The Return of George Washington by Edward Larson

Author:Edward Larson
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins

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BOOK III

From Mount Vernon to New York

1788–1789

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Federalist cartoon from June 1788, portraying the states ratifying the Constitution as rising columns in the federal edifice.

CHAPTER 7

Ratifying Washington

THEN AS NOW, New Year’s Day served for some as a time for taking stock of the past year and looking ahead to the next. In American political history, no New Year’s offered a more pivotal occasion for this than January 1, 1788. With the states seemingly on a path toward disunion at the beginning of 1787 and many leaders, including Washington, fearing anarchy and civil war, an extraordinary convention had framed a strong new Constitution. By year’s end, Congress had sent the document to the states for ratification and, acting in rapid succession, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia had ratified in December. Six additional states had called ratifying conventions for the new year, and at least two of the remaining three were expected to follow suit. Seventeen eighty-eight would decide the matter, and with it, America’s future.

Prospects for ratification in some of those states appeared doubtful. Many Americans feared for their liberty and property under the new Constitution as much as Washington and other federalists feared for them without it. Fresh from the Convention, Elbridge Gerry would fight ratification in Massachusetts. If the state’s popular governor, John Hancock, joined him or insisted on amendments prior to ratification, then approval seemed unlikely. George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry had united to oppose the Constitution in Virginia, with the silver-tongued Henry seeking to rally the masses to their side. Edmund Randolph wavered on the issue, with Washington and Madison working to win his support or silence. North Carolina, many said, would follow Virginia. Despite his close ties to Washington, New York governor George Clinton had set his powerful political machine against ratification, and the majority of New Yorkers, who benefited from state imposts on goods passing through New York Harbor, typically followed his lead. With Rhode Island’s legislative majority implacably opposed even to calling a convention, on New Year’s Day 1788, no one could count on the necessary nine states approving the new government, much less all of the major ones. Without Virginia, Washington could not become President.

Depicting the Constitution as an assault on individual liberty and states’ rights, all antifederalists harped on the absence of a bill of rights. Federalists invariably replied that none was needed because the government would possess only enumerated powers, not plenary ones. But those powers included exclusive jurisdiction over interstate commerce; control over armed forces, foreign affairs, and matters of war and peace; authority to tax and spend for the general welfare; and all powers “necessary and proper” to carry out the enumerated ones, which, antifederalists countered, would prove virtually limitless. Lee, Mason, and Henry homed in on the President’s broad executive authority, including the power to make treaties and appoint judges with only the Senate’s assent. Even if they trusted Washington with such power, they warned that, without term limits or a split executive, the government would end in despotism or aristocracy.

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