and then again, that “equality is the leading feature of the United States.”[48] Under such influences the Constitution was adopted by the Convention.

It is needless to dwell on its features, all so well known; but there are certain points not to be disregarded now. There is especially the beginning. Next after the opening words of the Declaration of Independence, the opening words of the Constitution are the grandest in history. They sound like a majestic overture, fit prelude to the transcendent harmonies of National life on a theatre of unexampled proportions. Though familiar, they cannot be too often repeated; for they are in themselves an assurance of popular rights and an epitome of National duties: “_We, the people of the United States_, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Thus by the people of the United States was the Constitution ordained and established; not by the States, nor even by the people of the several States, but by _the people of the United States_ in aggregate individuality. Nor is it a league, alliance, agreement, compact, or confederation; but it is a Constitution, which in itself denotes an indivisible unity under one supreme law, permanent in character; and this Constitution, thus ordained and established, has for its declared purposes nothing less than liberty, justice, domestic tranquillity, the common defence, the general welfare, and a more perfect union, all essentially National, and to be maintained by the National arm. The work thus begun was completed by three further provisions: first, the lofty requirement that “the United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government,”--thus subjecting the States to the presiding judgment of the Nation, which is left to determine the definition of a republican government; secondly, the practical investiture of Congress with authority “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof,”--thus assuring the maintenance of the National Government, and the execution of its powers through a faithful Congress chosen by the people; and, thirdly, the imperial declaration, that “this Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be _the supreme law of the land_, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, _anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding_,”--thus forever fixing the supremacy of the National Government on a pinnacle above all local laws and constitutions. And thus did our country again assume the character and obligations of a Nation. Its first awakening was in the Declaration of Independence; its second was in the National Constitution.

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On its adoption, the Constitution was transmitted to Congress with a letter from Washington, where, among other things, it is said that “in all our deliberations we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, _the consolidation of our Union_, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our National existence.”[49] Enough that this letter is signed “George Washington”; but it was not merely the expression of his individual sentiments. It was unanimously adopted by the Convention, on the report of the committee that made the final draught of the Constitution itself, so that it must be considered as belonging to this great transaction. By its light the Constitution must be read. If anybody is disposed to set up the denationalizing pretensions of States under the National Constitution, let him bear in mind this explicit declaration, that, throughout all the deliberations of the Convention, the one object kept steadily in view was _the consolidation of our Union_. Such is the unanimous testimony of the Convention, authenticated by George Washington.

The Constitution was discussed next in the States. It was vindicated as creating a National Government, and it was opposed also on this very ground. Thus from opposite quarters comes the concurring testimony. In Connecticut, Mr. Johnson, who had been chairman of the committee that reported the final draught, said, in reply to inquiries of his constituents, that the Convention had “gone upon entirely new ground: they have formed _one new Nation_ out of the individual States.”[50] George Mason, of Virginia, proclaimed at home that “the Confederation of the States was entirely changed into _one consolidated government_,”--that it was “a _National_ government, and no longer a Confederation.”[51] Patrick Henry, in his vigorous opposition, testified to the completeness with which the work had been accomplished. Inquiring by what authority the Convention assumed to make such a government, he exclaimed: “That this is a consolidated government is demonstrably clear.… Give me leave to demand, What right had they to say, _We, the people_?… Who authorized them to speak the language of _We, the people_, instead of _We, the States_?… If the States be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great consolidated National government of the people of all the States.”[52] Then again the same fervid orator declared, with infinite point, “The question turns, Sir, on that poor little thing, the expression, _We, the people_, instead of _the States_.”[53] Patrick Henry was right. The question did turn on that grand expression, _We, the people_, in the very frontispiece of the Constitution, filling the whole with life-giving power; and so long as it stands there, the denationalizing pretensions of States must shrink into littleness. Originally “one people” during colonial days, we have been unalterably fixed in this condition by two National acts: first, the Declaration of Independence, and then again, the National Constitution. Thus is doubly assured the original unity in which we were born.

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Other tokens of Nationality, like the air we breathe, are so common that they hardly attract attention; but each has a character of its own. They belong to the “unities” of our nation.