PREFACE.
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Very many years have gone by since I conceived a hope of one day writing a history of the formation of our federal constitution. The congress of the confederation and the federal convention having sat with closed doors and under injunctions of secrecy, materials for the work lay almost exclusively in manuscripts widely dispersed. I have visited the archives of more than half the thirteen states, and have never neglected an opportunity of taking copies of papers relating to the subject wherever I could find them. In New Hampshire members of the family of Langdon-Elwyn, of more than one generation, placed their rich collection of letters at my disposition. Papers of John Sullivan, the rival of John Langdon for public honors, and his equal in zeal for the acceptance of the constitution, were entrusted to me by Mr. Thomas C. Amory, of Boston. |
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In turning to the rich materials that are preserved in the archives of Massachusetts, I have most friendly and beneficial assistance from Mr. Henry B. Peirce, the present secretary of that commonwealth; and the cordial co-operation of those employed in his office. The descendents of John Adams for three generations have unfailingly been ready to further my researches. The papers of Samuel Adams came into my possession through the late Samuel Adams Wells. From Mr. John King I have received reports of debates in the federal convention of 1787, taken by Rufus King, who was at that time still in the public service of Massachusetts. From Connecticut valuable papers of Roger Sherman came to me through Professor Simeon E. Baldwin, of New Haven; though nothing equal in importance to the document which embodies nine articles of amendments of the confederation, and which is preserved only in Sherman's Life, by Jeremiah Evarts. Through the kindness of Mr. Oliver Ellsworth Wood, of New York, I was able to examine what remains of the manuscripts of Chief-Justice Ellsworth. The large collections left by William Samuel Johnson have been open to me through three generations of their possessors. The proceedings of the convention held at Hartford in November, 1780, a convention which was the starting-point of the regularly continued efforts for new articles of union, |
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| were sought for, but in vain, in the
offices of every one of the five states which were represented in it; recently I found
them in the archives of the old congress. The papers of each of the two great rival statesmen of New York, devoted friends in their college life, though afterwards divided, were equally open to me. Accompanying my contemporary and constant friend Dr. Alonzo Potter, who was wishing to find time to write the life of Robert R. Livingston, we ransacked masses of papers preserved at the manor; of which the choicest were kept apart, bound in four folio volumes. The papers of Jay, which are very extensive and preserved in perfect order, were confided to me without the least restriction by the courtesy of my friend Mr. John Jay. Of Hamilton I have taken extracts from interesting letters not as yet published. For a knowledge of his personality in his riper years, I sought the conversation of his friend President Eliphalet Nott. Copies of the most important papers of Governor George R. Howell, one of the state librarians at Albany. Manuscripts of Gouverneur Morris were unreservedly communicated by his widow. Of William Paterson, the foremost member of the federal convention from New Jersey, many papers are still preserved. His descendant, Mr. Wil- |
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| liam Paterson, of Perth Amboy, had the
exceeding kindness to examine them, and to send to me all which seemed of public interest.
