Antifederalist No. 18-20
WHAT DOES HISTORY TEACH? (PART 1)
"AN OLD WHIG," taken from The Massachusetts Gazette, November 27,
1787, as reprinted from the [Philadelphia] Independent Gazetteer.
. . . . By the proposed constitution, every law, before it
passes, is to undergo repeated revisions; and the constitution of
every state in the union provide for the revision of the most
trifling laws, either by their passing through different houses
of assembly and senate, or by requiring them to be published for
the consideration of the people. Why then is a constitution
which affects all the inhabitants of the United States-which is
to be the foundation of all laws and the source of misery or
happiness to one-quarter of the globe-why is this to be so
hastily adopted or rejected, that it cannot admit of a revision?
If a law to regulate highways requires to be leisurely considered
and undergo the examination of different bodies of men, one after
another, before it be passed, why is it that the framing of a
constitution for the government of a great people-a work which
has been justly considered as the greatest effort of human
genius, and which from the beginning of the world has so often
baffled the skill of the wisest men in every age-shall be
considered as a thing to be thrown out, in the first shape which
it may happen to assume? Where is the impracticability of a
revision? Cannot the same power which called the late convention
call another? Are not the people still their own masters? If,
when the several state conventions come to consider this
constitution, they should not approve of it, in its present form,
they may easily apply to congress and state their objections.
Congress may as easily direct the calling another convention, as
they did the calling the last. The plan may then be
reconsidered, deliberately received and corrected, so as to meet
the approbation of every friend to his country. A few months
only will be necessary for this purpose; and if we consider the
magnitude of the object, we shall deem it well worth a little
time and attention. It is Much better to pause and reflect
before hand, than to repent when it is too late; when no
peaceable remedy will be left us, and unanimity will be forever
banished. The struggles of the people against a bad government,
when it is once fixed, afford but a gloomy picture in the annals
of mankind, They are often unfortunate; they are always
destructive of private and public happiness; but the peaceable
consent of a people to establish a free and effective government
is one of the most glorious objects that is ever exhibited on the
theater of human affairs. Some, I know, have objected that
another convention will not be likely to agree upon anything-I am
far however from being of that opinion. The public voice calls
so loudly for a new constitution that I have no doubt we shall
have one of some sort. My only fear is that the impatience of
the people will lead them to accept the first that is offered
them without examining whether it is right or wrong. And after
all, if a new convention cannot agree upon any amendments in the
constitution, which is at present proposed, we can still adopt
this in its present form; and all further opposition being vain,
it is to be hoped we shall be unanimous in endeavouring to make
the best of it. The experiment is at least worth trying, and I
shall be much astonished, if a new convention called together for
the purpose of revising the proposed constitution, do not greatly
reform it ...
It is beyond a doubt that the new federal constitution, if
adopted, will in a great measure destroy, if it does not totally
annihilate, the separate governments of the several states. We
shall, in effect, become one great republic. Every measure of
any importance will be continental. What will be the consequence
of this? One thing is evident-that no republic of so great
magnitude ever did or ever can exist. But a few years elapsed,
from the time in which ancient Rome extended her dominions beyond
the bounds of Italy, until the downfall of her republic. And all
political writers agree, that a republican government can exist
only in a narrow territory. But a confederacy of different
republics has, in many instances, existed and flourished for a
long time together. The celebrated Helvetian league, which exists
at this moment in full vigor, and with unimpaired strength, while
its origin may be traced to the confines of antiquity, is one
among many examples on this head; and at the same time furnishes
an eminent proof of how much less importance it is, that the
constituent parts of a confederacy of republics may be rightly
framed, than it is that the confederacy itself should be rightly
organized. For hardly any two of the Swiss cantons have the same
form of government, and they are almost equally divided in their
religious principles, which have so often rent asunder the
firmest establishments. A confederacy of republics must be the
establishment in America, or we must cease altogether to retain
the republican form of government. From the moment we become one
great republic, either in form or substance, the period is very
shortly removed when we shall sink first into monarchy, and then
into despotism. . . . If the men who at different times have been
entrusted to form plans of government for the world, had been
really actuated by no other motives than the public good, the
condition of human nature in all ages would have been widely
different from that which has been exhibited to us in history. In
this country perhaps we are possessed of more than our share of
political virtue. If we will exercise a little patience and
bestow our best endeavors on the business, I do not think it
impossible, that we may yet form a federal constitution much
superior to any form of government which has ever existed in the
world. But whenever this important work shall be accomplished, I
venture to pronounce that it will not be done without a careful
attention to the Framing of a bill of rights. . . .
In different nations, we find different grants or
reservations of privileges appealed to in the struggles between
the rulers and the people; many of which, in the different
nations of Europe, have long since been swallowed up and lost by
time, or destroyed by the arbitrary hand of power. In England,
we find the people, with the barons at their head, exacting a
solemn resignation of their rights from King John, in their
celebrated magna charta, which was many times renewed in
Parliament during the reigns of his successors. The petition of
rights was afterwards consented to by Charles I and contained a
declaration of the liberties of the people. The habeas corpus
act, after the restoration of Charles 11, the bill of rights,
which was obtained of the Prince and Princess of Orange, on their
accession to the throne, and the act of settlement, at the
accession of the Hanover family-are other instances to show the
care and watchfulness of that nation to improve every
Opportunity, of the reign of a weak prince or the revolution in
their government, to obtain the most explicit declarations in
favor of their liberties. In like manner the people of this
country, at the revolution, having all power in their own hands,
in forming the constitutions of the several states, took care to
secure themselves, by bills of rights, so as to prevent as far as
possible the encroachments of their future rulers upon the rights
of the people. Some of these rights are said to be unalienable,
such as the rights of conscience. Yet even these have been often
invaded, where they have not been carefully secured, by express
and solemn bills and declarations in their favor.
Before we establish a government, whose acts will be the
supreme law of the land, and whose power will extend to almost
every case without exception, we ought carefully to guard
ourselves by a bill of rights, against the invasion of those
liberties which it is essential for us to retain, which it is of
no real use for government to deprive us of; but which, in the
course of human events, have been too often insulted with all the
wantonness of an idle barbarity.
AN OLD WHIG