William Maclay

“ I wished to repeat nothing of what had been said yesterday, but replied that, so far from balloting being productive of caballing, it was the very bane and antidote against it; that men made bargains for certainties, but it was in vain to purchase or bargain for a vote by ballot, which there was no certainty of the party ever obtaining, as he had no method of securing the performance of a promise or of knowing whether he was deceived or not; that as to the distinction of balloting being the worst way for bad men, I thought differently. The worst of men were known to respect virtue. ”

“ The citizens of Philadelphia (such is the strange infatuation of self-love) believe that ten years is eternity to them with respect to the residence, and that Congress will in that time be so enamored of them as never to leave them; and all this with the recent example of New York before their eyes, whose allurements are more than ten to two compared with Philadelphia. To tell the truth, I know no such unsocial city as Philadelphia. The gloomy severity of the Quakers has proscribed all fashionable dress and amusement. ”

“ To speak in the present uproar of business was like letting off a pop-gun in a thunder-storm. But this was the merest matter of form possible. It was only giving the authority of law to a convention solemnly entered into with the French. My colleague cried "No!" on the second reading. I called for the yeas and nays, and not out of resentment, but merely with an exculpatory view, if this conduct should draw on us the resentment of France, for I consider it disrespectful (to say no worse) toward her and dishonorable in us. ”

“ The signers of the Declaration of Independence, the framers of our Constitution, and all who in any way were involved in the inception of this nation, are venerated with a childlike awe, rendering us oblivious to the motives which led to those occurences or to the pressure of circumstances which induced many to take the course they did. The journal of William Maclay, beginning with the 24th of April, 1789, and ending on the 3d of March, 1791, gives a graphic description of the debates, ceremonies, and social life of that important period of our national existence. ”

“ He seemed disposed to destroy the whole effect of the Impost bill on every other article. The tax on salt he knows must be odious, and this he is for doubling at the first word. He is a great advocate for an excise. If I really wished to destroy the new Constitution, to injure it to the utmost of my power, I would follow exactly the line of conduct which he has pursued. Far be it, however, from me to say this of him. People employ the same means for very different ends, and such is the vanity of human opinion that the same object is often aimed at by means directly opposite. ”

“ Hartley is too giddy and unsettled for any one to determine how he will vote, and, as his judgment has no share in it, the presumption is that he will vote with Smith, of Carolina, and those whose company he always keeps. I have put my political life in my hand in starting this opposition in the teeth of the Philadelphians. If I fail, my seat in Congress and disgrace in the public eye will follow. ”

“ A funding system will be the consequence — that political gout of every government which has adopted it. With all our Western lands for sale and purchasers every day attending at the Hall begging for contracts! What villainy to east the debt on posterity! But pay the debt, or even put it in train of payment, and you no longer furnish food for speculation. The great object is, by funding and so forth, to raise the certificates to par; thus the speculators, who now have them nearly all engrossed, will clear above three hundred per cent. ”

“ The duty of the Government was to borrow at five per cent or let it alone; but if the Treasury could once establish the practice of acting without or contrary to law, the whole freedom of the Government might be sapped by fiscal arrangement, and the Congress of the United States might in time become, as in Great Britain, the mere tool of ministerial imposition and taxation. ”

“ For never was so admirable a machine contrived by the art of man to use men's passions for the picking of their pockets and to bring their justice into trade. The present bill before you has been considered as enjoying perfection in proportion as it approaches the British system. Sir, I have given you the opinion which I know many sensible Americans entertain of the system of English jurisprudence. With such people, English features will be no recommendation of the bill. Sir, I can not boast a general knowledge of the sentiments of men in the Union. ”

“ My mind revolts, in many instances, against the Constitution of the United States. Indeed, I am afraid it will turn out the vilest of all traps that ever was set to ensnare the freedom of an unsuspecting people. Treaties formed by the Executive of the United States are to be the law of the land. To cloak the Executive with legislative authority is setting aside our modern and much-boasted distribution of power into legislative, judicial, and executive — discoveries unknown to Locke and Montesquieu, and all the ancient. ”

“ Never will I consent to straining the Constitution, nor never will I consent to the exercise of a doubtful power. We come here the servants, not the lords, of our constituents. The new Government, instead of being a powerful machine whose authority would support any measure, needs helps and props on all sides, and must be supported by the ablest names and the most shining characters which we can select. The President's amiable deportment, however, smooths and sweetens everything. ”