In this way great help was gained in tracing the currents of thought that prevailed in the
years between the peace and the institution of the government of the United States, and
precious instruction received on the movements in the federal convention. I cannot be grateful enough for the aid furnished me from Pennsylvania, alike from Harrisburg and from Philadelphia. Every one who had letters seemed willing,nay desirous, that I should have the benefit of them. I must specially acknowledge the untiring zeal in my behalf of Mr. John William Wallace and Mr. Frederick D. Stone. Letter-books and papers of Robert Morris were intrusted to me by Captain Morris of our navy. The notes made by Mr. Thomas Rodney, of Delaware, of proceedings in congress in 1786, were communicated to me by Mr. Cesar A. Rodney, of Wilmington, and they throw light on the early efforts in congress for a federal convention. My collections relating to Maryland at the crisis of the constitution are ample. Mr. J. T. Briscoe, its secretary of state, most promptly aided me by researches in answer to my inquiries. The notes of Samuel Chase on the new constitution were imparted to me by one of his descendants. |
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The most interesting incident connected with these researches was a visit to Madison in the last days of March and the first of April, 1836, a few weeks only before his death. His health was still so firm that he could pass the whole day and evening in conversation. He had taken pains to recover the letters written by him in his earlier public life; these he set before me, as well as his manuscripts of the debates in congress and in the convention. At my departure he assured me that he had carried his confidence with me further than he had done with any one. All the time that I was with him he spoke not one harsh word of any opponent of younger or later days, nor one that could bias the judgment of a listener respecting any of his contemporaries. he was a man of peace striving for peace. Still less did he take the opportunity of bringing into view his own public service, though I could discern a regret that more ample materials were not before the world of the part which he took in promoting the union, when the rule of rotation drove him from congress and for three years he occupied a seat in the legislature of Virginia. |
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There rested upon his mind an obvious anxiety about the destiny of the United States. The divisions between the North and the South were already tending to greater divergences; and, while he had painful apprehensions for the future, he know no hope except in mutual moderation and forbearance. As to the division of the country on the questions involved in that of slavery, he pointed out to me that they began very much earlier than was usually supposed. The different hues of color seen in the South, he observed, did not all spring from the intermixture of blacks and whites: the slaves imported from Africa were of different races; some of them of light complexion. To the question whether the negro was in natural capacity equal to the white man, he said that he could not give an answer; he himself was old enough to have seen imported Africans just after their arrival, and during the generations of his period of observation their transformation from an almost brutal condition had been so great that he could not set a limit to their further improvement. The character of his mind was essentially that of a mediator, careful to study thoroughly the ground of difference between conflicting opinions, and find a share of truth in each of them. The thought nearest to the affections of Madison was the union. He loved everything that helped |
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| to bind the states together in new bonds.
For this special reason he took delight in anticipating the multiplication of railroads
and canals, saying, "they will dove-tail the states"; and to manifest visibly
his meaning he interlaced his thin, wan fingers as he spoke. With the recognition of our independence the European nations who most sought commercial connections with us sent ministers, consuls, or agents, to reside with us. Their reports of the course of events form continuous and most instructive narratives of four contemporary witnesses from different European powers, giving special accounts each to his own sovereign. When Joseph II. attempted to open the river Scheldt, he designed to establish commerce between Belgium and the United States, and to promote that end he sent the Baron de Beelen Bertholff to reside in Philadelphia, not as an accredited minister, but as an observer and correspondent. I posses an ample selection from his careful reports, extending from March, 1785, to the end of September, 1788. From 1783 the republic of the United Netherlands maintained near congress Mr. P. J. Van Berckel as its minister. Of his voluminous reports, which particularly abound in information on all that relates to commerce, full copies were made for me. The two most important kingdoms in their rela- |
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| tions to the United States were France and
England. The political mind of England was displayed in its greatness in the debates of
the two houses of its parliament; in France, before the revolution, the political genius
of the government showed itself very remarkably in its diplomacy. It is to Mr. Guizot that
I was, in the first instance, obliged for free admission to the French archives. Nothing
was refused me for examination, nor was one line of which I desired a copy withheld. I
made the very long and laborious examination in person, and was assured that I had
obtained everything. Every one who represented France in the United States, from 1782 to
1790, was a man of great ability; the reports of Luzerne, of Marbois, of Otto, of the
Count de Moustier, and the instructions given them, first by Vergennes, then by Montmorin,
are of incomparable value. Till after the middle of this century, the British government was loath to suffer its diplomatic papers to be examined by Americans for any period later than the year 1782, the epoch of peace between England and its former colonies. A few years ago Lord Granville was so good as to give me leave to send an agent, to examine papers extending even later than the formation of our constitution, and I availed myself of the privilege. When, in 1874, I chanced to be in England, I was allowed by Lord Granville the freest access to the papers which I needed to |
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| see, and the principle was laid down by
those who overlooked the copies taken for me, that no restriction should be put upon the
historical research after truth. Since then I am told this liberality has been still
further extended in point of time. Indeed, with the pacification of our domestic troubles
in 1865 America has opened novae tabulae, and the relations of England with us
from 1789 to 1865 belong as much to ancient history as those of the time of the house of
Hanover. The number of persons employed to gather information for the British ministry in
the United States from 1783 to 1790 was very great, but no one of them had a diplomatic
character. Meantime Mr. Jared Sparks brought out a part of the writings of Washington, amply elucidated by the fruits of his own wide research at home and abroad, as well as a series of grave and weighty letters addressed to Washington on public affairs. A large and most instructive selection from the manuscripts and published works of John Adams was laid before the world by his grandson. The journal of the federal convention, the reports of its debates by Madison and by Yates, the diplomatic correspondence of congress between 1783 and March, 1789, the writings of Jefferson, of Madison, of Hamilton, were published by congress. These, though of the greatest possible value, were far from including all the materials preserved in the public archives. Happily for |
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| me, at the time when it was most
convenient to me to examine them, there was at the head of the department of state Mr.
