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coast counties, in which the commercial interests were strong- est, gave 102 votes in favor of ratification and only 19 against. The counties away from the coast furnished 60 votes for ratification and 128 against. The counties in what afterwards became the State of Maine were more closely divided, furnish- ing 25 votes for ratification and 21 against. The counties with the biggest majorities in favor of ratification were Suf- folk and Essex, where the principal seats of commerce were located; and the county with the biggest adverse majority was Worcester, where agrarianism had been most rampant. From beginning to end, the movement for the more perfect Union in Massachusetts was most vigorously supported by the com- mercial interests; whilst the small farmers furnished the bulk of the opposition. Nevertheless, there was general acquies- cence in the result, and for years afterwards Hancock and Adams held the chief offices in the Commonwealth with the support of Federalists and former Antifederalists alike.
MASSACHUSETTS CONSTITUTION OF 1780 401
EFFECT OF MASSACHUSETTS SUPPORT
The action of the Massachusetts convention exerted a pow- erful, possibly a decisive, influence upon the fate of the Con- stitution. Previously five States had ratified; but it was already evident that the necessary nine States could not be obtained without a great struggle and the issue was doubtful. The adherence of New York and Virginia was particularly dubious. While George Clinton and Richard Henry Lee were fighting ratification in their respective States upon any condi- tions, more judicious leaders, particularly Jefferson, were proposing that a group of States should withhold their ap- proval until the Constitution should have been amended by another Convention so as to make sure that the Constitution should not become effective unless it were amended.
The Massachusetts plan was a wiser one, as Jefferson him- self was presently to acknowledge. Its wisdom is attested by the fact that, whereas the five States which had previously ratified all did so without reservations or conditions, only one of the States which subsequently ratified failed to suggest amendments for incorporation into the Constitution at the earliest opportunity. And one of the first acts of the first Congress under the Constitution was to submit twelve amend- ments to the States which had joined the Union. Ten of these were promptly ratified, thereby supplying that bill of rights, the lack of which Gerry had deplored in the Federal Convention; and which the proposals of Hancock and Adams in the State Convention had done so much to forward. This addition to the Constitution was one of Massachusetts' great- est contributions to the formation of the more perfect Union.
EFFECT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS CONSTITUTION OF 1780
Besides taking the lead in supplying the Constitution with a bill of rights, Massachusetts did more than any other State to suggest for the Federal Government the structure necessary for making these rights of more than merely theoretical im- portance ; for the State Constitution of 1780 furnished the best model then existing of a government in which the executive and judicial branches were clearly separated and rendered in- dependent of one another. This was the indispensable con-
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THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
dition for any effective protection by the judiciary of the rights of the people. The history of the Massachusetts Con- stitution of 1780 is elsewhere recorded in this volume. It was drafted by John Adams, and was known to have been prepared with exceptional care. The principles upon which it was con- structed and the form of government which it established were frequently cited in the debates at Philadelphia by the delegates from Massachusetts and by others also. Indeed the government of Massachusetts was mentioned in the Fed- eral Convention more often than that of any other State.
The influence of the State Constitution was reenforced by the writings of its principal author. The first volume of John Adams's Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States reached Philadelphia as the Convention was settling down to work. June 2, Benjamin Rush of Philadel- phia wrote to Dr. Richard Price in England that "Mr. Adams' book has diffused such excellent principles among us, that there is little doubt of our adopting a vigorous and com- pounded federal legislature. Our illustrious minister in this gift to his country has done us more service than if he had obtained alliances for us with all the nations of Europe."
Madison was more discriminating in his praise. "Mr. Adams' book," he wrote, "has excited a good deal of atten- tion. An edition has come out here, and another is in press at New York. It will probably be much read ... and contrib- ute ... to revive the predilections of this country for the Brit- ish Constitution. Men of learning find nothing new in it; men of taste many things to criticise ; and men without either, not a few things which they will not understand. . . . The book also has merit." Whatever may be thought of Adams's book, it gave wide currency and sanction to the Massachusetts plan of government. While Adams himself paid little heed to the possible development of the power of judicial veto when ap- plied to unconstitutional laws, except in cases where they threatened the authority of the judges themselves, he was keenly alive to the importance of an independent judiciary for the purpose of maintaining the due process of law; and that has become the corner-stone of constitutional government in America.
