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Show VljJyTlSS STORYW USE FIRST WWSISEHTjC V. BY -THE PRESIDENT-'' Installment 21 The States Apathetic. But when the commissioners assembled assem-bled they found only five states represented repre-sented Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Dela-ware, New Jersey and New York. Maryland had suddenly fallen lndlf-' lndlf-' frrent, and had not appointed delegates. dele-gates. New Hampshire, Massachusetts. Massachu-setts. Rhode Island and North Carolina Caro-lina had appointed delegates, but they had not taken the trouble to come. Connecticut. South Carolina arid Georgia Geor-gia had ignored the call altogether. The delegates who were in attendance, attend-ance, besides, had come with only the most jealously restricted powers: only New Jersey, in her great uneasiness at being neighbor to the powerful states of New York and Pennsylvania, had authorized her representatives to "consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations and other important matters might be necessary nec-essary to the common interest and permanent harmony of the several slates." Hamilton's Stirring Appeal. The other delegates had no such scope; all deemed It futile to attempt their business in so small a convention; conven-tion; and it was resolved to make another an-other opportunity. Alexander Hamilton of New York drew up their address to the states, and in it made bold to adopt -New Jersey's Jer-sey's hint, and ask for a conference which should not merely consider questions of trade, but also "devise such further provisions as should appear ap-pear to them necessary to render the constitution of the federal government govern-ment adequate to the exigencies of the Union." Hamilton held with Washington for a national government. Congress Indifferent. He had been born, and bred as a lad. In the West Indies, and had never received the local pride of any colony-state colony-state into his blood. He had served with the army, too, in close intimacy with Washington, and, though twenty-five twenty-five years his captain's junior, had seen as clearly as he saw the deep . hazards of a nation's birth. The congress was indifferent, if not hostile, to the measures which the address ad-dress proposed; and the states would have acted on the call as slackly as before, be-fore, had not the winter brought with it something like a threat of social revolution, and fairly startled them out of their negligent humor. The Rebellion of Shays. The central counties of Massachusetts Massachu-setts broke into violent rebellion, under un-der one Shays, veteran of the Revolution Revolu-tion not to reform the government, but to rid themselves of it altogether; to shut the courts and escape the payment pay-ment of debts and taxes. The insurgents worked their will for weeks together; drove out the officers of the law, burned and plundered at pleasure through whole districts, llv-v llv-v ing upon the land like a hostile army, and were brought to a reckoning at last only when a force thousands strong had, been levied against them.. States Sympathize With Shays. The contagion spread to Vermont and New Hampshire; and, even when the outbreak had been crushed, the states concerned were Irresolute in the punishnient of ihe leaders. Rhode Island declared her sympathy with the insurgents; Vermont offered them asylum; Massachusetts brought the leaders to trial and conviction, convic-tion, only to pardon and set them free again. Congress dared do no more than make covert preparation to check a general rising. Washington's Indignant Protest. '"Vou talk, my good sir," 'wrote Washington to Henry I.,ee in congress, "of employing Influences to appease-the appease-the present tumults in Massachusetts. I knoiv not where that influence Is to be (Mud. or, if attained, that it would lie a proper remedy for the disor-1 disor-1 ders. Influence Is no government. Let us havt one by which our lives, liberties liber-ties &nd properties will be secured, or let uj l:now the worst at once." : It was an object-lessen for the whole country; ttv, dullest and the most lethargic knew now what slack government gov-ernment and financial disorder would prod iiy. TL,e states one and all save Rhode IslaLd -bethought .hem of the con-ventloj con-ventloj called to meet in Philadelphia n lhi second Monday in May, 17S7, and ablegates were appointed. Evan congress took the lesson to heart, and gave its sanction to the conference. The legislature of Virginia put Washington s name at the head of its own list of delegates, and after his name the names of Patrick Henry, Kdmund Randolph, John Blair, James Madison George Mason, and George Wythe the leading names of the slate, no man could doubt. But Washington hesitated. He had already declined to meet the Society of the Cincinnati in Philadelphia about the same time, he said, and thought it would be disrespectful to that body, to whom he owed much, "to be there on ""' other occasion." 'i'J even hinted a doubt whether the f"iivu:tion was constitutional, its S'Vjv.fd purposes being what they '"-"- ur,;:l congress tardily sanctlon- His real reasons his Intimate friends must have divined from the first. They knew him better in such matters than he knew himself. He not only loved his retirement; he deemed himself a soldier and man of action, antf no statesman. The floor of assemblies had never seemed to him his principal sphere of duty. He had thought of staying away from the house of burgesses on private priv-ate business 20 years ago, when he knew that the stamp act was to be debated. de-bated. But it was not for the floor or the approaching convention that his friends wanted him; they told him from the first he must preside. He was known to be in favor of giving giv-ing the Confederation powers that would make it a real government, and he thought that enough; but they wanted the whole country to see him pledged to the actual work, and, when they had persuaded him to attend, knew that they had at any fate won the confidence of the people In their patriotic purpose. His mere presence would give them pow'er. The Virginians First to Arrive. Washington and the other Virginians were prompt to be in Philadelphia on the day