William M. Evarts, a lover of historic truth and perfectly acquainted with the necessity
of exhaustive research for its attainment. He gave me that opportunity for thorough
examination which Mr. Guizot had granted me at Paris. The additional materials which were
brought to light were in part dispersed through a couple of hundred folio volumes, which
had been preserved by Charles Thomson. Then there are the very many and innumerable
unpublished letters written in unreserved familiarity and confidence by members of
congress or of the state legislatures and others to Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and
Monroe. From these, with the materials which I already possessed, I have been able to
trace step by step the march of the people of the United States, from the Hartford
convention of the New England states and New York in 1780, to the federal convention of
1787; and to show the origin, progress, and completion of the ordinance of 1787 for
governing the North-west. Jackson, the secretary of the federal convention, left its journal unfinished, and passed hours of its last day in burning its papers. The journal of that convention, as published by congress, was injured by its editors, who, in their zeal to complete what is |
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| but a fragment, made various
interpolations, alike of documents and of words in the text. The paper which purports to
be from Charles Pinckney has no right to be there, and is not worth printing anywhere. He
himself never said that it was the motion which he offered in congress; its want of
genuineness is proved by a contemporary publication of his own, and the internal evidence
against it is absolutely conclusive. I was therefore obliged to have a thorough comparison
made of the whole printed journal and the manuscript; and on one point at least to collate
the papers of Madison, as edited, with the original text in his own clear hand. Nine volumes of selections relating to America, cut from London journals by William Vaughan, a friend of Franklin, and extending through the period of which I am writing, came to me as the fist of my friend the late Mr. William H. Russel. Mr. Fauntleroy, the secretary of state of Virginia, and in his absence his assistant, Mr. McKae, have readily and most promptly aided my inquiries. On an important point I have derived instruction from my friend Mr. Joseph W. Harper, Junior. For unremitting and most important attention I may not omit to thank Mr. Ainsworth R. Spofford, who combines the highest executive ability of a librarian with a comprehensive knowledge of what is contained in our national collection. |
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That which I attempt to do is to trace the formation of the federal constitution from its origin to its establishment by the inauguration of its president. The subject has perfect unity, and falls of itself into five epochs or acts. I have spared no pains to compress the narrative within the narrowest limits consistent with clearness. In weighting my authorities, I have striven to follow with strict severity the laws of historical criticism; ever careful to discriminate between those materials which are sources, and those which are but helps or aids. Large extracts from my collections are printed at the end of each volume. The selection has been strictly confined to those of which I have authentic copies in manuscript. Unless my knowledge or memory fails me, not more than a half dozen of them all have been printed heretofore, and those are inserted for some special purpose. They are so numerous and so different that I cannot but hope every one will find something of interest, as well as assistance in watching the movement of the mind of the people and of congress from a league of states to a perfected union. Having finished what I had undertaken, I dismiss it with the hope that it may find the most lenient reception from those who are the most perfect masters of the subject. |
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Washington, D. C., January, 1882. |