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EXTENT OF MASSACHUSETTS INFLUENCE
Doubtless the influence of Massachusetts in the actual fram- ing of the Federal Constitution was somewhat impaired by the dissensions among its delegates. At the outset of the Con- vention they had no comprehensive or definite plan and at the successive crises in its deliberations they were unable to act together. Hence the delegation never secured such a com- manding position as was held at times by the delegations from Virginia and Pennsylvania, nor accomplished such a brilliant achievement as that of the Connecticut delegation in maintain- ing the federal character of the more perfect Union. Nor did they promote sectional and local interests with the vigor and efficiency of the delegation from South Carolina. But as individuals the Massachusetts delegates rendered a good ac- count of themselves, and gave the State an important part in the proceedings of the Convention. Gerry may have been a failure at team-play and perhaps carried his devotion to Federalism too far, but few members of the Convention made more important contributions in matters of detail. Gorham was one of the most effective delegates in protecting the spe- cial interests of his own State. King won honorable distinction among the little group who had imagination to conceive a genuinely national plan of Union and courage to put national interests consistently before those of any section or State. Strong was a worthy specimen of those plain and honest men whose solid intelligence made common sense prevail in every crisis. And so it came about that Massachusetts obtained what she desired,-a strong and energetic general government capable of promoting the general welfare without unduly jeopardizing the liberties of the Commonwealth.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
AUSTIN, JAMES TRECOTHICK .- The Life of Elbridge Gerry (2 vols., Boston, Wells, Libby, 1828-1829)-Gerry was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Federal Convention of 1787.
BANCROFT, GEORGE .- History of the United States of America; author's last revision (6 vols., N. Y., Appleton, 1883-1885)-See Vol. VI for an account of the formation of the American Constitution.
BARRY, JOHN STETSON .- History of Massachusetts (3 vols., Boston, Phil- lips, Sampson, 1855-1857)-See Vol. III, chap. VII, for an account of debates on the adoption of the Federal Constitution by Massachusetts.
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BELKNAP, JEREMY .- Belknap Papers (3 vols., Mass. Historical Society, Collections, Fifth Series, Vols. II-III; Sixth Series, Vol. IV ; Boston, 1877, 1891)-For the correspondence with Ebenezer Hazard, see the second volume, pp. 5-10, 13-17.
BELKNAP, JEREMY .- "Minutes of the Massachusetts Convention of 1788" (Mass. Historical Society, Proceedings, First Series, Vol. III, pp. 296- 304, Boston, 1859)-Very brief notes, but often of much value.
BRADFORD, ALDEN .- Biography of the Hon. Caleb Strong (Boston, Richard- son & Lord, 1820)-Strong was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Federal Convention of 1787.
CHANNING, EDWARD .- A History of the United States (4 vols., N. Y., Macmillan, 1919-1925) .- See Vol. III, chap. XVI.
COOLIDGE, ARCHIBALD CARY .- Theoretical and Foreign Elements in the Framing of the American Constitution (Freiburg, Lehmann, 1892).
CURTIS, GEORGE TICKNOR .- Constitutional History of the United States from their Declaration of Independence to the Close of the Civil War (2 vols., New York, Harper, 1889-1896)-Vol. I includes a bibliogra- phy of the Constitution by P. L. Ford.
DANA, RICHARD HENRY .- Address on Francis Dana, April 28, 1908 (Cam- bridge Historical Society, Proceedings, Vol. III, pp. 56-78, Cambridge, Mass., 1908)-Dana was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Federal Convention of 1787.
ELLIOT, JONATHAN, ed .- The Debates in the Several States Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Together with the Jour- nal of the Federal Convention (5 vols., privately printed, Washington, 1836-1845)-Collected and revised from contemporary publications. For Benjamin, Russell's notes on the Massachusetts Convention of 1788, see Vol. V.
FARRAND, MAX .- "Compromises of the Constitution" (Amer. Historical Review, 1904, Vol. IX, pp. 479-489).
FARRAND, MAX .- Framing the Constitution of the United States (New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1913).
FORD, PAUL LEICESTER, ed .- Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, Published during its Discussion by the People: 1787-1788. With Notes and a Bibliography (Brooklyn, N. Y., 1888)-See pp. 1-24, for Elbridge Gerry's Observations.
GERRY, ELBRIDGE .- Observations on the New Constitution, and on the Fed- eral and State Conventions; by a Columbian Patriot (Boston, 1788)- Reprinted in P. L. FORD, Pamphlets on the Constitution. Gerry was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Federal Convention of 1787.
