Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T03:04:33.697Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Early History of the Tradition of the Constitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Frank I. Schechter
Frank I. Schechter
Affiliation:
New York City
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In Aristotle's treatise on the constitution of Athens we read of the great lawgiver, Solon, that “when he had completed his organization of the constitution … he found himself beset by people coming to him and harassing him concerning his laws, criticizing here and questioning there, till, as he wished neither to alter what he had decided on, nor yet to remain an object of ill-will to everyone by remaining at Athens, he set off on a journey to Egypt, … giving out that he would not return for ten years.” To the student of American history recalling the comparison with “that old constitution-monger Solon,” so often flung at the framers of the Constitution by the anti-Federalists, the hasty exodus from Athens for a decade after the attempt “to save the country and establish the best laws that were possible,” is full of interest. The actual result of the Solonic experiment in political science we also gather from Aristotle, for “in the fifth year after Solon's government they were unable to elect an archon on account of the dissensions,” and again, four years later they elected no archon for the same reason.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , November 1915 , pp. 707 - 734
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1915

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Aristotle on the Athenian Constitution, tr. Kenyon (1912), ch. 11.

2 Cf. Jackson, Jonathan (Pseud., “A Native of Boston”), Thoughts on the Political Situation of the United States of America (Boston, 1788).Google Scholar

3 Aristotle, Op. cit., ch. 13.

4 Ibid., ch. 11.

5 Bluntschli, , Theory of the State, 290Google Scholar, quoted by Vrooman, F. B., The New Politics, 180.Google Scholar

6 Goodnow, , The Constitution and Social Progress, 9–10.Google Scholar

7 Beard, , Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, 250.Google Scholar

8 Libby, O. G., Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution (Bulletin of University of Wisconsin, vol. 00), 70.Google Scholar

9 Willoughby, , The Supreme Court of the United States (Johns Hopkins Studies, extra vol. 7), 113.Google Scholar

10 See Von Holst's, chapter on “The Worship of the Constitution and its Real Character,” Constitutional History of the United States, vol. 1, ch. II.Google Scholar

11 Oliver, F. S., Alexander Hamilton, An essay on American union, 172.Google Scholar

12 Bassett, , Federalist System (American Nation), 42.Google Scholar See also Gordy, , History of Political Parties in the United States (2d ed., i, 92).Google Scholar

13 e.g., “This day (February 8, 1788) … the news arrived in this town (Newburyport) that the federal Constitution was yesterday adopted and ratified … I have not been pleased with this system, and my acquaintances have long since branded me with the name of an anti-Federalist. But I am now converted though not convinced. I think it is my duty to submit without murmuring against what is not to be helped. In our government, opposition to the acts of the majority of the people is rebellion to all intents and purposes; and I should think a man who would now endeavor to excite commotions against this plan, as no better than an insurgent who took arms last winter against the courts of justice.” (Diary of John Quincy Adams [ed. C. F. Adams, Boston, 1903] 94.)

Charles Pinckney to King (June 21, 1788) from Charleston, S. C.: “Most of the members who opposed it have declared that they will exert themselves in its support, and some districts, that were averse to it, are altogether reconciled to its adoption. Indeed, if we were allowed to pass installment and valuation laws as heretofore an anti-Federalist would be a rara avis in this State.” King, , Life and Corr. of Rufus King, i, 336Google Scholar; see also, ibid., i, 319–20, 338.

14 F. B. Vrooman, Op. cit., 213.

15 Jefferson, , Writings (ed. Ford, ), iv, 484–5.Google Scholar

16 Ibid., v, 25.

17 Loc. cit.

18 Ibid, vii, 263–5, passim.

19 Ibid, vii, 283; see also his letter to Peregrine Fitzhugh, ibid., vii, 210.

20 Magazine of History with Notes and Queries (Extra No. 23, 1913), 17.

21 Jefferson, Op. cit, iii, 225.

22 “Of the fraternity of politicians thus variously designated by the ingenious manoeuvering of the federal leaders, who well knew the force and value of a nick name, the writer of these pages requests to be considered as a member.” (Cooper, Thomas, Declaration of Independence, An essay on consolidation, 2d ed., Charleston, S. C., 1830 [?], 9).Google Scholar

23 How violent a wrench was given by the Federalists to the usual and still accepted connotation of “Federal” is strikingly shown in the recent organization in the Union of South Africa of a “Federal League” to combat the centralizing tendencies of the Union, in the scheme of government of which the provinces have been greatly reduced in importance. The four objects of the “Federal League of South Africa” are, according to section 2 of its constitution: (a) To secure by every constitutional means the preservation of such federal principles as exist in the act of union, (b) To enlarge the powers and responsibilities of the provincial councils, and to secure the utmost possible delegation of administrative control to the provinces, (c) To obtain for the respective provinces the largest possible measure of local control over all matters of domestic concern. (d) Generally to secure for the whole of South Africa those features of government and administration which are best exemplified by the federal system.” (Cape Argus, South Africa, July 11, 1913.)

24 Gibbs, , Administration of Washington and Adams, i, 121.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., ii, 49.

