much as in him lay, the constitution, and believed, as this state had adopted it, not only 9, but the whole 13, would come into the measure. General WHITNEY said, that though he had been opposed to the constitution, he should support it as much as if he had voted for it. Mr. COOLEY, (Amherst) said, that he endeavoured to govern himself by the principles of reason, that he was directed to vote against the adoption of the constitution, and that in so doing, he had not only complied with his direction, but had acted according to the dictates of his own conscience; but that as it has been agreed to by a majority, he should endeavour to convince his constituents of the propriety of its adoption. Doctor TAYLOR, also said, he had uniformly opposed the constitution, that he found himself fairly beat, and expressed his determination to go home, and endeavour to infuse a spirit of harmony and love, among the people. Other gentlemen expressed their inclination to speak, but it growing late, the convention adjourned to Thursday morning, at ten o'clock. Let this be told to the honour of Massachusetts; to the reputation of her citizens, as men willing to acquiesce in that republican principle, of submitting to the decision of a majority. Yesterday, A. M. the Convention met, according to adjournment, when a vote was passed for proceeding in procession to the statehouse, and there to declare the ratification of the FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, which that honourable body, on Wednesday last, by a majority of NINETEEN assented to, in behalf of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. About 12 o'clock, the procession moved from their place of session, preceded by the honourable vice-president of the Convention. His excellency the president being seated in an elegant vehicle, was drawn by THIRTEEN patriotick and publick spirited MECHANICKS, who thus expressed their love and respect for a man who ever loved and respected his country. The procession having arrived at the state-house, entered the senatechamber, from which his excellency the president, the vice-president, secretary, high-sheriff of the county of Suffolk, and other respectable characters, went out upon the balcony of the state-house, from whence his excellency the president addressed the multitude who had assembled below, in a short speech, preparatory to what they were about to hear declared. The high-sheriff then declared the federal constitution adopted and ratified by the Convention of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. After which the whole assembly testified their approbation by the loudest huzzas. An elegant repast being provided for the occasion in the senatechamber, the Convention, and a great number of other gentlemen, partook thereof, and exhibited such marks of satisfaction, as fully evinced, that this joyful event would tend to give vigour and energy to our future continental administrations. After dinner the following toasts were drank, viz. 1. His excellency the president and convention of Massachusetts. 2. The president and members of the late continental convention. 3. The states that have adopted the federal constitution. 4. A speedy accession to the union by those states who are yet to deliberate upon the proposed constitution. 5. May the same candour, and liberality, which has so conspicuously distinguished the minority of Massachusetts, prevail thro' every state in the union. 6. May the United States of America be as distinguished for their increase in agriculture, arts and manufactures, as they are for their attachment to justice and the liberties of mankind. 7. The great and magnanimous ally of the United States of America- his most Christian majesty. 8. The United Netherlands. 9. May the States of America be the asylum of every distressed son of liberty, throughout the world. 10. May the flag of American commerce be displayed in every quarter of the globe. 11. May the landholders of America soon experience the happy effects intended by the proposed constitution. 12. May the nations of the world, who would be our rivals in trade, soon find their disappointment in the energy of our councils. 13. May peace, liberty, and safety, be the perpetual birthright of an American. It seems that the joy which the adoption of the proposed constitution has diffused, is not only general, but sincere and grateful. The rising sun of yesterday's morn, by its brightness and refulgent beams, seemed to break forth, from the dusky horizon, with uncommon grandeur, partaking, as it were, of the joy in which an event so propitious immersed the souls of the people. The bells of all the churches, &c. in town, began ringing at early dawn, and continued, most of them without intermission, thro' the day, and part of last evening. The hardy sons of Neptune, seemed not to be insensible of the importance of this great event; for having procured a boat, which they fixed on a sled, they continued to draw it through the town till near the close of the day, frequently huzzaing, and loudly exulting in the anticipation of reviving and flourishing commerce. In the boat was displayed the flag of the United States, and musick, which kept continually playing. In a cart, drawn by five horses, the British flag was displayed, and insulted by numbers placed in the cart, armed with muskets, who repeatedly discharged the contents of them through the tattered