GERRY, ELBRIDGE .- Some Letters of Elbridge Gerry 1784-1804 (Brooklyn, Historical City Club, 1896)-Edited by W. C. Ford.
HARDING, SAMUEL BANNISTER .- The Contest over the Ratification of the Federal Constitution in the State of Massachusetts (Harvard Histori- cal Studies, II, N. Y., Longmans, Green, 1896).
HART, ALBERT BUSHNELL .- American History Told by Contemporaries (4 vols., N. Y., Macmillan, 1906)-See Vol. III, pp. 54-82.
HIGGINSON, STEPHEN .- Ten Chapters of the Life of John Hancock (N. Y., 1857)-A reprint of "The Writings of Laco" published in the Massachusetts Centinel, February-March, 1789. Papers VII and VIII attack Hancock's attitude toward the Federal Constitution.
HILDRETH, RICHARD .- The History of the United States of America (6 vols., N. Y., Harper, 1880-1882)-See Vol. III, chap. XLVII.
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HOSMER, JAMES KENDALL .- Samuel Adams (Boston, Houghton, Mifflin, 1885)-Hosmer comments on Adams's opposition to the Constitution.
KING, RUFUS .- The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King; Comprising his Letters, Private and Official, his Public Documents, and his Speeches, 1755-1827 (6 vols., N. Y. Putnam, 1894-1900)-Elited by C. R. King. For notes made at the Federal Convention of 1787, see Vol. III, Apx. 1.
LIBBY, ORIN GRANT .- The Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, 1787-8 (Madison, Wis., The University, 1894)-With diagrams.
LODGE, HENRY CABOT .- A Memoir of Caleb Strong, 1745-1818 (Cambridge, Wilson, 1879)-Strong was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Federal Convention of 1787.
MADISON, JAMES .- The Writings of James Madison (9 vols., N. Y., Put- nam, 1900-1910)-Edited by Gaillard Hunt. For Madison's journal of the Convention of 1788, see Vols. III-IV.
MASSACHUSETTS (Commonwealth) : Convention of 1788 .- Debates, Reso- lutions, and other Proceedings of the Convention of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts, Convened at Boston, on the 9th of January, 1788, for the Purpose of Ratifying the Constitution Recommended by the Grand Federal Convention (Boston, Oliver & Munroe, 1808)- Reprinted in Elliot's Debates.
MASSACHUSETTS (Commonwealth) : Convention of 1788 .- Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts, Held in the Year 1788, and which formally Ratified the Consti- tution of the United States. Printed by Authority of the Resolves of the Legislature, 1856 (Boston, 1856)-Edited by B. K. Pierce and Charles Hale. The material of the previous title is reprinted here.
MCLAUGHLIN, ANDREW CUNNINGHAM .- The Confederation and the Con- stitution, 1783-1789 (The American Nation : a history, Vol. XI, N. Y., Harper, 1905)-Contains a well-annotated bibliography.
MCLAUGHLIN, ANDREW CUNNINGHAM .- "Social Compact and Constitu- tional Construction" (Amer. Historical Review, 1900, Vol. V, pp. 467- 490)-Shows the contemporary notion of the Constitution as analo- gous to a social compact.
McMASTER, JOHN BACH .- History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Close of the Civil War (8 vols., N. Y., Apple- ton, 1884-1913)-Vol. I, chap. I, treats of the Federal Convention. The author appreciates rightly the influence of the antagonism between democracy and aristocracy in Massachusetts upon the ratification of the Constitution.
RIVES, WILLIAM CABELL .- History of the Life and Times of James Madi- son (3 vols., Boston, Little, Brown, 1859-1868)-See especially Vol. II, where several chapters are devoted to the framing of the Constitu- tion and proceedings in the Federal Convention of 1787.
ROBINSON, JAMES HARVEY .- "The Original and Derived Features of the Constitution" (Amer. Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals, Vol. I, pp. 203-243).
STEVENS, CHARLES ELLIS .- Sources of the Constitution of the United States Considered in Relation to Colonial and English History (New York, Macmillan, 1894).
STORY, JOSEPH .- Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States; with a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colo- nies and States, & the Adoption of the Constitution (2 vols., Boston, Little, Brown, 1891)-This work went through several earlier editions.