26 Conn. Gazette, October 5, 1787; Conn. Courant, October 8, 1787.

27 Wharton, , Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev., v, 327.Google Scholar

28 Conn. Gazette, November 9, 1787.

29 King, , Life and Corr. of Rufus King, i, 259.Google Scholar

30 Reprinted from Penn. Indep. Gazetteer, in Mass. Gazette, November 27, 1787.

31 For all details of the Philadelphia procession, see Hopkinson, F., An Account of the Grand Federal Procession (Philadelphia, 1788).Google Scholar The letter quoted is from an appendix to this “Account.”

32 Maryland Journal, March 4, 1788.

33 Wilson, Woodrow, Congressional Government (15th ed), 4.Google Scholar

34 Franklin, , Works (ed. Bigelow, ), ix, 439.Google Scholar

35 Diary of John Quincy Adams, 94.

36 Maclay, , Journal of William Maclay (1890), 75–6.Google Scholar

37 Ibid; 411.

38 Annals of Congress, 3d Cong., 261–2.

39 Benton, , Abridgment of Debates of Congress, iii, 700Google Scholar, quoted in part in Van Holst, Op. cit., i, 75.

40 Gibbs, Op. cit., i, 46.

41 Ibid., i., 58.

42 Mass. Gazette, September 4, 1787.

43 Ames, P. W., The speeches of Fisher Ames in Congress (Boston, 1871), 9, 10.Google Scholar

44 Gibbs, Op. cit., i, 221; ef. Chauncey Goodrich's letter, ibid., i, 88.

45 Ibid., i, 210.

46 Ibid., i, 229–30.

47 N. Y. Daily Advertiser, December 3, 1787.

48 Ramsay, David, Hist. of the Amer. Rev. (Dublin, 1795), 634.Google Scholar

49 Conn. Gazette, November 2, 1787.

50 N. Y. Packet, October 2, 1787. Nor had the shrewd feuilletonist of the time lost the opportunity of pointing out to the Americans the advantages to be derived from the influx of immigrants that must ensue on the consummation of the great undertaking for the advancement of civilization. “Private letters from Europe mention that the oppressed and persecuted in every country look with great eagerness to the United States in the present awful crisis of her affairs. Should the new federal government be adopted thousands would embark immediately for America. Holland would pour in, with her merchants, a large quantity of cash among us. Germany and Ireland would send us colonies of cultivators of the earth, while England and Scotland would fill our towns and cities with industrious mechanics and manufacturers.” (N. Y. Daily Advertiser, August 29, 1787).

51 Enos Hitchcock, Oration, July 4, 1788, at the Request of the Inhabitants of Providence, 13–16.

52 Simeon Baldwin, Oration Pronounced before the Citizens of New Haven, July 4, 1788.

53 N. Y. Packet, October 2, 1787.

54 Robert Treat Paine, Eulogy on Washington at … Newburyport, January 2, 1800, in Eulogies and Orations on Washington, 62–3.

55 J. M. Mason, Oration commemorative of Hamilton, N. Y., July 31, 1804, 8.

56 New Haven Gazette and Conn. Magazine, October 12, 1787; N. Y. Daily Advertiser, October 20, 1787.

57 New Haven Gazette and Conn. Magazine, October 18, 1787.

58 From the letter appended to Hopkinson's, Account of the Grand Federal Procession, July 4, 1788.Google Scholar

59 Tipple, E. S., The Heart of Asbury's Journal, 280.Google Scholar

60 Ammi Robbing, Election Sermon, Conn., May 14, 1789. (Hartford, 1789). 25.

61 Chandler Robbins, Election Sermon, Mass., May 25, 1791 (Boston, 1791), 46–7.

62 John Smalley, Election Sermon, Conn., May 8, 1800 (Hartford, 1800), 35.

63 See Nathaniel Emmons, Thanksgiving Day Sermon, Franklin, Mass., December 15, 1796, (Worcester, 1797,) 19–20.

64 See Morse, A. E., The Federalist Party in Mass. to the year 1800 (Princeton, 1909), 184–8Google Scholar and appendix J for a valuable discussion of the political influence of the clergy in New England; also Addison, D. D., The Clergy in American Life and Letters, 181.Google Scholar

65 Federalism triumphant, … A political farce in six acts, as performed at Hartford and New Haven, October, 1801 (1802), 7.

66 See Farrand, , The Framing of the Constitution, 190, 191.Google Scholar

67 Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dallas, 470–71.

68 Van Santvoord, , Lives of the Chief Justices (N. Y., 1854), 48.Google Scholar

69 Jay, , Corr. and Public Papers (ed. Johnston, ), iii, 338.Google Scholar

70 McCree, , Life and Corr. of James Iredell, ii, 484.Google Scholar

71 Addison, , Reports (Washington, 1800), Appendix, iv.Google Scholar

72 Ibid., appendix 1.

73 Ibid., appendix, 242.

74 Farrand, , Records of the Federal Convention, ii, 221.Google Scholar

75 Coudert, F. R., Certainty and Justice (N. Y., 1913), 24–25.Google Scholar