remnant, in contempt of that faithless nation, whose exertions have been unremitted since the peace, to cramp our commerce and obstruct all our nautical proceedings. Repeated marks of joy were exhibited during the course of the day by the lovers and well wishers of our country, but we believe none will exceed the exhibition which is to take place this day, as will appear by the following NOTICE TO THE TRADESMEN. THE COMMITTEE of MECHANICKS appointed at their meeting the 7th. ult. present their compliments to the several TRADESMEN, MECHANICKS, and ARTIZANS of every description in the town of Boston, and request their attendance at Faneuil Hall, this morning, at NINE o'clock, in order to form and proceed in GRAND PROCESSION therefrom, to testify their approbation of the ratification of the Federal Constitution, by the Convention of this commonwealth the 6th instant. They recommend that the procession be formed as follows-First, a plough, drawn by a horse, with husbandmen carrying proper utensils Then the tradesmen, &c. of the town, each with some tool, decorated; to proceed by trades; each trade with one person at its head. With the ship-builders, &c. will be a boat, drawn by horses, properly manned. They request that the procession may be as full as possible; that the several drummers, fifers, and other musicians in the town, will join the procession, with their instruments. The rout of the procession will be mentioned at the Hall. LETTER OF CHIEF-JUSTICE SARGEANT OF CHUSETTS. MASSA [The following are extracts from a letter of Judge Sargeant to the Hon. Joseph Badger of Gilmanton, N. H., who was a Delegate to the Convention of that state for the adoption of the Federal Constitution.] - to - to emit I make no doubt but you have carefully compared ye old confederation with ye new constitution and I wish you to review them again. Can there be such a thing as Government without Power? What is advice, recommendation, or requisition? It is not Government.- Congress has a right to raise an army, to make war and Peace, of entering into Treaties and alliances to borrow money and appropriate ye sameascertain ye sums necessary to be raised for ye Service of ye United States bills of credit to build and equip a navy, and to make requisitions on ye states for their quota of men, to Cloath, arm and equip them. But who will lend Congress Money when they have not Power to raise a Single Shilling to repay them? Who will take their bills of Credit when every Body knows they can never redeem them? Who will enlist into their army when Congress has no money to pay them a Bounty or their wages or find them in Provisions? Who will build and equip a navy for them without money? Who will trouble themselves about Congress' making war or Peace when they can't command a Shilling to support a war? To what Purpose is it to appropriate money when they can't get it? What end does it answer for other nations to make treaties and alliances with Congress when any one State by its obstinacy, fraud or some Paltry private interest may defeat ye treaty or by main force break through it? What good end will be answered by ascertaining ye Sums necessary to be raised when thirteen independent Legislatures are to judge whether those sums are necessary or not and whether they will raise them or not and if one State won't raise their quota, ye other states are more than foolish, they are distracted if they raise theirs. What effect will a requisition on ye states for raising, cloathing, arming, and equipping their quotas of men have, when ye 13 Legislatures are left to judge of ye expediency, or necessity of this equipment, whether they are not charged above their proportion it won't do as well sometime hence? What security is it possible to have under such a whether Government? A Government without energy, without power. Zeal and enthusiasm carried us thro' ye last war without any Government till March 1781, when ye Confederation was compleated and then we hobbled along 21 months longer under it until peace took place, and since ye Peace, Requisitions from Congress have had no more effect than ye Pope's bulls wou'd have had. The old Confederation is just ye same to ye United States as a people, as a milk and water diet wou'd be to a labouring man, both wou'd grow weaker and weaker till they were not able to crawl. Nothing ever gave us any respectability abroad but ye readiness and chearfulness with which we complied with all ye recommendations of Congress when we had no Government at all. That enabled us to form treaties with other nations, to hire money, and their hatred to Great Britain engaged them to join in ye war against her. The nations in Europe discovered this weakness long before we did. Great Britain for 5 years has refused to make any Treaty of commerce with us, has shut all her Ports against our shipping, while our Ports are filled with their shipping and seamen and are picking up our seamen for their employ -they bring their Produce and manufactures to us to buy but won't let us carry our own to them. They have embarrass'd our commerce with other nations by setting ye Algerines upon our shipping and thereby obliged us to give 5 per Cent. to them for insurance against the Algerines-all this while we have not had ye power to retalliate upon them in one Single Article. The other Powers viz: France, Holland, Spain and Portugal have now taken ye hint and are imposing