Madison's point, said Mason, was good as far as it went; but, under the Confederation, Congress could discharge the Continental money "at its depreciated value," which had gone down "to a thousand for one." But under the Constitution "we must pay it shilling for shilling or at least at the rate of one for forty"; which would take "the last particle of our property.... We may be taxed for centuries, to give advantage to a few particular states in the Union and a number of rapacious speculators." Henry then turned Madison's point that "the new Constitution would place us in the same situation with the old"; for Henry saw "clearly" that "this paper money must be discharged shilling for shilling."[1293] Then Henry brought up the scarecrow of the British debts, which had more to do with the opposition to the Constitution in Virginia[1294] than any other specific subject, excepting, perhaps, the threatened loss of the Mississippi and the supreme objection that a National Government would destroy the States and endanger "liberty."
The opposition had now come to the point where they were fighting the separate provisions of the Constitution one by one. When the first section of the second article, concerning the Executive Department, was reached, the opposition felt themselves on safe ground. The Constitution here sapped the "great fundamental principle of responsibility in republicanism," according to Mason.[1295] Grayson wanted to know how the President would be punished if he abused his power. "Will you call him before the Senate? They are his counsellors and partners in crime."[1296]
The treaty-making power, the command of the army, the method of electing the President, the failure of the Constitution to provide for his rotation in office, all were, to the alarmed Anti-Constitutionalists, the chains and shackles of certain and inevitable despotism. The simple fears of the unlettered men who sullenly had fought the Constitution in the Massachusetts Convention were stated and urged throughout the great debate in Virginia by some of her ablest and most learned sons. Madison was at his best in his exposition of the treaty-making power. But if the debate on the Executive Department had any effect whatever in getting votes for or against the Constitution, the advantage was with the enemies of the proposed new Government.
Grayson wrote to Dane: "I think we got a Vote by debating the powers of the President. This, you will observe, is confidential." But this was cold comfort, for, he added, "our affairs ... are in the most ticklish situation. We have got ten out of thirteen of the Kentucke members but we wanted the whole: & I don't know that we have got one yet of the four upper counties: this is an important point & which both sides are contending for by every means in their power. I believe it is absolutely certain that we have got 80 votes on our side which are inflexible & that eight persons are fluctuating & undecided."[1297]
FOOTNOTES:
[1216] "I am to acknowledge yours of the 19th of May, which reached me a few days since." (Gouverneur Morris from Richmond, June 13, 1788, to Hamilton in New York; Hamilton MSS., Lib. Cong.)
[1217] Robert Morris to Horatio Gates, Richmond, June 12, 1788; MS., N.Y. Pub. Lib. "James [Wilson] the Caladonian, Leut. Gen. of the myrmidons of power, under Robert [Morris] the cofferer, who with his aid-de-camp, Gouvero [Gouverneur] the cunning man, has taken the field in Virginia." (Centinel, no. 10, Jan. 12, 1788; reprinted in McMaster and Stone, 631.)
Robert Morris was in Richmond, March 21, 1788. (Morris to Independent Gazetteer on that date; ib., 787, denying the charge that paper had made against him. See supra, chap. X.) He was in Richmond in May and paid John Marshall four pounds, four shillings as a "retainer." (Account Book, May 2, 1788.) He had heavy business interests in Virginia; see Braxton vs. Willing, Morris & Co. (4 Call, 288). Marshall was his lawyer.
[1218] Morris to Gates, June 12, 1788, supra. Morris's remark about depredations on his purse may or may not refer to the work of the Convention. He was always talking in this vein about his expenses; he had lost money in his Virginia business ventures; and, having his family with him, may, for that reason, have found his Southern trip expensive. My own belief is that no money was used to get votes; for Henry, Mason, and Grayson surely would have heard of and, if so, denounced such an attempt.
[1219] Madison to Hamilton, June 9, 1788; Hamilton MSS., Lib. Cong.