the Philadelphia meeting, was unceasing in his efforts to remove the general's objections-to overcome his inertia.

Even Madison was not sure that Washington should identify himself with a proceeding whose results were so uncertain. He rather deprecated the urgent zeal with which Randolph insisted.

"Would it not be well," writes Madison, "for him" (Washington) "to postpone his actual attendance until some judgment can be formed of the result of the meeting? It ought not to be wished by any of his friends that he should participate in an abortive proceeding."

In this correspondence, in which it is interesting to note that Randolph refers to the States as "our associated republics," it clearly appears that Washington's attendance upon the Philadelphia convention was due, more than to any other man, to the influence and the insistence of the Governor of Virginia, Edmund Randolph.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE CONSTITUTION

Two of the youngest members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 went there with readymade constitutions in their pockets. Alexander Hamilton carried one, Edmund Randolph the other.

Hamilton's plan was so frankly aristocratic and monarchical, in body and soul, that it was incontinently cast aside.

Randolph's plan was in form republican, in spirit far from democratic.

The sittings of the convention began May 25, 1787. There were fifty-five delegates. Some of these were not present during the first few weeks of the session. Ten other delegates who had been elected did not attend at all.

Benjamin Franklin, aged eighty-one, was the oldest member of the convention; the youngest was Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, aged twenty-six. Alexander Hamilton was thirty; James Madison thirty-six.

General Washington was president of the convention, and the work which quiet, studious,

learned, and industrious James Madison performed fairly entitled him to the proud name he afterward bore, "the Father of the Constitution."

Three great compromises had to be made before a new government could be established.

(1) The Connecticut compromise gave equality to all the States in the Senate, while preponderance was given to the larger States in the House.

(2) The slavery question, carrying a dispute between free States and slave States, was settled by allowing three-fifths of the slaves to be counted in the census, upon which was to be based representation in Congress.

(3) Between the agricultural and commercial States the fight on the tariff and the slave trade was intensely bitter; but it was finally arranged that Congress should control commerce, and the importation of slaves should cease in 1808.

By the 17th of September the great convention had completed its task-" the noblest work ever struck off at a given time by the mind and purpose of man," according to Mr. Gladstone.

When the secret convention threw open its doors, and published the result of its labors, the world saw a Constitution which was, in form, Randolph's, yet, in spirit, so wholly foreign to its author's intention and so akin to Hamilton's, that the New York statesman (who had quit and gone home) immediately ran to its support, while Randolph

stood aloof, doubtful what to do. Like George Mason, he refused to sign the new Constitution, and was classed with its opponents.

By the time the Virginia convention met, however, Randolph had decided to throw his whole weight into the scale for ratification, and George Mason was denouncing him as a Benedict Arnold.

Luther Martin, of Maryland, had quit the convention in disgust, because so much power was being given the Central Government; and he vehemently opposed the adoption of the Constitution in the Maryland convention.

Patrick Henry had at first been in favor of the movement toward a stronger government; but the astounding treaty which John Jay, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, had negotiated with Spain-a treaty in which the rights of the Southern people were traded off in exchange for commercial advantages to the North-created such a bitter feeling in the South that jealousy of the power of Congress became a passion. Southern men had fought their way to the Mississippi, suffering all the hardships, paying all the costs, asking no help from Congress or from other States. An empire of almost boundless wealth lay in the future of the domain which had thus been brought into the Union. Fort Jefferson flew our flag in the far West, the visible sign of the conquest Boone and Kenyon and Clarke had made. Even the British had respected

our rights to this western land, and had conceded it to us by the treaty of Paris.

And now by a cold spurt of the pen John Jay, aided by a secret committee in Congress and doing the work in secret, virtually proposed to haul down the flag and destroy for twenty-five years the value of the conquest. The Mississippi was to be closed to American commerce; Spain was to have absolute, exclusive control of the stream! It was this astonishing bargain between the Northern men in Congress and the Spanish minister which aroused the first outburst of sectional feeling after the war. It was this which changed Patrick Henry and so many others, and caused them to fear that in the new constitutional government the Southern States would be nothing more than tributary provinces to the North.

To Washington's overwhelming influence the success of the Philadelphia convention had been due. But the verdict of Virginia herself was yet to be rendered. Whether the new Constitution would be accepted by her was extremely doubtful. Washington put forth all his strength in favor of ratification, but did not himself attend his State convention.

The brunt of battle was borne by James Madison and Edmund Randolph. It might be altogether more accurate to say that it was borne by Edmund Randolph and James Madison.