duties upon our Produce and Manufactures to ye great encouragement of their own and discouragement of ours, and we can't make any Regulations to counterwork them. Massachusetts some years ago took ye lead and made some very advantageous Regulations. New Hampshire followed, and Rhode Island adopted a small part. Soon ye People in New Hampshire grew restive and obliged ye Government to repeal ye same. Rhode Island followed and Massachusetts was obliged to follow them, so that you see what a rope of sand we are. This conduct of ye European nations will in time, if it produces good Government, prove of eminent advantage to us. They drained us of almost all our Cash. This put People upon being industrious and frugal. Industry has occasioned great improvements in agriculture and in manufactures. The first has rendered Provisions plenty and so cheap that we sell them to almost all nations. The latter has supplied us with many necessaries which we used to send cash for, and we remitted to other nations pay for what necessaries we wanted. Frugality has prevented us from sending our Cash abroad for many Superfluities which we can do as well or perhaps better without; so that now it is an undoubted fact that ye exports from America greatly exceed ye imports; consequently Cash may now become as plenty as it wou'd be best it shou'd be. The old Confederation without Power or Energy destroyed ye Credit of ye United States. The scarcity of Cash, and ye embarrassments of ye Government, for want of some fixed System of finance has destroyed ye credit of ye individual States-different Tender acts in different States, different sorts of paper money in different States, (for almost all ye States have either paper money or tender acts,) have destroyed private Credit; so that we are now as a people and as individuals totally without either public or private Credit. Under these circumstances money never can circulate in plenty, let ye advantages for importing it be what they may Is it now possible for a Government, under these disadvantages, whether it be continental or particular, to support itself any length of time? Will not private industry be discouraged? Can such a Government protect ye industrious from ye hands of invaders or ye more savage hands of violence among ourselves? Anarchy will soon rear its head and ye Tyranny of some ambitious Demagogue will soon tread on its heels. Suppose for a moment ye General Court of New Hampshire or Massachusetts were to agree that such a sum of money was necessary to be raised for ye building and maintaining of a colledge for supporting schools in different Parts, for supporting ministers, for encouraging ye Iron manufactory, ye manufactory of cloath, for repairing ye highways, for training and disciplining ye militia, and procuring a stock of guns and ammunition and building forts for ye defence of ye State and then send a recommendation to ye several towns desiring them to raise their quota of that sum, being so much. Wou'd not this be a laughable way of raising money for ye public exigences? One town wou'd say there was no need of building a Colledge; others wou'd say there is no need of Schools or ministers; let them that work Iron and cloath get their own pay; our highways will do well enough without repairs; ye militia are good gunners already, there is no need of forts, and there is no war at hand, and we can do without Guns and ammunition a little longer; besides all they have rated our town too high. Wou'd not this be ye common language? A precious little money wou'd be raised, I trow. Let me ask, if ye People in our town meetings are competent Judges of ye necessity and advantage of raising money for these purposes? You will instantly answer me, no not one in six. Can they have large and extensive views of ye interest, of ye essential and important interests of ye whole state? No, perhaps, not one, thô many of them when they had met with other persons from all parts of ye state, and had freely conversed with them might be good Judges afterwards. How absurd and impolitic then is it to trust ye great affairs and interests of a continent, 1500 miles long and 1000 miles wide to ye determination of 2600 men deputed from some little spots of 6 miles square ye greatest part of whom never went further than ye next market town perhaps, or at ye outside to ye shire town of ye state and never expects to go again after his year is up, or if he does, it is only to get his 3s. 6d. a day without labour or at ye most to have ye honour of saving a small Tax upon his own town-and these men are not to meet altogether where they might, if disposed, get ye necessary information to form a Judgment by, but in thirteen different places where they have different interests, different leaders and different information. How much more ridiculous is it then, that all these men are to determine of ye necessity of Peace or War-of ye sums of Money necessary to be raised, of ye best and easiest mode of raising it thro' all ye states, regulating ye value of money thro' all ye states, of defining and punishing Piracies and felonies on ye high seas and of Offences against ye law of nations-when it is necessary and proper to grant Letters of Marque and reprisal-what are ye rights and duties of Ambassadors, Consuls and public ministers, what are proper rules respecting captures where other nations are concerned with us in ye capture or