Congress received him as the founder and guardian of the republic. 6. While he appeared before them, they silently retraced the scenes of danger and distress through which they had passed together. They recalled to mind the blessings of freedom and peace purchased by his arm. They gazed with wonder on their fellow-citizen, who appeared more great and worthy of esteem in resigning his power than he had done in gloriously using it. Every heart was big with emotion. Tears of admiration and gratitude burst from every eye. The general sympathy was felt by the resigning hero, and wet his cheek with a manly tear. 7. His own sensations, after retiring from public business, are thus expressed in his letters: "I am just beginning to experience the ease and freedom from public cares, which, however desirable, it takes some time to realize; for, strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that it was not until lately I could get the better of my usual custom of ruminating, as soon as I woke in the morning, on the business of the ensuing day; and of my surprise on finding, after revolving many things in my mind, that I was no longer a public man, or had anything to do with public transactions. 8. "I feel as I conceive a wearied traveller must do, who, after treading many a painful step with a heavy burden on his shoulders, is eased of the latter, having reached the haven to which all the former were directed, and from his housetop is looking back, and tracing with an eager eye the meanders by which he escaped the quicksands and mires which lay in his way, and into which none but the all-powerful Guide and Dispenser of human events could have prevented his falling." -Life of Washington. Eminent Statesmen of the Revolution.-Sparks. 1. THE acts of the Revolution derive dignity and interest from the character of the actors, and the nature and magnitude of the events. It has been remarked, that, in all great political revolutions, men have arisen possessed of extraordinary endow ments, adequate to the exigency of the time; and no period has been adorned with examples more illustrious, or more perfectly adapted to the high destiny awaiting them, than that of the American Revolution. 2. Statesmen were at hand, who, if not skilled in the art of governing empires, were thoroughly imbued with the principles of just government, intimately acquainted with the history of former ages, and, above all, with the condition, sentiments, and feelings of their countrymen. The eloquence and the internal counsels of the old Congress were never recorded; we know them only in their results; but that assembly, with no other power than that conferred by the suffrages of the people, with no other influence than that of their public virtue and talents, and without precedent to guide their deliberations, unsupported, even by the arm of law or of ancient usages, that assembly levied troops, imposed taxes, and, for years, not only retained the confidence and upheld the civil existence of a distracted country, but carried through a perilous war under its most aggravating burdens of sacrifice and suffering. 3. Can we imagine a situation in which were required higher moral courage, more intelligence and talent, a deeper insight into human nature and the principles of social and political organization, or, indeed, any of those qualities which constitute greatness of character in a statesman? See, likewise, that work of wonder, the Confederation, a Union of independent States, constructed in the very heat of a desolating war, but with a beauty and strength, imperfect as it was, of which the ancient leagues of the Amphictyons, the Achæans, the Lycians, and the modern confederacies of Germany, and Switzerland, afford neither exemplar nor parallel! 4. Happy was it for America, happy for the world, that a great name, a guardian genius, presided over her destinies in war, combining more than the virtues of the Roman Fabius and the Theban Epaminondas; and compared with whom, the conquerors of the world, the Alexanders and Cæsars, are but pageants crimsoned with blood, and decked with the trophies of slaughter,-objects equally of the wonder and of the execra tion of mankind. The hero of America was the conqueror only of his country's foes, and the hearts of his countrymen. To the one, he was a terror; and, in the other, he gained an ascendency, supreme, unrivalled, the tribute of admiring gratitude, the reward of a nation's love.--Life of Washington. Mount Vernon.-Rev. Wm. Jay. THERE dwelt the Man, the flower of human kind, And felt a grandeur that disdained a crown. Weakness of the Confederacy.-It was found that, by the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, under which the United States had existed since 1781, Congress had no power to raise money and pay the debts incurred by the war. The individual States were therefore called upon for funds; but their efforts to raise them by direct taxation produced great opposition, especially in Massachusetts, where it grew to an open insurrection, known as Shays's Rebellion. This, however, was suppressed in 1787. Adoption of the Constitution.-This rebellion and other circumstances convinced the people that a more powerful general government was needed. Accordingly, a national convention was held at Philadelphia, with Washington as president, and after four months' deliberation, the CONSTITUTION was adopted, September 17th, 1787. After being ratified by the requisite number of States, though not without great opposition, it went into operation on the 4th of March, 1789. Insufficiency of the Confederation.—Hamilton. 1. ONE of the most palpable defects of the subsisting confederation, is the total want of a sanction to its laws. The United States, as now (1787) composed, have no powers to exact obedience, or punish disobedience to their resolutions, either by pecuni ary mulets", by a suspension or divestiture of privileges, or by any other constitutional mode. There is no express delegation of authority to them to use force against delinquent members; and if such a right should be ascribed to the Federal head, as resulting from the nature of the social compact between the States, it must be by inference and construction, in the face of that part of the second article, by which it is declared, "that each State should retain every power, jurisdiction, and right, not expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled." 2. There is, doubtless, a striking absurdity in supposing that a right of this kind does not exist; but we are reduced to the dilemma▾ either of embracing that supposition, preposterous' as it may seem, or of contravening or explaining away a provision, which has been of late a repeated theme of the eulogies of those who oppose the new Constitution; and the want of which, in that plan, has been the subject of much plausible animadversion' and severe criticism. 3. If we are unwilling to impair the force of this applauded provision, we shall be obliged to conclude, that the United States afford the extraordinary spectacle of a government destitute even of the shadow of constitutional power to enforce the execution of its own laws. It will appear, from the specimens which have been cited, that the American Confederacy, in this particular, stands discriminated from every other institution of a similar kind, and exhibits a new and unexampled phenomenon in the political world. 4. The want of a mutual guaranty' of the State Governments is another capital imperfection in the Federal plan. There is nothing of this kind declared in the Articles that compose it; and to imply a tacit guaranty from consideration of utility, would be a still more flagrant departure from the clause which has been mentioned, than to imply a tacit power of coercion from the like considerations. The want of a guaranty, though it might in its consequences endanger the Union, does not sc immediately attack its existence, as the want of a constitutional sanction to its laws. 5. Without a guaranty, the assistance to be derived from the Union in repelling those domestic dangers which may sometimes threaten the existence of the State Constitutions, must be renounced. Usurpation' may rear its crest in each State, and trample upon the liberties of the people; while the National Government could legally do nothing more than behold its encroachments with indignation and regret. A successful faction may erect a tyranny on the ruins of order and law, while no succor could constitutionally be afforded by the Union to the friends and supporters of the Government. 6. The tempestuous situation from which Massachusetts has scarcely emerged, evinces that dangers of this kind are not merely speculative. Who can determine what might have been the issue of her late convulsions, if the malcontents had been headed by a Cæsar or by a Cromwell? Who can predict what effect a despotism, established in Massachusetts, would have upon the liberties of New Hampshire or Rhode Island, of Connecticut or New York?—The Federalist. Motion for Prayers in the Convention.-Franklin. [The following address was delivered by Dr. Franklin in the Constitutional Convention of 1787.] 1. MR. PRESIDENT: The small progress we have made after four or five weeks' close attendance and continued reasonings with one another; our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ayes, are, methinks, melancholy proofs of the imperfection of the human understanding. We, indeed, seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running all about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which, having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern states all around Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances. In this situation of this assembly, groping, as it were, in the dark, to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, |