A GOVERNMENT FOR AMERICA.

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their industrial opportunities and the general uniformity of their condition, were unfavorable to the rapid distinction of rank. The destruction of the right of primogeniture, and the equal division of the property of intestates tended to preserve this equality; and the vast amount of unoccupied territory would be a powerful means of preserving the equality of condition. The riches and wealth, which it was the peculiar province of a permanent legislative body to protect, were unknown in America. At the time of the Federal Convention there were not a hundred men in the country who would now be called wealthy. The landed interest was too unprotected and too much divided in the States to form the basis of such a legislative body as the Lords, and little was to be apprehended from the moneyed class or from commerce, because an order of nobility had never sprung from merchants. Pinckney observed that the Americans had unwisely considered themselves as the inhabitants of an old instead of a new country and had adopted the maxim of a state full of people and manufactures and of an established credit. The American people might be divided into professional men, who from their pursuit must always have considerable weight in the government so long as it continued of a popular form; commercial men, whose influence varied, as a wise or injurious policy was pursued; and the landed interest, the owners and cultivators of the soil, who were and ought ever to be the governing spring in the system.

However distinct in their pursuits, the members of these three classes were individually equal in the political scale and had a common interest. The government best suited to such a people would not be after the British model, which recognized three orders of people distinct in situation, possessions and principle. The United States contained but one class that could be likened to the British

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UNIQUE SITUATION OF AMERICA.

nation, and that the order of commons. The government must be suited to the people whom it was to direct, and it would be foolish to attempt to form one consisting of three branches, two of which would have nothing to represent. The confusion prevailing in 1787 was not owing to the people, but to the failure of combining the various interests which a government was intended to unite. All that the Convention had to do then was to distribute the powers of the government in such a manner and for such limited periods as, while giving a proper degree of permanency to the executive, would reserve to the people the right of election. Such a distribution might easily be made, and the Virginia plan, if somewhat amended, would fully subserve this end. Yet, no general government could exist in America without preserving to the States the protection and control of their local rights. They were the instruments upon which the Union must frequently depend for the support and execution of its powers, however immediately they operated upon the people.

Hitherto, whenever a delegate had thought it necessary to support an opinion by historical examples, he had referred to the republics and confederacies of earlier times, or to the British government. Pinckney brought the mind of the Convention back to America and emphasized the unique situation of its people. He would not break with the past, yet would found a government adapted to the wants of a new country and a new Nation. Nearly all the members of the Convention became identified later with the administration of the national government, the plan of which they were now forming, but to them there was no American history in the sense in which these words are now understood. The government they were forming would be an experiment, and the people were yet to prove it administrable. Pinckney's speech

CHOOSING THE SENATE.

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was, therefore, the more remarkable because of its American tone. It is usual to speak of Hamilton's speech to the Convention as one that raised the minds of its members to a clearer concept of a strong national government. It is eminently proper to say of Pinckney's speech that it raised their minds to a clearer concept of the unique situation of the American people, and to the conclusion that a government should be formed adapted to such a country as ours. Hamilton not only believed that the British Constitution was the best in existence, but he wished it copied as closely as possible in America. Pinckney acknowledged its excellence, but showed with larger wisdom that it was not adapted to the American people. From the time Pinckney spoke, and only a fragment of his speech is preserved, the members must have been persuaded, if any were yet in doubt, that the Constitution which they were making must be American in character.

The immediate question now was the manner of choosing the Senate. Wilson was convinced that it ought not to be elected by the assemblies, yet when he considered the amazing extent of the country, the immense population which was to fill it and the influence of the government about to be formed, he confessed that he was lost in the magnitude of the subject. The chief reason for an election from some other source was the necessity of observing the two-fold relation in which the people would stand as citizens of the government and of their own States. As both governments were derived from the people and were meant for them, both systems ought to be regulated on the same principles. A Senate chosen by the assemblies would cherish local interests and prejudices. The general government was not an assemblage of States, but of individuals for certain political purposes, and therefore individuals ought to be represented in it. The Sen

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QUESTION OF EXTENT OF COUNTRY.

ate, he thought, should be chosen by electors chosen by the people for that purpose, but Wilson stood alone.

The Virginia plan, as thus far amended, called for a Senate chosen by the assemblies. The Convention believed that it was necessary to maintain the existence and agency of the States, therefore this mode of election was favored, for the members were confident that without the co-operation of the States it would be impossible to support a republican government over so great an extent of country. If Massachusetts could not keep the peace a hundred miles from her capitol, what could the new republic do with a frontier on the Mississippi? Ellsworth touched the vital spot when he said that the only chance of supporting the general government lay in engrafting it on the governments of the individual States. Convinced of this necessity the members finally decided the method of choosing the Senate.2

It was unanimously agreed that a Senator should be required to be at least thirty years of age, but the senatorial term of seven years led Gorham to suggest one of four, with the Senate in four classes, each elected annually. The policy of rotation, said Randolph, would give

1 Referring to Shays' rebellion, in 1786.

2 The vote that the members of the second branch should be chosen by individual legislatures was, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, aye; Pennsylvania and Virginia, no. In explanation of this final vote Madison says, "It must be kept in view that the largest States, particularly Pennsylvania and Virginia, always considered the choice of the second branch by the State legislatures as opposed to a proportional representation, to which they were attached as a fundamental principle of just government. The smaller States who had opposed this were reenforced by the members from the large States most anxious to secure the importance of the State governments." Documentary History, III, 212; Elliot, V, 240.

SENATORIAL TERM.

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wisdom and stability to the Senate, as it might always be in session, and thus give aid to the executive. It was agreed that the membership should "go out in fixed proportion," and Williamson and Sherman suggested that a term of six years would be more convenient than one of seven. Read and Robert Morris believed with Hamilton that the senatorial office should be for good behavior, but if the term was too long it would make the senators permanent residents of the seat of government, and thus, thought Pinckney, they would lose sight of the States which they were sent to represent, which would cause great disadvantage to the more distant ones. Gorham proposed six years with the retirement of one-third of the members biennially, thus following a general precedent set by the State constitutions. Read and Broom would have nine years, one-third of the Senate going out triennially.

The purpose of organizing a Senate, said Madison, was to secure a means for protecting the people against their rulers, and against the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led; the Senate should operate as a check and balance in the general system. As the government about to be formed was intended to last for ages3 it must be adapted to all probable changes. The symptoms of what was called at the time, the leveling spirit, were a sign of future dangers. The establishment in the government of a body sufficiently respectable for its wisdom and virtue to meet emergencies, by throwing its

1 June 26.

2 The period of the retiring clause in these constitutions varied at this time, as in the retirement of one-third of the Council annually in Delaware, 1776; and of one-fourth of the Senate annually in Virginia, 1776.

3 This language is used by Chief-Justice Marshall in Cohens vs. Virginia (1821), 6 Wheaton, p. 387.