are interested in ye vessel captured, what regulations of Trade may be carried into effect in other nations so as not to injure our own commerce. These and a thousand other matters respecting our intercourse with other nations and other great national concerns, must be determined by some Body of men with decision and be carried into effect too. How preposterous is it then for us to think of going on under ye old Confederation where ye several states or some of them wou'd hiss any Law that might be proposed on those matters out of Doors. Now let us consider ye new Constitution. Are there any objects, of Legislation in this, which were not left to ye decision of Congress under ye old Articles? Very few, save that of Regulating commerce with foreign nations for want of which we have suffered enough already also to form a rule for naturalization Laws about Bankruptcies-fix ye standard of weights and measures- to promote ye progress of arts and Sciences - to prevent counterfeiting ye Securities and current coin of ye states, to provide for organizing, arming, disciplining and calling forth ye militia on necessary occasions; to exercise exclusive Jurisdiction over 10 miles square of land where Congress may sit, if so much is ceded to them by any state to their satisfaction and such other places where continental arsenals are kept. Our People are taught ye necessity of this provision for if a man of less penetration and decision had been in ye chair ye year before last-they would have lost their most useful and costly magazine. Is it not reasonable that these matters shou'd be done with uniformity thro' ye states ? Can these great objects ever be accomplished without making laws to bind all persons in ye Jurisdiction? Who are to make those Laws but ye Representatives chosen by ye People at large every two years, and where an equal representation is provided for, and a Senate chosen by ye state Legislatures, one third of which are to be chosen every two years. When Laws are made they are nonsensical unless they can be carried into execution; therefore it is necessary somebody shou'd have a Power of determining when they are broken, and to decree ye forfieture in consequence of such breach. This shows ye necessity of ye Judicial Power-and an executive with ye necessary officers are requisite for carrying those decrees into execution—and without all this ye whole parade of making laws wou'd be idle. That these parts, ye Judicial and executive, shou'd be appointed by congress is necessary in order that ye proceedings may be uniform and to prevent one state from conniving at or disregarding ye laws made for ye benefit of ye whole. If they are to raise money they must have officers to collect it. These must be appointed by Congress or such men will be appointed by particular states as will shew ye most favour-and look thro' ye whole, I believe you will not find a Single Power given but what would maim ye constitution if it was left out. Perhaps it may be said this will be an expensive Government. The Legislative will not be more expensive, if so much, as ye present congress for after they have got matters a going properly, they may be at home half their time. The other officers must be paid it is true, but when we consider ye advantages of a steady uniform Government with proper energy, I believe we shall find ye Benefits purchased at a cheap rate. Perhaps some may say that this annihilates our own state Governments, and our own Legislatures will have nothing to do; but ye Laws respecting criminal offenders in all cases, except Treason, are subjects for Legislation. We may increase, lessen, or change punishments for crimes as we think best, and make any act criminal or pœnal as far as Law can make it so at our pleasure. The regulating Towns, parishes, Providing ministers, schools, looking after Poor persons, punishing Idlers, vagabonds &c. &c. regulating Highways, bridges, fisheries, common fields &c. are also matters pertaining to ye General court-but above all ye great rules for regulating inheritances, descent of estates, Partition of them, last wills and Testaments, executors, Administrators, and Guardians are subjects for our own Legislation-ye appointment of all courts, and ye rules of Proceeding in them and of determining all controversies between our own citizens, Rules of Legitimacy, marriage and divorce and in fine all matters not expressly given to congress are still to be the subjects of our own Legislation to be carried into Effect by our own courts and officers. Over what things does ye constitution give congress a Power only those of great national concern, which require a large comprehensive view and which, Heaven knows, our Houses of R-p-s-t-tives were never capable of comprehending or of judging whether they were acting right or wrong. I write very freely to you, without any reserve. Ye regard I have for my Children, my Kinsmen, my friends, my Neighbours, Posterity and my country, makes me bless God that those objects are likely for ever to be taken out of such hands, two thirds of whom were never from their fire side before, and never comprehended in their view more than their own farms and their own little private interest. I cou'd write a volume on this subject, but thus much must suffice for ye present. I believe you are tired now as well as your affectionate Kinsman and sincere friend and Servt NATH'L PEASLEE SARGEANT. |