fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

convention], at least five-sixths, were immediately, directly,and personally interested in the outcome of their labors atPhiladelphia, and were to a greater or lesser extent economicbeneficiaries from the adoption of the Constitution.[Of the 54 delegates:]40 were holders of public securities (holders of Continentaland state debt)24 were creditors (lenders of money)15 were southern slaveholders14 were involved in land speculation11 were involved in manufacturing, commerce, and shippingSource: Amos Singletary , 1788These lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men, thattalk so finely and gloss over matters so smoothly, to make uspoor illiterate people swallow down the pill, expect to getinto Congress themselves. They expect to be managers of theConstitution, and to get all the power and money into theirown hands. And then they will swallow up all those little folks,and the states, like the great Leviathan...Document TSource: Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #35The idea of an actual representation of all classes of the peopleis altogether visionary. Unless it were expressly provided for inthe Constitution that each different occupation should send oneor more members, the thing would never take place in practice.Mechanics and manufacturers will always be inclined, withfew exceptions, to give their votes to merchants in preferenceto persons of their own professions or trades. Those discerningcitizens are well aware that the mechanic and manufacturingarts furnish the materials of mercantile enterprise and industry.Many of them are, indeed, connected with the operations ofcommerce. They know that the merchant is their natural patronand friend; they are aware that however great the confidencethey may justly feel in their own good sense, their interestscan more effectually be promoted by the merchant than bythemselves. They are sensible that their habits in life have notbeen such as to give them those acquired endowments, withoutwhich in a deliberative assembly the greatest natural abilitiesare for the most part useless; and that the influence andweight of the superior acquirements of the merchants renderthem more equal to a contest with any spirit which mighthappen to infuse itself into the public councils, unfriendlyto the manufacturing and trading interests... [A]rtisans andmanufactures will commonly be disposed to bestow theirvotes upon the merchants whom they recommend. We musttherefore consider merchants as the natural representatives ofall these classes of the community.With regard to the learned professions, little need be observed;they truly form no distinct interest in society, and accordingto their situation and talents, will be indiscriminately be theobjects of the confidence and choice of each other and ofother parts of the community... They will feel a neutrality tothe rivalships between different branches of industry, and...thus more likely to be an impartial arbiter among the diverseinterests of the society...Document U178 fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007