The advocate., 1895-06-05

or social philosophers OF AZ experiments IN meSer'
ism. Under the circumstances, it is not wonderful
that he had heard very little from home during his
absence, nor that he knew next to nothing of the
political changes which had taken place in the States
since his departure 1t concerning the past and
present political situation of which he wished to be
informed that his brother, after some general con-
versstiOn, was about to enlghten him.
AS Rueben was man of fortune with ga stake in
society,"" his merchant brother assumed without
thought of inquiry, that the returned wanderer was
a conservative, else some information freely i'm
parted on this occasion, would quite probably have
been withheld. Coming down with his history, by
easy stages, the merchant finally informed sbrother
that a convention had met in Philadelphia during
the past summer and formulated a Constitution
which had been submitted to the States for ratfca
tion, and he produced copy of it, which the much
travelled brother perused with care.
"HoW did the convention manage to work on this
thing without being mobbed?" asked he in aston
ishment. "Why, when left here the people would
have hanged a man for merely proposing such a
thing. This Constitution creates monarchy, only
it calls the king president and he has to be elected
by the States. Did the convention occasion no
riotP'
"The delegates feared trouble if it should become
known what they were doing" answered the mer-
chant. "But it was not known. 'The whole affair
was quite cleVerly managed. There was a great
deal said about the defects of the old government
General Washington lostno opportunity to expatiste
upon its weakness. The wealthy men here and there
induced the state legislature to refuse to comply
with the acquisitions of Congress- and Congress, hay
ing no power to compel compliance became slsugh-
ing stock 1t would call for money and the states
4 a
empty. So agitation began for the adoption of an
amendment to the Articles of Confederation giving
Congress power to collect taxes Then we managed
to have two three states collect duties on imports
and this caused such trouble that cry went up for
the adoption of an amendment giving the Congress
exclusive power over commerce. Finally the need |
Of commercial treaties with foreign countries began
to be felt, and it was agreed we must give the Con
gress the power to make such treaties. SO last year
Virginia invited the states to send delegates to
convention at Annapolis to consider commercial
questions, and commissioners were appointed by
several states. But we did not propose to permit |
the Annapolis convention to succeed, for had it done
what was called to do we would have been bereft
of all excuse for the establishment of a strong Fed
eral government Our real desire was to have a linn
tied monarchy like that of the mother country
or to get nearly that as it would be safe to pro-
pose. So we cOntriYed to keep commissioners away
and only five states were represented. The commits
sioners who did meet were most of them in full sym
pathy with our design, and they issued clever ad
dress recommending to the states general conven-
tion to meet in Philadelphia, in May, and revise the
Articles of COnfederaton at least that is what the
people understood it to mean. But it was shrewdly
worded to mean quite different thing No sooner
had the address been issued than General Washing
ton was already proposed quite unanimously as the
president of the prospective convention, and when
it met that great man was at once chosen to that
office"
"And, of course, he had not had his friends work
ing hard to get him unanimously suggested. OF
course not. Washington wouldn't do such thing.
No."
"WhY-Reuben! Of course not. Your irony