appointed, but only the Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania delegates were there to meet them. - They had to wait an anxious week before so many as seven states were represented. Meanwhile, those who gathered from day to day were nervous nerv-ous and apprehensive, and there was talk of compromise and halfway measures, meas-ures, should the convention prove weak or threaten to miscarry. Washington's Brave Words. They remembered for many a long year afterwards how nobly Washington, Washing-ton, "standing self-collected In the midst of them," had uttered brave counsels of wisdom in their rebuke. "It is too probable," he said, "that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps Per-haps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God." ' It was an utterance, they knew, not of statesmanship merely, but of character; char-acter; and it was that character, if anything could, that would win the people to their support. President of the Convention. , When at last seven states were represented rep-resented a quorum of the thirteen an organization was . effected, and Washington was unanimously chosen president of the convention. He spoke, when led to the chair, "of the novelty of the scene of business in which he was to act, lamented his want of better qualifications, and claimed the indulgence of the house towards the involuntary errors: which his inexperience might occasion;" but no mere parliamentarian could have given that anxious body such steadiness steadi-ness in business of such grave earnestness earn-estness in counsel as it got from his presence and influence in the chair. Five more states were in attendance before deliberation was very far advanced; ad-vanced; but be had the satisfaction to see his own friends lead upon the floor. Washington's Friends Lead. It was the plan which Edmund Randolph Ran-dolph proposed, for his fellow Virginians, Virgin-ians, which the convention accepted as a model to work from; it was James Madison, that young master of counsel, coun-sel, who guided the deliberations from day to day, little as he showed his hand in the work or seemed to put himself forward in debate. No speeches came from the president; presi-dent; only once or twice did he break the decorum of his office to temper some difference of opinion or facilitate some measure of accomodation. It was the 17th of September when the convention at last bioke up; the :)th. vhen the ' Constitution it had wrought out was published to the c-ountry. All the slow summer through Washington had kept counsel with the rest as to the anxious work that was going forward behjnd the closed doors of the lonj conic-rence; It was a grateful relief to be nd of the painful pain-ful strain, and he returned to Mount Vernon like one whc.se part in the work was done. ' Keen for New Government. "I never saw him so keen for any-Ihing any-Ihing in my life as h? is for the adop-:ion adop-:ion of the new scheme of government," govern-ment," wrote a visiter at Mount Vernon Ver-non to Jefferson; but he took no other part than his correspondence afforded him in the agita'ion i'ur its acceptance. Throughout a.i hose long four months in Philudelphia he had given his whole mind anil energy to every process of difficult counsel by which it had been wrought to completion; but he wus no politician. Earnestly as he commended the plan to his friends, he took no public part either in defense or in advocacy of it. He read not only the Federalist papers, pa-pers, in which Hamilton and Madison Madi-son and Jay made their masterly plea for the adoption of the Constitution, but also "every performance which has been printed on the one side and the other on the great question," he said, so far as he was able to obtain them; and he felt as poignantly as any man the deep excitement of the momentous moment-ous contest. It disturbed him keenly to find George Mason opposing the constitution constitu-tion the dear friend from whom he had always accepted counsel hitherto in public affairs and Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry, too, In their passionate attachment to what they deemed the just sovereignty of Virginia. Vir-ginia. He could turn away with . all his old self-possession, nevertheless, to discuss dis-cuss questions of culture and tillage, in the midst of the struggle, with Arthur Ar-thur Young over sea, and to write very gallant compliments to the Marquis Mar-quis de Chastellux on hlB marriage. Compliments the Marquis. "So your day has at length come," he laughed. "I am glad of it with all my heart and soul. It is quite good enough for you. Now you are well served for coming to fight in favor of the American rebels all the way across the Atlantic ocean, by catching that terrible contagion domestic felicity which, like the smallpox, or the plague, a man can have only once In his life, because It commonly lasts him (at least with us in America I don't know how you manage such matters in France) for his whole lifetime." Ten months of deep but quiet agitation agi-tation the forces of opinion in close grapple and the future seemed to clear. The cohstitution was adopted, only two states dissenting. It had been a tense and stubborn fight; In such states as Massachusetts and New York, the concerted action of men at the centers of trade against the instinctive dread of centralization or change in the regions that lay back from the rivers and the sea; in states like Virginia, where the mass of men waited to be led the leaders who had vision against those who had only the slow wisdom of caution and presentiment. presenti-ment. Virginia Maintained the Initiative. But, though she acted late In the business, and some home-keeping spirits among even her greater men held back, Virginia did not lose the place of initiative she had had in all this weighty business of reform. Something in her air or her life had given her in these latter years an extraordinary ex-traordinary breed of public men men liberated from local prejudice, possessed pos-sessed of a vision and an efficacy in affairs worthy of the best traditions of statesmanship among the English race from which they were sprung, capable of taking the long view, of seeing the permanent lines