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THACHER, PETER .- A Sermon Preached at Charlestown, June 19, 1796, and Occasioned by the Sudden Death of the Honorable Nathaniel Gorham, esquire (Boston, Samuel Hall, 1796)-Gorham was a dele- gate from Massachusetts to the Federal Convention of 1787.
UNITED STATES : CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1787 .- The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution of the United States, May-September, 1787, as Reported by James Madison (2 vols., Putnam's, 1908)-Edited by Gaillard Hunt.
UNITED STATES ; CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1787 .- Records of the Fed- eral Convention of 1787 (3 vols., New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1911)-Edited by Max Farrand. A careful collation of the official. journal with all available private records of proceedings and debates.
WARD, A. W., PROTHERO, G. W., and LEATHES, STANLEY, eds .- Cambridge Modern History (13 vols., Cambridge, Eng., Cambridge Univ. Press, 1902-1912)-See Vol. III, chap. VIII, for an account of the formation of the Federal Constitution.
WELLS, WILLIAM VINCENT .- The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams (3 vols., Boston, Little, Brown, 1865)-See especially Vol. III.
The newspapers of the day constitute one of the richest sources for the study of the political opinions of this period. Of these the Independent Chronicle and the Massachusetts Centinel were strongly Federalist. The Boston Gazette and County Journal and the American Herald leaned to the other side of the question. Files of all these are in the libraries of the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester) and of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston) and at the Boston Athenaeum.
CHAPTER XIV
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION (1789 - 1812)
BY CLAUDE M. FUESS Professor in English, Phillips Andover Academy
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (1788)
Massachusetts ratified the Constitution by a close vote on February 6, 1788, being the sixth state to enter the Union. Although the outlook for adoption at first seemed unpromis- ing, most of the wealthy and influential citizens, especially in the maritime towns, came to favor the new form of govern- ment, believing that it would establish a sounder economic and political system than that which they had endured under the Articles of Confederation. When New Hampshire took a similar course, June 21, 1788, the nine states necessary had been obtained.
It was not until the pivotal states of Virginia and New York acquiesced a few days later that the Union was made certain. As summer turned into autumn, Massachusetts pre- pared, with the others, to take her place among the United States of America. By this Union no state was to profit more than Massachusetts; for on the stability of trade and finance her future largely depended.
STATUS OF MASSACHUSETTS (1789)
Massachusetts, in 1789, included the District of Maine un- der its jurisdiction; otherwise its boundaries were the same as they are to-day. The population of the Commonwealth, according to the Federal Census of 1790, was 378,787; or, including Maine, 475,327,-about half that of Boston in 1929. The state was second only to Virginia in numbers and im- portance. Nine towns had over four thousand inhabitants, and of these the first five-Boston, Salem, Marblehead, Gloucester, and Newburyport-were seaports. Most of the
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MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION
places which to-day are large manufacturing centers were then insignificant. Springfield contained only 1574 inhabitants, Worcester only 2095, and Lynn only 2291; while Lawrence and Lowell were as yet unknown. Among the larger towns were Rehoboth, sixth in the state, with 4710, followed closely by Ipswich, Middleboro, and Bridgewater. Beverly and Brookfield, with about 3000 each, were among the populous communities. Boston, the third city in the country, with ap- proximately 18,000 people, still held its town meetings in Faneuil Hall.
During the period covered by this chapter, Massachusetts relied for its prosperity upon its maritime commerce, for even the agricultural interior sold its products to the seaports. Business was concerned chiefly with the extensive trade car- ried on by importers and exporters with all parts of the world. The total merchant and fishing fleet of Massachusetts by 1810 reached 500,000 tons. It has been estimated that nearly twelve hundred vessels were constructed on the lower Merri- mac in the years from 1793 to 1815. Many merchants ac- cumulated comfortable fortunes and formed an opulent and aristocratic society, the members of which lived in luxurious style. Morison is right when he says, "In the final analysis, the power of Massachusetts as a commercial state lay in her ships, and the men who built, owned, and sailed them." Ac- cordingly, it was the maritime interests which, in the forma- tive days of the new government, controlled Massachusetts politics; and it was their avowed aim to stimulate commerce. In this basic fact we find the key to the relations of Massa- chusetts to the Union between 1789 and the War of 1812.
