Part 5

"We have probably had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation. Experience has taught us, that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of a coercive power." [Footnote 49]

[Footnote 49: Washington's Writings, Vol. IX. p. 187.]

"From the high ground we stood upon, to be so fallen, so lost, is really mortifying." [Footnote 50] "In regretting, which I have often done with the keenest sorrow, the death of our much lamented friend, General Greene, I have accompanied it of late with a query, whether he would not have preferred such an exit to the scenes which, it is more than probable, many of his compatriots may live to bemoan." [Footnote 51]

[Footnote 50: Ibid., Vol. IX. p. 167.]

[Footnote 51: Ibid., Vol. IX. p. 226.]

Nevertheless, the course of events, and the progress of general good sense, were also mingling hope with this patriotic sorrow,-- a hope full of anxiety and uneasiness, the only one which the imperfection of human things permits elevated minds to form, but which is sufficient to keep up their courage. Throughout the whole Confederation, the evil was felt and a glimpse was caught of the remedy. {90} The jealousies of the States, local interests, ancient habits, democratic prejudices, were all strongly opposed to the sacrifices which were requisite in order to form a government in which the central power should be stronger and more prominent. Still, the spirit of order and union; the love of America as their country; regret at seeing it decline in the esteem of mankind; the disgust created by the petty, interminable, and profitless disturbances of anarchy; the obvious nature of its evils, the perception of its dangers; all the just opinions and noble sentiments which filled the mind of Washington, were gradually extending themselves, gathering additional strength, and preparing the way for a happier future. Four years had hardly elapsed since the peace, which had sanctioned the acquisition of independence, when a national Convention, brought together by a general spontaneous feeling, assembled at Philadelphia, for the purpose of reforming the federal government. Commencing its session the 14th day of May, 1787, it made choice of Washington for its president on the same day. {91} From the 14th of May to the 17th of September, it was occupied in forming the Constitution, which has governed the United States of America for fifty years; deliberating with closed doors, and under influences the most intelligent and the most pure that ever presided over such a work. On the 30th of April, 1789, at the very moment when the Constituent Assembly was commencing its session at Paris, Washington, having been chosen by a unanimous vote, took an oath, as President of the Republic, to maintain and put in force the new-born Constitution, in the presence of the great functionaries and legislative bodies which had been created by it.

Never did a man ascend to the highest dignity by a more direct path, nor in compliance with a more universal wish, nor with an influence wider and more welcome. He hesitated much. In leaving the command of the army, he had openly announced, and had sincerely promised himself, that he should live in retirement, a stranger to public affairs. To change his plans, to sacrifice his tastes and his repose, for very uncertain success, perhaps to be charged with inconsistency and ambition, this was to him an immense effort. {92} The assembling of Congress was delayed; the election of Washington to the presidency, though known, had not been officially announced to him. "For myself," he wrote to his friend, Gen Knox, "the delay may be compared to a reprieve; for, in confidence I tell you, (with the _world_ it would obtain little credit,) that my movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit, who is going to the place of his execution; so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities, and inclination, which are necessary to manage the helm." [Footnote 52]

[Footnote 52: Washington's Writings, Vol. IX. p. 488.]

The message at length arrived, and he commenced his journey. In his Diary, he writes; "About ten o'clock, I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity; and, with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York, with the best disposition to render service to my country, in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations." [Footnote 53]

[Footnote 53: Washington's Writings, Vol. X. p. 461.]

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His journey was a triumphal procession; on the road, and in the towns, the whole population came out to meet him, with shouts of applause and prayers in his behalf. He entered New York, conducted by a committee of Congress, in an elegantly decorated barge, rowed by thirteen pilots, representing the thirteen States, in the midst of an immense crowd in the harbor and upon the shore. His own state of feeling remained the same. "The display of boats," says he in his Diary, "which attended and joined on this occasion, some with vocal and others with instrumental music on board; the decorations of the ships, the roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations of the people, which rent the sky as I passed along the wharves, filled my mind with sensations as painful (contemplating the reverse of this scene, which may be the case, after all my labors to do good,) as they were pleasing." [Footnote 54]

[Footnote 54: Marshall's _Life of Washington_, Vol. V. p. 159.]

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About a century and a half before, on the banks of the Thames, a similar crowd and like outward signs of feeling had attended Cromwell to Westminster, when he was proclaimed Protector of the Commonwealth of England. "What throngs! what acclamations!" said his flatterers. Cromwell replied, "There would be still more, if they were going to hang me."

A singular resemblance, and also a noble difference between the sentiments and the language of a corrupted great man and a virtuous great man.

Washington was, with reason, anxious about the task which he undertook. The sagacity of a sage, united to the devotedness of a hero, constitutes the highest glory of humanity. The nation, which he had conducted to independence, and which required a government at his hands, being hardly yet formed, was entering upon one of those social changes which render the future so uncertain, and power so perilous.

It is a remark often made, and generally assented to, that in the English colonies, before their separation from the mother country, the state of society and feeling was essentially republican, and that every thing was prepared for this form of government. {95} But a republican form of government can govern, and, in point of fact, has governed societies essentially different; and the same society may undergo great changes without ceasing to be a republic. All the English colonies showed themselves, nearly in the same degree, in favor of the republican constitution. At the North and at the South, in Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as in Connecticut and Massachusetts, the public will was the same, so far as the form of government was concerned.

Still, (and the remark has been often made,) considered in their social organization, in the condition and relative position of their inhabitants, these colonies were very different.

In the South, especially in Virginia and North Carolina, the soil belonged, in general, to large proprietors, who were surrounded by slaves or by cultivators on a small scale. Entails and the right of primogeniture secured the perpetuity of families. There was an established and endowed church. The civil legislation of England, bearing strongly the impress of its feudal origin, had been maintained almost without exception. The social state was aristocratic.

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In the North, especially in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, &c., the fugitive Puritans had brought with them, and planted there, strict democracy with religious enthusiasm. Here, there was no slavery; there were no large proprietors in the midst of an inferior population, no entailment of landed property; there was no church, with different degrees of rank, and founded in the name of the State; no social superiority, lawfully established and maintained. Man was here left to his own efforts and to divine favor. The spirit of independence and equality had passed from the church to the state.

Still, however, even in the northern colonies, and under the sway of Puritan principles, other causes, not sufficiently noticed, qualified this character of the social state, and modified its development. There is a great, a very great difference between a purely religious and a purely political democratic spirit. {97} However ardent, however impracticable the former may be, it receives in its origin, and maintains in its action, a powerful element of subordination and order, that is, reverence. In spite of their spiritual pride, the Puritans, every day, bent before a master, and submitted to him their thoughts, their heart, their life: and on the shores of America, when they had no longer to defend their liberties against human power, when they were governing themselves in the presence of God, the sincerity of their faith and the strictness of their manners, counteracted the inclination of the spirit of democracy towards individual lawlessness and general disorder. Those magistrates, so watched, so constantly changed, had still a strong ground of support, which rendered them firm, often even severe, in the exercise of authority. In the bosom of those families, so jealous of their rights, so opposed to all political display, to all conventional greatness, the paternal authority was strong and much respected. The law sanctioned rather than limited it. Entails and inequality in inheritance were forbidden; but the father had the entire disposition of his property, and divided it among his children according to his own will. {98} In general, civil legislation was not controlled by political maxims, and preserved the impress of ancient manners. In consequence of this, the democratic spirit, though predominant, was everywhere met by checks and balances.

Besides, a circumstance of material importance, temporary, but of decisive effect, served to conceal its presence and retarded its sway. In the towns, there was no populace; in the country, the population was settled around the principal planters, commonly those who had received grants of the soil, and were invested with the local magistracies. The social principles were democratic, but the position of individuals was very little so. Instruments were wanting to give effect to the principles. Influence still dwelt with rank. And on the other hand, the number did not press heavily enough to make the greater weight in the balance.

But the Revolution, hastening the progress of events, gave to American society a general and rapid movement in the direction of democracy. In those States where the aristocratic principle was still strong, as in Virginia, it was immediately assailed and subdued. {99} Entails disappeared. The church lost not only its privileges, but its official rank in the State. The elective principle prevailed throughout the whole government. The right of suffrage was greatly extended. Civil legislation, without undergoing a radical change, inclined more and more towards equality.

The progress of democracy was still more marked in events than in laws. In the towns, the population increased rapidly, and with it, the populace also. In the country towards the west, beyond the Alleghany mountains, by a constant and accelerated movement of emigration, new States were growing up or preparing to be formed, inhabited by a scattered population, always in contest with the rude powers of nature and the ferocious passions of savages; half savage themselves; strangers to the forms and proprieties of thickly settled communities; given up to the selfishness of their own separated and solitary existence, and of their passions; bold, proud, rude, and passionate. {100} Thus, in all parts of the country, along the sea-board as well as in the interior of the continent, in the great centres of population, and in the forests hardly yet explored, in the midst of commercial activity and of rural life, numbers, the simple individual, personal independence, primitive equality, all these democratic elements were increasing, extending their influence, and taking, in the State and its institutions, the place which had been prepared for them, but which they had not previously held.

And, in the course of ideas, the same movement, even more rapid, hurried along the minds of men and the progress of opinion, far in advance of events. In the midst of the most civilized and wisest States, the most radical theories obtained not only favor but strength. "The property of the United States has been protected from the confiscation of Britain, by the joint exertions of all, and therefore ought to be the common property of all; and he that attempts opposition to this creed, is an enemy to equity and justice, and ought to be swept from the face of the earth. ... {101} They are determined to annihilate all debts, public and private, and have agrarian laws, which are easily effected by the means of unfunded paper money, which shall be a tender in all cases whatever." [Footnote 55]

[Footnote 55: Washington's Writings, Vol. IX. p. 207.]

These disorganizing fancies were received in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, by a considerable portion of the people; twelve or fifteen thousand men took up arms, in order to reduce them to practice. And the evil appeared so serious, that Madison, the most intimate friend of Jefferson, a man whom the democratic party subsequently ranked among its leaders, regarded American society as almost lost, and hardly ventured to entertain any hope. [Footnote 56]

[Footnote 56: Ibid., Vol. IX. p. 208.]

Two powers act in concurrence to develope and maintain the life of a people; its civil constitution and its political organization, the general influences of society and the authorities of the State; the latter were wanting to the infant American commonwealth, still more than the former. In this society, so disturbed, so slightly connected, the old government had disappeared, and the new had not yet been formed. {102} I have spoken of the insignificance of Congress, the only bond of union between the States, the only central power; a power without rights and without strength; signing treaties, nominating ambassadors, proclaiming that the public good required certain laws, certain taxes, and a certain army; but not having itself the power of making laws, or judges, or officers to administer them; without taxes, with which to pay its ambassadors, officers, and judges, or troops to enforce the payment of taxes and cause its laws, judges, and officers to be respected. The political state was still more weak and more wavering than the social state.

The Constitution was formed to remedy this evil, to give to the Union a government. It accomplished two great results. The central government became a real one, and was placed in its proper position. The Constitution freed it from the control of the States, gave it a direct action upon the citizens without the intervention of the local authorities, and supplied it with the instruments necessary to give effect to its will; with taxes, judges, officers, and soldiers. {103} In its own interior organization, the central government was well conceived and well balanced; the duties and relations of the several powers were regulated with great good sense, and a clear understanding of the conditions upon which order and political vitality were to be had; at least for a republican form, and the society for which it was intended.

In comparing the Constitution of the United States with the anarchy from which it sprang, we cannot too much admire the wisdom of its framers, and of the generation which selected and sustained them. But the Constitution, though adopted and promulgated, was as yet a mere name. It supplied remedies against the evil, but the evil was still there. The great powers, which it had brought into existence, were confronted with the events which had preceded it and rendered it so necessary, and with the parties which were formed by these events, and were striving to mould society, and the Constitution itself, according to their own views.

At the first glance, the names of these parties excite surprise. Federal and democratic; between these two qualities, these two tendencies, there is no real and essential difference. {104} In Holland, in the seventeenth century, in Switzerland even in our time, it was the democratic party which aimed at strengthening the federal union, the central government; it was the aristocratic party which placed itself at the head of the local governments, and defended their sovereignty. The Dutch people supported William of Nassau and the Stadtholdership against John de Witt and the leading citizens of the towns. The patricians of Schweitz and Uri are the most obstinate enemies of the federal diet and of its power.

In the course of their struggle, the American parties often received different designations. The democratic party arrogated to itself the title of _republican_, and bestowed on the other, that of _monarchists_ and _monocrats_. The federalists called their opponents _anti-unionists_. They mutually accused each other of tending, the one to monarchy, and the other to separation; of wishing to destroy, the one the republic, and the other the union.

This was either a bigoted prejudice or a party trick. Both parties were sincerely friendly to a republican form of government and the union of the States. {105} The names, which they gave one another for the sake of mutual disparagement, were still more false than their original denominations were imperfect and improperly opposed to each other.