of leadership leader-ship upon great questions, and shaping shap-ing ordinary views to meet extraordinary extraor-dinary ends. Even Henry and Mason could take their discomfiture gracefully, loyally, like men bred to free institutions; and Washington had the deep satisfaction to see his state come without hesitation hesita-tion to his view and hope. Country Demands Washington. The new constitution made sure of, and a time set by congress for the elections and the organization of a new government under It, the country coun-try turned as one man to Washington to be the first president of the United States. "We cannot, sir, do without you," cried Governor Johnson of Maryland, '"and f and thousands more can explain ex-plain to anybody but yourself why we cannot do without you." To make any one else president, It seemed to men everywhere, would be like crowning a subject while the king was by. Washinifon Holds Back. Out Washington held back, as he had held back from attending the constitutional con-stitutional convention. He doubted his civil capacity, called himself an old man, said "it would be to forego repose re-pose and domestic enjoyment for trouble, perhaps for public obloquy." "The acceptance," he declared, "would be attended with more diffidence diffi-dence and- reluctance than I ever' experienced ex-perienced before in my life." But he was not permitted to decline. de-cline. Hamilton told him that his attendance at-tendance upon the constitutional convention con-vention must be taken to have pledged him In the view of the country to take part also In the formation of the government. "In a matter so essential essen-tial to the well-being of society as the prosperity of a newly Instituted government." said the great advocate, "a citizen of so much consequence as yourself to its success has no option but to lend his services, if called for. Permit me to say It would be inglorious. inglori-ous. In such a situation, not to hazard the glory, however great, which he might have previously acquired." Yields to Popular Will. Washington, of course, yielded, like the simple-minded gentleman and soldier sol-dier he was, when It was made thus a matter of duty. When the votes of the electors were opened In the new congress, and It ! was found that they were one and all for him, he no longer doubted. He did mot know how to decline such a call, land turned with all hi3 old courage to the new task. The memoena of the uew , njt were so laggard In coming together that it was the 6th of April, 17S9, before be-fore both houses could count a quorum, though the 4th of March had been appointed the day for their convening. con-vening. Washington Notified. Their first business was the opening and counting of the electoral votes; and on the 7th Charles Thomson, the faithful and sedulous gentleman who had been clerk of every congress since the first one In the old colonial days fifteen years ago, got away on his long ride to Mount Vernon to notify no-tify Washington of his election. Affairs waited upon the issue of his errand. Washington had for long known what was coming, and was ready and resolute, as of old. There had been no formal nominations nomina-tions for the presidency, and the votes of the electors had lain under seal till the new congress met and found a quorum; but It was an open secret who had been chosen president, and Washington had made up his mind what to do. Bids His Mother Farewell. Mr. Thomson reached Mount Vernon Ver-non on the 14th, and found Washington Washing-ton ready to obey his summonn at once. He waited only for a hasty rids to Fredericksburg to bid his aged mother farewell. She was not tender in the parting. Her laBt days had come, and she had set herself to bear with grim resolution resolu-tion the fatal disease that had long been upon her. She had never been tender, and these latter days had added add-ed their touch of hardness. But it was a tonic to her son to take her farewell, nne the less to hear her once more bid him Godspeed, God-speed, and once more command him. as she did, to his duty. On the morning of April 16 Washington Wash-ington took the northern road as so often before, and pressed forward on the way for New York. The setting out was made with a very heavy heart; for duty had never seemed to him so unattractive as it seemed now, and his difference had never been so distressing. "For myself the delay may be compared com-pared to a reprieve," he had written to Knox, when he learned how slow congress con-gress was In coming together, "for In confidence I tell you that my movements move-ments to the chair of government will be accompanied by feeling not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of execution." Departs with a Heavy Heart. When the day for his departure came, his diary spoke the same heaviness heavi-ness of heart. "About ten o'clock," he wrote, "I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, Ver-non, to private life, and to domestic felicity; and with a mind oppressed with mere anxious and painful sensations sensa-tions than I have words to express, set out for New York." He did not doubt that He was doing right; he doubted his capacity in civil affairs, and loved the sweet retirement and the free life he was leaving behind be-hind him. Grief and foreboding did not in the least relax his proud energy and promptness in aotion. He was not a whit the less resolute to attempt this new role, and stretch his powers to the uttermost to play It In masterful fashion. fash-ion. He was only wistful nd full of a sort of manly sadness; lacking not resolution, but only alacrity. Obliged to Borrow Money. He had hoped to the last that he would be suffered" to spend the rest of his days at Mount Vernon; he knew the place must lack efficient keeping, and fall once more out of repair under un-der hired overseers; he feared his strength would be spent and his last years come ere he could return to look to it and enjoy It himself again. He had but Just now been obliged tc borrow a round sum of money to meet pressing obligations; and the expenses of this very journey had made it necessary neces-sary to add a full hundred pounds to Coat new debt. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |