James McClurg, of Virginia, left the Convention during the early part of August, and was silent on most of the questions before that body. On July 17th, he proposed that the term of the executive should be changed from seven years to “good behavior”;[[485]] and he was particularly anxious to have the executive independent of the legislature. He said that he “was not so much afraid of the shadow of monarchy as to be unwilling to approach it; nor so wedded to republican government as not to be sensible of the tyrannies that had been and may be exercised under that form. It was an essential object with him to make the executive independent of the legislature; and the only mode left for effecting it, after the vote destroying his ineligibility the second time, was to appoint him during good behavior.”[[486]] That McClurg had small respect for legislatures in general is shown by a letter which he wrote to Madison from Virginia on August 7, 1787, in which he said: “The necessity of some independent power to controul the Assembly by a negative, seems now to be admitted by the most zealous Republicans—they only differ about the mode of constituting such a power. B. Randolph seems to think that a magistrate annually elected by the people might exercise such a controul as independently as the King of G. B. I hope that our representative, Marshall, will be a powerful aid to Mason in the next Assembly. He has observ’d the continual depravation of Mens manners, under the corrupting influence of our Legislature; & is convinc’d that nothing but the adoption of some efficient plan from the Convention can prevent Anarchy first, & civil convulsions afterwards.”[[487]]
James McHenry belonged to the conservative party of his state and opposed “radical alterations” in the constitution of that commonwealth as it stood in November, 1791.[[488]]
Writing in February, 1787, on the property qualifications placed on voters and representatives in Maryland, McHenry explained that “These disabilities, exclusions, and qualifications have for their object an upright legislature, endowed with faculties to judge of the things most proper to promote the public good.” He was warmly opposed to the doctrine that the people had a right to instruct their representatives.[[489]] Democracy was, in his opinion, synonymous with “confusion and licentiousness.”[[490]]
James Madison was the systematic philosopher of the Convention and set forth his views with such cogency and consistency on so many different topics that no short quotations will suffice to state his doctrines. His general scheme of political science was, however, embodied in the tenth number of The Federalist which has been discussed above and need not be reconsidered here.[[491]]
Alexander Martin was among the silent members of the Convention, for Madison records only an occasional and incidental participation by him in the proceedings.
Luther Martin was the champion of the extreme states’ rights’ view, and entertained rather democratic notions for his time, although, in arguing against the clause prohibiting Congress to issue paper money, he held that, “considering the administration of the government would be principally in the hands of the wealthy,” there could be little danger from an abuse of this power. Martin was in fact a champion of paper money in his state, and he opposed that part of the Constitution which prohibited the emission of bills of credit. As a representative of the more radical section of his community, he was against the clauses restricting the states to the use of the gold and silver coin of the United States, and was opposed to the clause forbidding the impairment of the obligation of contract. Speaking on the latter point he said: “There might be times of such great public calamities and distress, and of such extreme scarcity of specie, as should render it the duty of a government for the preservation of even the most valuable part of its citizens in some measure to interfere in their favor, by passing laws totally or partially stopping the courts of justice, or authorizing the debtor to pay by installments, or by delivering up his property to his creditors at a reasonable and honest valuation. The times have been such as to render regulations of this kind necessary in most or all of the states, to prevent the wealthy creditor and the moneyed man from totally destroying the poor, though even industrious debtor. Such times may again arrive.... I apprehend, Sir, the principal cause of complaint among the people at large, is the public and private debt with which they are oppressed, and which in the present scarcity of cash threatens them with destruction, unless they can obtain so much indulgence in point of time that by industry and frugality they may extricate themselves.”[[492]]
As might have been expected, a man entertaining such radical notions about the power and duty of a government to interfere with the rights of personalty in behalf of the debtor could not have accepted the instrument framed at Philadelphia. In fact, Martin refused to sign the Constitution; he wrote a vehement protest against it to the legislature of his state; he worked assiduously against its ratification; and as a member of the state convention, he voted against its approval by his commonwealth—but in vain.
George Mason thoroughly understood the doctrine of a balanced government. Speaking in the Convention on the function of the upper house, he said: “One important object in constituting the senate was to secure the rights of property. To give them weight and firmness for this purpose a considerable duration in office was thought necessary. But a longer term than six years would be of no avail in this respect, if needy persons should be appointed. He suggested therefore the propriety of annexing to the office a qualification of property. He thought this would be very practicable; as the rules of taxation would supply a scale for measuring the degree of wealth possessed by every man.”[[493]] On another occasion, he presented a motion requiring “certain qualifications of landed property, in members of the legislature.”[[494]] Although Mason refused to sign the Constitution, his reasons were based on personal economic interests, not on any objections to its checks on democratic legislatures.[[495]]
J. F. Mercer, of Maryland, who opposed the Constitution in its final form and became the belligerent anti-federalist leader in that state, does not appear to have been so warmly devoted to the “people’s cause,” behind the closed doors of the Convention, for he took exceptions to the proposition that the determination of the qualifications of voters should be left to the several states. But his particular objection was “to the mode of election by the people. The people cannot know and judge of the characters of candidates. The worst possible choice will be made.”[[496]]
Thomas Mifflin took no part worthy of mention in the proceedings of the Convention, and expounded no views of government during the debates.