FIRST FEDERAL ELECTIONS (1788- 1789)
After some debate over the proper methods of carrying into effect the provisions of the Constitution, the General Court, which was strongly Federalist, settled down in late November to the election of two Senators. Passing over such distin- guished figures as Samuel Adams and John Hancock, it named on the first ballot Caleb Strong, a Northampton lawyer who had been a member of the Convention of 1787 and enjoyed a reputation as a safe man. Tall and angular, plain in speech and dress, he was substantial, not showy; and he was to be
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prominent in Massachusetts politics for many years to come. For the second senatorship an agreement was reached on Tristram Dalton, of Newburyport, an aristocratic and schol- arly country gentleman, with a manner which was formal and imposing. Despite their differences in temperament, both Strong and Dalton favored the Constitution; and General Lincoln wrote Washington, "Our Senators are Federal in- deed." When, in May, 1789, they drew lots to determine the length of their terms, Dalton was assigned one of two years, while Strong received one of four years.
REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS (1789 - 1795)
In the Congressional elections held during the winter of 1788-89, party lines were not sharply drawn, but the people showed an inclination to support candidates who had advo- cated the adoption of the Constitution. In Suffolk, Fisher Ames, an eloquent defender of the Constitution in the State Convention, won by a small margin over Samuel Adams. That old campaigner, although he had been persuaded to vote for ratification, was known to favor amendments and was not altogether trusted by the "solid men of Boston."
It is true that, in Middlesex, Elbridge Gerry, who had refused to sign the Constitution and who was thoroughly democratic in his ideas, defeated his former colleague, Nathaniel Gorham, who had presided over the sessions of the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia for three months while it sat as a Committee of the Whole. Nevertheless Gerry could not have been elected if he had not made a public statement that every citizen was bound to support the new government. From the prosperous Essex District, the repre- sentative was Benjamin Goodhue, a Salem merchant and a conservative man of property, who was later to be a United States Senator. In Plymouth, George Partridge, who had served in the Continental Congress, received a vote which was almost unanimous; George Leonard, an attorney from Norton, won easily in the Bristol District; and George Thacher was chosen from the Eastern District, now the state of Maine.
In two sections there were prolonged and bitter battles. In the Upper District, among the Berkshires, Theodore Sedg-
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wick, an ardent Federalist, eventually showed a majority of seven over an Antifederalist opponent. In Worcester, on the other hand, Jonathan Grout, who had been out with Captain Shays in 1786, was victorious. Of the Massachu- setts delegation, Gerry and Grout were the only members not enthusiastic for the Constitution. It must be remembered, however, that barely more than three per cent of the people of the Commonwealth had participated in the election. There was still a property qualification for voters, which was not removed until an act, extending the suffrage to all males over twenty-one years, was passed under the Gerry administration in 1811.
MASSACHUSETTS IN FEDERAL ORGANIZATION (1789 - 1800)
The presidential electors from Massachusetts were chosen in 1789 by a peculiar process, the General Court selecting two at large and eight from a list of twenty-four names sent up by the eight congressional districts, three from each. These ten electors, meeting in the Senate Chamber on Feb- ruary 4, 1789, voted for George Washington and John Adams. When, on April 6, in New York, the ballots were counted, it was declared that Washington was elected Presi- dent without a dissenting voice; and that Adams had 34 votes out of 69,-not a majority, but sufficient to make him legally Vice President. Thus Massachusetts arrived at the second place in the administration.
Vice President Adams, as soon as he was officially notified of the result, set out from Braintree for New York, on a journey made pleasant by receptions and ovations; and he was greeted warmly when without public ceremonies he took his seat in the Senate Chamber as presiding officer. In due time General Washington, after a similar triumphal progress north from Virginia, reached the temporary capital and was formally inaugurated, on April 30, 1789.
In the government thus auspiciously opened, Massachu- setts was to have no small influence. When the Supreme Court was organized in September, Washington appointed William Cushing, who had been the first Chief Justice of the Commonwealth under the Constitution of 1780, as Associate Justice; and later, in 1796, Cushing was named as Chief
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Justice of the United States, but declined because of ill health. In the Cabinet, Washington retained his intimate friend, General Henry Knox, as. Secretary of War, the post which he occupied under the Articles of Confederation. Knox was a rather unimaginative official, whose wife, being socially ambitious, spent far more than her husband's salary in entertaining his colleagues. Samuel Osgood, of Andover, who had acted since 1785 as one of the three Treasury Com- missioners, was appointed Postmaster General, an office not then of cabinet rank, but desirable because of the patronage which it controlled.
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