George Clymer entertained the notions of government which were common to the Federalists of his time. He held that “a representative of the people is appointed to think for and not with his constituents”;[[450]] and invariably, during the course of his career, he “showed a total disregard to the opinions of his constituents when opposed to the matured decisions of his own mind.” It was on these principles that he “warmly opposed the proposition introducing a clause in the Constitution which conferred upon the people the unalienable right of instructing their representatives.”[[451]]
W. R. Davie, although he is reputed to have been an accomplished orator and profound student, does not figure extensively in Madison’s meagre records. At no point does he expound any philosophy of government. His views were always practical. On the proposition to count slaves in apportioning representation, he threw down the gauntlet to the Convention, and declared that if the rate was not at least three-fifths, North Carolina would not federate.[[452]] As to the basis of government Davie “seemed to think that wealth or property ought to be represented in the second branch; and numbers in the first branch.”[[453]]
Davie fully understood the significance of the obligation of contract clause which was designed as a check on the propensities of popular legislatures to assault private rights in property, particularly personalty. Speaking in the convention of North Carolina on this clause, he said: “That section is the best in the Constitution. It is founded on the strongest principles of justice. It is a section, in short, which I thought would have endeared the Constitution to this country.”[[454]] Davie undoubtedly understood and approved the doctrines of balanced classes in the government, as expounded in Adams’ Defence of American Constitutions.[[455]]
At no time does Davie appear to have courted popular favor in his native state, for a writer speaking of his candidacy for the legislature in 1798 says: “The ‘true Whigs,’ as they styled themselves, dined together under the oaks and toasted Mr. Jefferson. The other party, who were called ‘aristocrats,’ ate and drank in the house on entirely different principles. General Davie dined in the house with the ‘aristocrats.’ The ‘true Whigs’ took offence at this and resolved to oppose his selection, and it was only with much address that they were kept quiet.... If any person had had the impudence to dispute the election, General Davie would certainly not have been returned. The rabble, which in all places is the majority, would have voted against him.”[[456]]
John Dickinson, of Delaware, frankly joined that minority which was outspoken in its belief in a monarchy—an action that comported with his refusal to sign the Declaration of Independence and his reluctance to embark upon the stormy sea of Revolution. At the very opening of the Convention, on June 2, he expressed his preference for a regal government, although he admitted that the existing state of affairs would not permit its establishment in America. Madison records him as saying: “A limited Monarchy he considered as one of the best Governments in the world. It was not certain that the same blessings were derivable from any other form. It was certain that equal blessings had never yet been derived from any of the republican form. A limited monarchy, however, was out of the question.”[[457]]
Dickinson was also among the members of the Convention who wished to establish a property qualification for voters because he thought no other foundation for government would be secure. In the debate on this subject on August 7, according to Madison’s notes: “Mr. Dickinson had a very different idea of the tendency of vesting the right of suffrage in the freeholders of the Country. He considered them as the best guardians of liberty; And the restriction of the right to them as a necessary defence agst. the dangerous influence of those multitudes without property & without principle, with which our Country like all others, will in time abound. As to the unpopularity of the innovation it was in his opinion chimerical. The great mass of our Citizens is composed at this time of freeholders, and will be pleased with it.”[[458]]
According to King’s notes: “Dickinson—It is said yr. restraining by ye Constitution the rights of Election to Freeholders, is a step towards aristocracy—is this true, No.—we are safe by trusting the owners of the soil—the Owners of the Country—it will not be unpopular—because the Freeholders are the most numerous at this Time—The Danger to Free Governments has not been from Freeholders, but those who are not Freeholders—there is no Danger—because our Laws favor the Division of property—The Freehold will be parcelled among all the worthy men in the State—The Merchants & Mechanicks are safe—They may become Freeholders besides they are represented in ye State Legislatures, which elect the Senate of the U.S.”[[459]]
No member of the Convention distrusted anything savoring of “levelling democracy” more than Oliver Ellsworth. Later as Chief Justice he denounced from the bench Jefferson and the French party as “the apostles of anarchy, bloodshed, and atheism.”[[460]] In the Convention, he opposed the popular election of the President[[461]] and favored associating the judges with the executive in the exercise of a veto power over acts of Congress.[[462]] He believed in the restriction of the suffrage to those who paid taxes.[[463]] He was a warm advocate of judicial control, in general, and thoroughly understood the political significance of the system.[[464]]
Thomas Fitzsimons, the wealthy merchant and stockbroker from Pennsylvania, was, after his kind, not a loquacious man, but rather a man of action—a practical man; and the records of the Convention contain no lengthy speech by him. When Gouverneur Morris, on August 7, proposed to restrain the right to vote to freeholders, Fitzsimons seconded the motion, apparently without saying anything on the point.[[465]] While he thus sympathized with the movement to set the Constitution frankly on a property basis, Fitzsimons was naturally more interested in such matters as protection to manufactures and harbor improvements.[[466]]
Benjamin Franklin, who at the time of the Convention was so advanced in years as to be of little real weight in the formation of the Constitution, seems to have entertained a more hopeful view of democracy than any other member of that famous group. He favored a single chambered legislature,[[467]] opposed an absolute veto in the executive,[[468]] and resisted the attempt to place property qualifications on the suffrage.[[469]] He signed the Constitution when it was finished, but he was accounted by his contemporaries among the doubters, and was put forward by the opponents of ratification in Pennsylvania as a candidate for the state convention, but was defeated.[[470]]