The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton [mind reading books txt] 📗

steadily opposed every movement which might be construed to imply a surrender of the prerogatives of her sovereignty, or which, in the future, might be considered as her approval of a centralization of “the right to command”; and every proposition which possibly might serve at any time to obliterate the lines of the several states, or to consolidate the thirteen distinct peoples and sovereignties which then existed within the Union, into one people, one nation, one sovereignty, was vigorously opposed both by her members and her Government.

Governed by these well-known sentiments, and sustained by so jealous a constituency, it need not be wondered at, that the delegation from New York in the Federal Convention⁠—a body which had originated in the action of the Legislature of that state, several months before⁠—had firmly disapproved the pretensions, and resolutely opposed the designs, of several of the states, in the formation of a new constitution; or that, when the simple result which she had proposed had been found unattainable, two of the three gentlemen who composed her delegation in that Convention had considered it their duty to withdraw from its sessions, leaving her without a legal representation in that assembly, and throwing the entire responsibility of the result of its deliberations on the eleven states which had remained therein. Nor need it excite any surprise that, from that time forth, the opposition to the proposed “Constitution for the United States” had been nowhere so determined, so general, or so completely organized as in the State of New York; and that in no other state had that opposition been directed by so formidable an array of leaders, each of whom had been so entirely, so consistently, so effectively, or, during so long a period, identified with the best interests of the state and of the Union. So thoroughly, indeed, had the opposition to the proposed constitution been organized in that state, and with so much skill had it been directed by the experienced popular leaders, that the impending political crisis appears to have been fully understood, even while the Federal Convention was yet engaged in the discussion of the various projects of its members; and, through the newspapers of the day, as well as through tracts which had been prepared for the purpose, the fundamental principles of Governmental science, the existing necessities of the United States, and the relative rights and duties of the constituent states and of the Union, had been discussed before the people, with marked ability and the utmost diligence.

The termination of the labors of the Federal Convention, and the promulgation of its proposed plan of government, served rather to concentrate than to diminish the strength of the opposition; and, thenceforth, from every county in the state, the arguments and appeals of the “Anti-Federalists”⁠—as the States’-Rights party of that day was subsequently called⁠—were hurled against the devoted instrument, without ceasing, and with the most relentless severity.

On Thursday, the twenty-seventh day of September, 1787, the same day on which the draught of the proposed constitution had been promulgated in the city of New York, and side by side with that document in The New York Journal⁠—the ancient organ of “The Sons of Liberty” in that city⁠—there had also appeared the first of a series of powerfully written essays, over the signature of “Cato,” in which the condemnation of the proposed form of government had been pronounced in the most emphatic terms. This antagonistic effusion, a few days afterwards, had been seconded in the same paper by the first of another series, even more ably written than the former, over the signature of “Brutus”⁠—probably from the pen of one of the most accomplished statesmen of that period, who was also one of the most elegant writers of the day; while, in an “extraordinary” sheet of the same Journal, on the same day, there had also appeared the first number of a third series, over the signature of “Centinel,” which had been copied from the Philadelphia press, in which also the action of the Convention had been handled with great severity. Still later, “Cincinnatus” supported the assault; and “Brutus, Jr.,” “A Son of Liberty,” “Observer,” “An Officer of the Continental Army,” “Medium,” “A Countryman” (Duchess County), “A Citizen,” “An Old Whig,” “A Countryman” (Orange County), “One of the Common People,” and other writers, in the same and other newspapers of the day, and in rapid succession, sustained the same cause, with great acuteness and ability. Tracts, also, in opposition to the proposed constitution, were prepared, both in New York and Albany, for distribution in New York and Connecticut, possibly in other states; and through the ancient organization of “The Sons of Liberty,” practically revived under its former leaders, Colonels John Lamb and Marinus Willett, the most thoroughly organized opposition confronted the friends of the proposed constitution, in every part of the state, and rendered their undertaking a desperate one.

At the same time, while the opponents of the “new system”⁠—harmonious in their sentiments and united in their action⁠—were thus resolutely and skilfully resisting it throughout the state, its nominal friends were widely separated in their sentiments; and, in many cases, they were apathetic, if not discordant, in their action. At best, they were only few in number, when compared with their adversaries; and, in the lukewarmness of some of them, and in the entire inaction of others of their number, there was little to afford encouragement, nothing to insure success.

But, not alone by reason of the apathy and the discord which existed among the nominal friends of the proposed constitution, nor of the harmonious and energetic opposition of those who disapproved its provisions, nor of the numerical weakness of the former when compared with the strength and perfect organization of the latter, was the position which New York then occupied so peculiar, and at the same time so important.

Possessing a territory which extended from the Atlantic seaboard to the southernmost bounds of the British possessions in America, it was within the power of New