Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

346 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
the states sentiment was divided, including Virginia, where the great
Patrick Henry was one of its opponents.
There were numerous reasons for this opposition to the instrument.
In the first place, the Constitution had been framed to meet divergent
interests. It was a compromise, or rather a series of compromises, be
tween conflicting theories and principles. All of the delegates them
selves were not agreed. In fact, some of them had refused to sign the
.compact. Consequently anything like unanimity among the states was
not to be expected. Strenuous efforts were required to bring most of
them into line; and three of the states—New York, Rhode Island, and
North Carolina—actually repudiated the compact, on the ground that
it involved a surrender of too much sovereign power to the general Gov
ernment. But they were finally induced to ratify the instrument on
the promise of certain concessions. This pledge was afterwards re
deemed in a series of amendments submitted to the people by the First
Congress.
Rhode Island was so opposed to the idea of a central government
that she sent no delegates to the convention. New York was finally
brought into line through the powerful influence of Alexander Hamil
ton. North Carolina was the seat of a Scotch-Irish population, stubborn,
loyal, tenacious of conviction. She had framed a Declaration of Inde
pendence, in 1775, hurling America's first challenge at the English
throne; and she did not like the idea of relinquishing any of her rights.
New York, seeing an opportunity to capture the seat of government,
was the first of these states to relent. North Carolina entered the Union
in 1789, Rhode Island in 1790, both after the Government had been
launched.
While the campaign for ratification was at its height in New York,
three of the country's ablest statesmen, Hamilton, Jay and Madison,
wrote a series of articles for publication, afterwards collected in a single
volume, called '' The Federalist,'' perhaps the greatest work on the science
of government ever written in America.
The principle of State Sovereignty was clearly recognized and firmly
held by all the states, but some were more willing than others to yield a
part of this sovereignty for the sake of its resultant benefits in securing
greater protection. The Articles of Confederation, under which the
states had loosely banded themselves together since 1781, amounted to
little more than a rope of sand. Indeed, these articles were merely called
"a league of friendship." The cohesive element was entirely lacking.
There was no principle of organic union existing between the states, no
centripital force binding them together around a common center. To
quote the words of Washington, the states composing the old federation
were "thirteen independent sovereignties eternally counteracting one
another.''
If the fruits of Yorktown were to be gathered—if the victories of the
Revolution were to be utilized in the establishment of a great nation
consecrated to the principle of human liberty—it was necessary for the
states, in a spirit of concession, to come together and to discuss plans
looking toward a more stable government. The problems of inter-state
and of inter-national commerce, the possibilities of a foreign war, the
necessity for providing adequate postal facilities, for establishing a