Practically, and so far as the immediate affairs of the country were concerned, they differed less, than they either said or thought, in their mutual hatred. But, in reality, there was a permanent and essential difference between them in their principles and their tendencies. The federal party was, at the same time, aristocratic, favorable to the preponderance of the higher classes, as well as to the power of the central government. The democratic party was, also, the local party; desiring at once the rule of the majority, and the almost entire independence of the State governments. Thus there were points of difference between them, respecting both social order and political order; the constitution of society itself, as well as of its government. Thus those paramount and eternal questions, which have agitated and will continue to agitate the world, and which are linked to the far higher problem of man's nature and destiny, were all involved in the American parties, and were all concealed under their names.

{106}

It was in the midst of this society; so agitated and disturbed, that Washington, without ambition, without any false show, from a sense of duty rather than inclination, and rather trusting in truth than confident of success, undertook actually to found the government which a new-born constitution had just decreed. He rose to his high office, invested with an immense influence, which was acknowledged and received even by his enemies. But he himself has made the profound remark, that "influence is not government." [Footnote 57]

[Footnote 57: Washington's Writings, Vol. IX. p. 204.]

In the struggle of the parties, all that had reference to the mere organization of civil society, occupied his attention very little. This involves abstruse and recondite questions, which are clearly revealed only to the meditations of the philosopher, after he has surveyed human societies in all periods and under all their forms. Washington was little accustomed to contemplation, or acquainted with science. {107} In 1787, before going to Philadelphia, he had undertaken, for the purpose of getting clear views, to study the constitution of the principal confederations, ancient and modern; and the abstract of this labor, found among his papers, shows, that he had made a collection of facts in support of the plain dictates of his good sense, rather than penetrated into the essential nature of these complicated associations.

Moreover, Washington's natural inclination was rather to a democratic social state, than to any other. Of a mind just, rather than expansive, of a temper wise and calm; full of dignity, but free from all selfish and arrogant pretensions; coveting rather respect than power; the impartiality of democratic principles, and the simplicity of democratic manners, far from offending or annoying him, suited his tastes and satisfied his judgment. He did not trouble himself with inquiring, like the partisans of the aristocratic system, whether more elaborate combinations, a division into ranks, privileges, and artificial barriers, were necessary to the preservation of society. He lived tranquilly in the midst of an equal and sovereign people, finding its authority to be lawful, and submitting to it without effort.

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But when the question was one of political and not social order, when the discussion turned upon the organization of the government, he was strongly federal, opposed to local and popular pretensions, and the declared advocate of the unity and force of the central power.

He placed himself under this standard, and did so in order to insure its triumph. But still his elevation was not the victory of a party, and awakened in no one either exultation or regret. In the eyes, not only of the public, but of his enemies, he was not included in any party, and was above them all; "the only man in the United States," said Jefferson, "who possessed the confidence of all; ... there was no other one, who was considered as any thing more than a party leader." [Footnote 58]

[Footnote 58: Jefferson's _Memoirs_, Vol. IV. p. 481.]

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It was his constant effort to maintain this honorable privilege. "It is really my wish to have my mind and my actions, which are the result of reflection, as free and independent as the air. [Footnote 59] ... If it should be my inevitable fate to administer the government, I will go to the chair under no preëngagement of any kind or nature whatsoever. [Footnote 60] ... Should any thing tending to give me anxiety present itself in this or any other publication, I shall never undertake the painful task of recrimination, nor do I know that I should even enter upon my justification. [Footnote 61] ... All else is but food for declamation. [Footnote 62] ... Men's minds are as variant as their faces; and, where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter. [Footnote 63] ... Differences in political opinions are as unavoidable, as, to a certain point, they may perhaps be necessary." [Footnote 64]

[Footnote 59: Washington's Writings, Vol. IX. p. 84.]

[Footnote 60: Ibid., Vol. IX. p. 476.]

[Footnote 61: Ibid., Vol. IX. p. 108.]

[Footnote 62: Ibid., Vol. IX. p. 148.]

[Footnote 63: Ibid., Vol. IX. p. 475.]

[Footnote 64: Ibid., Vol. X. p. 283.]

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A stranger also to all personal disputes, to the passions and prejudices of his friends as well as his enemies, the purpose of his whole policy was to maintain this position; and to this policy he gave its true name; he called it "the just medium." [Footnote 65]