Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-04-18
The Eternal CheStnutS

when it was submitted to the states!
Going back to the a%ntifederal pamphlets
of that day, We cannot fall to be inn
pressed by parallels to many phases of
the controversy over the League Of Ma
tions today. 1t excites wonder that
men so eminent should have advanced
reasons so frivolous against the accep-
tance of the Constitution. There must
be similar amazement today.
George Clinton was Governor of New
York while the dispute over the adop-
tion OF the Constitution was raging.
He was against it and took pen in hand
to give his reasons. Here Is one, hard
ly more impressive than his others:
The esta blishment of a Vice Pres
ident is as unnecessary as it is
dangerous. This officer, for want
of other employment, is made
President of the Senate. thereby
blending the executive and legis-
lative powers, besides always CIV
ing to one state, from which he is
to come, an unjust p~re-eminence.
In our own time, unfortunately, we
attach in the national field about as
much importance to the candidate for
Vice President as we do to the candi-
date for coroner on the county ticket.
This was another objection by Gov
ernor Clinton:
If treaties are enormously or
wickedly made, who Is there to
punish-the Executive can always
cover himself with the plea that
he was advised by the Senate, and
the Senate, being a collective body,
are not easily made accountable
for maladminlstration.
James Winthrop, of Massachusetts,
raw the specter of ab~solutism lurking
in the folds of the proposed Constitu-
ton. He wrote:
There is to be n representative
for every 10000 people. Boston
would nearly send one, but with
regard to another there is hardly a
county In the state which would
have one. The representatives are
to be chosen for two years. In
this space, when it is considered
that their residence is from two
hundred to five hundred miles
from their constituents, 1t is diff
cult to suppose that they will re-
tain any great afft elton for the
welfare OF the people. They will
have an army to support them,
and may bid defiance to the clam
ors of their subjects. Should the
people cry aloud, the representa-
tives may avail themselves of the
right to alter the time of election
and postpone it for another year.
In truth, the question before the
people Is, whether they will have
a limited government or an abso-
lutte one?
How could one code of laws suit
Georgia and Massachusetts? he asked.
He saw Americans ~'subject to all the
horrors Of a divided sovereignty" and
finding 1t impossible to please two
masters" Sounds as if he were talk
ing Of prohibitions! "This Constitu-
tion," he added plaintively, lis such
that 1t cannot stand any considerable
time without an army" A standing
army was the great bugbear of the
anti-Federals. To hear some of It's OPP
ponents, there must always be a huge
army to back up the League OF Nations.
Robert Yates wrote q series OF articles
against the proposed Constitution. The
concluding paragraph of his fiual effort
shows his state of mind:
In a word, the new Constitution
will prove finally to dissolve all the
power of the several state legisla-
lures, aud destroy the rights and
liberties of the people; for the pow
er of the first will be all in all, and
of the latter a mere shadow and
form without a substance, and, if
adopted, we may lin imitation of
the Carthaginians) say, Delenda
Wit Americae.
Luther Martin, of Maryland, who
subsequently, became known as the
''bulldog of Federalism" cited with
approval this picture by Elbridge Ger
ry of Rhode Island, of what would
happen to the youthful nation:
The conduct of the advocates and
trainers of this system (the Consti-
t%ution) toward the thirteen states,
in pretending that it was designed
for their advantage, and gradually
obtaining power after power to the
general government, which could
not but end in their slavery, he
TGerry) compared to the conduct
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