Whites.Free Colored.Slaves.Total.
New Hampshire,141,111630158141,899
Massachusetts,373,2545,463. . . 378,717
Rhode Island,64,6893,46995269,110
Connecticut,232,5812,8012,759238,141
New York,314,1424,65421,324340,120
New Jersey,169,9542,76211,423184,139
Pennsylvania,424,0996,5373,737434,373
Delaware,46,3103,8998,88759,096
Maryland,208,6498,043103,036319,728
Virginia,442,11512,765293,427748,307
North Carolina,288,2044,975100,572393,751
South Carolina,140,1781,801107,094249,073
Georgia,52,88639829,26482,548
Aggregate,2,898,17258,197682,6333,639,002

Total population of the eight States in 1790, in which slavery had been or has since been abolished, 1,845,595.

Total population of the five States in 1790, in which slavery existed, and still exists, 1,793,407.


CHAPTER III.

Construction of the Executive and the Judiciary.

The construction of a national executive, although not surrounded by so many inherent practical difficulties as the formation of the legislative department, was likely to give rise to a great many opposite theories. The questions, of how many persons the executive ought to consist, in what mode the appointment should be made, and what were to be its relations to the legislative power, were attended with great diversities of opinion.

The question whether the executive should consist of one, or of more than one person, was likely to be influenced by the nature of the powers to be conferred upon the office. Foreseeing that it must necessarily be an office of great power, some of the members of the Convention thought that a single executive would approach too nearly to the model of the British government. These persons considered that the great requisites for an executive department—vigor, despatch, and responsibility—could be found in three persons as well as in one. Those, on the other hand, who favored the plan of a single magistrate, maintained that the prerogatives of the British monarchy would not necessarily furnish the model for the executive powers; and that unity in the executive would be the best safeguard against tyranny.

But this point connected itself with the question, whether the executive should be surrounded by a council, and the latter proposition again involved the consideration of the precise relation of the executive to the legislative power. That a negative of some kind upon the acts of the legislature was essential to the independence of the executive, was a truth in political science not likely to escape the attention of many of the members of the Convention. Whether it should be a qualified or an absolute negative was the real, and almost the sole question; for although there were some who held the opinion that no such power ought to be given, it was evident from the first that its necessity was well understood by the larger part of the assembly. In the first discussion of this subject, the negative was generally regarded as a means of defence against encroachments of the legislature on the rights and powers of the other departments. It was supposed that, although the boundaries of the legislative authority might be marked out in the Constitution, the executive would need some check against unconstitutional interference with its own prerogatives; and that, as the judicial department might be exposed to the same dangers, the power of resisting these also could be best exercised by the executive. But an absolute negative for any purpose was favored by only a very few of the members, and the proposition first adopted was to give the executive alone a revisionary check upon legislation, which should not be absolute if it were afterwards overruled by two thirds of each branch of the legislature.[31]