“ This day Mr. Clymer made his famous speech for throwing away the Western world. A noble sacrifice, truly, to gratify the public creditors of Philadelphia! Reject territory of an extent of an empire so that it may be out of the power of Congress to oblige the public creditors to take any part of it. ”

“ These Yorkers are the vilest of people. Their vices have not the palliation of being manly. They resemble bad schoolboys who are unfortunate at play: they revenge themselves by telling notorious thumpers. Even the New England men say that King's character is detestable — a perfect canvas for the devil to paint on; a groundwork void of every virtue.
Senate sat until three on the Post-Office bill, but the debates were unimportant. ”

“ At first exploded a doctrine which he had stated of Congress being a party and the claimants another. I stated the people at large as being the debtors and the holders the creditors, and Congress the umpire — the Legislature between them. I then stated his two principles of justice and law; declared myself an adherent of the former. Law was the rule for courts and magistrates in the execution of their offices, but justice was our guide, and had been the guide of all just legislation from the Jewish jubilee to the present day; that even in law it was a maxim that rigid law was rigid injustice. ”

“ This day, at and after dinner, I thought uncommon pains were taken to draw from me some information as to the part I would act respecting the Federal residence. The whole world is a shell, and we tread on hollow ground at every step. I repeatedly said, I have marked out no ground for myself. My object shall be the interest of Pennsylvania, subordinate to the good of the Union. Mr. Wynkoop called in the evening. He was directly on the subject of the permanent residence. The Susquehanna must never be thought of. ”

“ The Funding bill, the basis on which speculation has built all her castles, is now to come before us; and woe to him who says a word in favor of the country. Load the ass; make the beast of burden bear to the utmost of his abilities. I am really convinced that many a man has gone into the martial field and acquitted himself with gallantry and honor, with less courage and firmness than is necessary to attack this disposition in our Senate. ”

“ A single dinner given by a speculator (people who do not like you) will procure ten votes where your disinterestedness has not procured you one. And you must intrigue and cabal as deep as, and deeper too, than your adversaries, or we will not see you here again. Is there a single one of the majestic mob who will not belie, defraud, deceive, and cheat you for the smallest interest? ”

“ This day I had much to say against the report of a committee which went to declare war against the Algerines. It is not suspicion that the designs of the court are to have a fleet and army. The Indian war is forced forward to justify our having a standing army, and eleven unfortunate men, now in slavery in Algiers, is the pretext for fitting out a fleet to go to war with them. While fourteen of these captives were alive, the barbarians asked about thirty-five thousand dollars for them; but it is urged that we should expend half a million dollars rather than redeem these unhappy men. ”

“ I agreed, but we were very unlucky in our committee. We Pennsylvanians act as if we believed that God made of one blood all families of the earth; but the Eastern people seem to think that he made none but New England folks. It is strange that men born and educated under republican forms of government should be so contracted on the subject of general philanthropy. In Pennsylvania, used as we are to the reception and adoption of strangers, we receive no class of men with such diffidence as the Eastern people. They really have the worst characters of any people who offer themselves for citizens. ”

“ Our Government can not stand. All my opposition has been considered as vain babbling. But to get quit of it in some degree this business of commitment has taken place, and now the majority have a kind of scapegoat in the committee, and a pretext for following them and disregarding opposition under the idle idea of their knowing best, having consulted Hamilton, etc., etc.
How abandoned is the conduct of these men! Abuse, rail at, oilify, and traduce the European systems of excise as much as you will; demonstrate their absurdity, villainy, and deplorable effect on society as much as you please. ”

“ I was content with the bill as it stood. The difference of duty and the discount of ten per cent in favor of our own vessels I thought pretty well for protecting our trade without absolutely excluding all the world. But I had another reason. I doubt much whether the House of Representatives will agree to our amendments. Every new one will or may be a source of dissension or delay. I have labored with all the diligence in my power to hasten on the impost, but I am counteracted; for what can one man do? ”

“ This man has every testimony, both of practice and profession, in favor of his republicanism. He has been in the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and there had it in his power to have formed a coalition with the city interest. He has, however, continued firmly attached to the rural plans and arrangements of life and the democratic system of government. His motto is, "Vox populi vox Dei." But mottoes and professions nowadays are as the idle wind which no one ought to regard unless supported by practice; and scarce can you depend on practice unless you see it embracing interest. ”

“ It would not be easy to find a more useless member. He never speaks, never acts in Congress, but implicitly follows the two city members. He does not seem formed to act alone even in the most trifling affair. Well it is for him that he is not a woman and handsome, or every fellow would debauch him.
I have just been thinking how impossible it is for the Yorkers to be so blind as to let Congress go away in the manner Wynkoop says they have done. If the lower House have really passed the bill, the Yorkers have no resource but in the President. ”

