CHAPTER XXXII. Constitution reported by Committee of Detail-Proceedings on it in Convention - Right of Suffrage in Election of RepresentativesPrinciples of Convention opposed to Universal Suffrage - Cautious Policy of Convention with regard to Admission of Foreigners to Political Privileges — Warm Debate on Clause restraining Origination of Money Bills to House of Representatives-Single Instance of Separation, in their Votes, between General Washington and Mr. Madison Contest respecting Ineligibility of Members of Congress to other Offices - Enumeration of Powers of Congress - History of Bargain, entered into between the Eastern States and two of the Southern States, respecting Slave Trade, and Regulation of Commerce- Strong Dissatisfaction and Disgust of several Members of the Convention, particularly Colonel Mason - Mr. Madison's Views of the True Balance of Interests among the Different States, with regard to Future Commercial Policy of the Government - Separate Powers of Senate -Difficulties in Organization of Executive Department cause it to be postponed to last Days of Convention - Complete Unanimity with regard to Independence of Judiciary - New Plan brought forward by a Committee respecting Mode of Appointment and Official Tenure of Executive-Action of Convention upon it-Proposition of Colonel Mason, for Council of State to President, sustained by Mr. Madison, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Dickinson-Committee of Five appointed to revise Style and Arrangement of Articles in Constitution Question on Adoption of Constitution as a Whole- Declarations of Governor Randolph, Colonel Mason, Mr. Pinckney, and Mr. Gerry - Proposition for signing Constitution moved by Dr. Franklin - His Impressive Remarks on the Occasion- General Washington, from the Chair, before putting the Question, asks leave to submit a Proposition, which is unanimously adopted — Appeal of Dr. Franklin for like Unanimity in the Signature of the Constitution enforced by several Members-Three only withhold their Signatures - Closing Scene of the Convention. On the 6th of August, the convention re-assembled to receive the report of the committee of detail charged with preparing the draught of a constitution, in conformity to the resolutions which had been adopted by the convention. The draught was arranged into twenty-three articles, delineating minutely the organization, powers, and functions of the several departments of the government, with a few supplemental provisions relative to the mode of putting it into operation. It might not unnaturally be supposed, that, the general principles of the system having already received the sanction of the convention, and being now clothed in an appropriate technical form for giving them practical effect, the chief difficulties of the important task committed to the hands of the convention had been surmounted. These difficulties, however, thickened, and grew more and more lowering in their aspect, as the convention advanced towards the close of their labors, and, more than once, seemed to put in jeopardy the final success of their deliberations. The day after receiving the report of the committee, the convention entered upon the consideration of the constitution reported. The three first articles presented no question of special importance, and, with a slight modification of one of them, were promptly agreed to. The fourth article related to the constitution of the popular branch of the legislative department, and presented, in the outset, questions of very deep interest. The first section of that article provided that "the members of the House of Representatives shall be chosen by the people of the several States and that the qualifications of the electors shall be the same as those of the electors in the several States of the most numerous branch of their own legislatures." Mr. Gouverneur Morris moved to strike out the latter portion of the section, in order that some provision might be substituted which would restrain the right of suffrage to freeholders. It was considered, however, an exceedingly delicate thing to interfere with the right of suffrage as regulated by the respective States; and Mr. Morris's motion was not acceded to. The regulations which then existed in the several States on the subject of suffrage were of a very conservative character, and left but little, if any, room for men of the most sober opinions to desire a change, even if an interference of the Federal authority had been considered admissible in principle. In a very large majority of the States, the possession of a moderate freehold estate, or its equivalent in personal property, was required as a qualification for the exercise of the right of suffrage; and in not one of them, it is believed, was universal suffrage, as since practised, then known.1 1 The following were the qualifications prescribed in the principal States of the Union, for the exercise of the right of suffrage, at the The wise men who framed the Constitution of the United States, believed, therefore, that they might safely leave the subject where the peculiar delicacy of the relations between the State and Federal authorities, with regard to it, seemed to require that it should be left, in the hands of the States. At the same time, in doing so, they distinctly recognized the necessity of "qualifications" for the performance of this primordial function of time of the formation of the constitution of the United States: In Massachusetts, a freehold estate of the annual income of three pounds, or other estate of the value of sixty pounds; in Connecticut, a freehold of forty shillings yearly value, or personal estate of forty pounds value; in New York, a freehold of twenty pounds value, or leasehold of forty shillings yearly value, and payment of taxes, to vote for members of the Assembly, and a freehold of the value of one hundred pounds, over and above all debts charged upon it, to vote for members of the Senate; in New Jersey, clear estate of fifty pounds value; in Pennsylvania, payment of "public taxes" for the preceding year; in Maryland, freehold of fifty acres of land, or other property above the value of thirty pounds; in Virginia, freehold in twenty-five acres of improved, or one hundred acres of unimproved, land; in North Carolina, a freehold estate in fifty acres of land to vote for members of the Senate, and payment of taxes and twelve months' residence to vote for members of the House of Commons; and, in South Carolina, a freehold of fifty acres of land, or a town lot, or a tax of three shillings sterling actually paid the preceding year. What were the regulations of suffrage existing in the four remaining States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Georgia, at the time of the formation of the constitution of the United States, we are not informed. At present, it is believed, there is not a single one of the States, old or new, in which a special qualification of any kind, whether of property, education, settled abode, or other pledge of "permanent, common interest," is required for the exercise of the right of suffrage; except that, in a few of the States, the payment of some tax of undefined and trivial amount may be prescribed. With this exception, twenty-one years of age, and one or two years' residence in the State or county, have become the sole conditions of that invaluable privilege on which all the operations of representative government primarily depend, and from which they take their character for good or evil. representative government, as alike a principle and practice of republican legislation in America. Qualified suffrage, in contradistinction to universal suffrage, was thus consecrated, so far as depended on them, as the basis of the representative system of the United States. It did not enter into their imaginations to conceive, that the day would ever come, when, in the eager race of contending parties for popularity, every practical landmark which guarded the purity and sanctity of the great franchise that gives direction as well as motion to the political system was to be swept away. The proposition of Mr. Morris led to some interchange of opinion in the convention with regard to the right of suffrage in general, in which, while different views were expressed respecting the particular qualifications that would best guard, without too much shackling, its exercise, none denied the necessity of such qualifications as would afford a reasonable guarantee for the fidelity and independence, at least, of the voter. The true rule, Colonel Mason thought, without restricting its application to freeholders alone, was that laid down in the bill of rights of Virginia, and which made the electoral capacity depend on "sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with and attachment to the community." Mr. Madison thus announced his opinions: 66 Viewing the subject in its merits alone, the freeholders of the country would be the safest depositaries of republican liberty. In future times, |