“ Candor, sit by me while I describe the committee:
R. H. Lee, the man who gave independence (in one sense) to America. A man of a clear head and great experience in public business; certainly ambitious and vainglorious, but his passions seek gratification in serving the public.
Elsworth, a man of great faculties and eloquent in debate, but he has taken too much on himself; he wishes to reconcile the Secretary's [Hamilton's] system to the public opinion and welfare; but it is too much; he can not retain the confidence of the people and remain in the good graces of the Secretary. ”

“ Strong got up; had some sleeveless things to say about the practice of Parliament, but concluded all was right. I got up and declared, since gentlemen were speaking their minds, I would declare that I thought the business wrong; that, after both Houses had elaborately argued and passed a bill, it was referred to a committee of one from the Senate and two from the House of Representatives; that it was then in their power to alter the bill. If they were bad men, there was no cheek on them. If even a member knew of a bill to be vitiated, he would not correct it. ”

“ I was called out of the Senate. When I came in, the report of the committee on the difference of boundary between the United States and Nova Scotia was under consideration. I said a few words, which appeared to be well received, on the subject. Izard and Butler both manifested a most insulting spirit this day, when there was not the least occasion for it nor the smallest affront offered. These men have a most settled antipathy to Pennsylvania, owing to the doctrines patronized in that State on the subject of slavery. Pride makes fools of them, or rather completes what Nature began. ”

“ The old Congress had no power over individuals, and, of course, no system of consolidation could take place. Their legislative or recommendatory powers were over States only. The new Constitution, by the instrumentality of the judiciary, etc., aims at the government of individuals, and the States, unless as to the conceded points, and with regard to their individual sovereignty and independence, are left upon stronger ground than formerly, and it can only be by implication or inference that the General Government can exercise control over them as States. ”

“ It has been usual with declamatory gentlemen, in their praises of the present Government, by way of contrast, to paint the state of the country under the old Congress as if neither wood grew nor water ran in America before the happy adoption of the new Constitution. It would be well for the future, in such comparisons, to say nothing of national credit (which, by the by, I never considered as dependent on the prices current of certificates in the hands of speculators) , for the loan of 1788 was done in Holland at five per cent, only postponed. ”

“ There was no Senate, and as the trifling business of visiting must be got over, I set about it in good earnest. The Speaker, {185} General Muhlenberg, and General Heister were the party with myself. We run off most of the business, and of course have nearly done with it. There was something happened to me lately which I will not minute, but let it serve as a caution to me to observe as much as possible independence of character and conduct. This is a vile world when a man must walk among his friends and fellow-mortals as if they were briers and thorns; afraid to touch or be touched by them. ”

“ This bill seems laying the foundation of a standing army. The justifiable reasons for using force seem to be the enforcing of laws, quelling insurrections, and repelling invasions. The Constitution directs all these to be done by militia. Should the United States, unfortunately, be involved in war, an army for the annoyance of an enemy in their own country (as the most effective mode of keeping the calamity at a distance and enforcing an adversary to terms) will be necessary. This seems the meaning of the Constitution, and that no troops should be kept up in peace. ”

“ Gentlemen, I must tell you that it is you and the President that have the making of titles. Suppose the President to have the appointment of Mr. Jefferson at the court of France. Mr. Jefferson is, in virtue of that appointment, the most illustrious, tho most powerful, and what not. But the President must be himself something that includes all the dignities of the diplomatic corps and something greater still. What will the common people of foreign countries, what will the sailors and the soldiers say, 'George Washington, President of the United States'? They will despise him to all eternity. ”

“ We may enter into rules for the future government of our conduct, but the past is out of our power, constitutionally speaking. The general practice of all the Legislatures is in favor of taking up the unfinished business in the state it was left. So far is this from being considered as improper, that the Constitutions of some of the States enjoin it as a principle that no bill, unless in case of necessity, shall be enacted into a law in the same session in which it is originated. It is the common practice in all the arrangements of life. ”

“ We already rejected in the Senate a bill which appeared to me of mischievous consequences touching the communication and half pay and pensions of officers. It is renewed and sent up to us. Baron Steuben is supported in a demand of near six hundred guineas a year. In fact, to overwhelm us with debt is the endeavor of every creature in office, for fear, as there is likely to be no war, that if there should be no debt to be provided for there would be no business for the general government with all their train of officers. ”