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assent to laws of urgent necessity. He suggested also that the negative might be lodged in the Senate, in order to dispense with constant sessions of the more numerous branch.
But the radical objection to any plan of a negative on State legislation, as a legislative power of the general government, was, that it would not in fact dispense with the use of force against a State in the last resort. If, after the exercise of the power, the State whose obnoxious law had been prohibited should see fit to persist in its course, force must be resorted to as the only ultimate remedy. How different, how wise, was the expedient subsequently devised, when the appropriate office of the judicial power was discerned,--a power that waits calmly until the clashing authorities of the State and the nation have led to a conflict of right or duty in some individual case, and then peacefully adjudicates, in a case of private interest, the great question, with which of the two governments resides the power of prescribing the paramount rule of conduct for the citizen! Disobedience on the part of the State may, it is true, still follow after such an adjudication, and against an open array of force on the one side nothing but force remains to be employed on the other. But the great preventive of this dread necessity is found in the fact, that there has been an adjudication by a tribunal that commands the confidence of all, and in the moral influence of judicial determinations over a people accustomed to submit not only their interests, but their feelings even, to the arbitrament of juridical discussion and decision.
TABLE
EXHIBITING THE POPULATIONS OF THE THIRTEEN STATES, ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1790.
N. B.--In this abstract Maine is not included in Massachusetts, nor Kentucky and Tennessee in the States from which they were severed.
+----------------+-----------+---------------+---------+-----------+ | | Whites. | Free Colored. | Slaves. | Total. | | +-----------+---------------+---------+-----------+ |New Hampshire, | 141,111 | 630 | 158 | 141,899 | |Massachusetts, | 373,254 | 5,463 | ..... | 378,717 | |Rhode Island, | 64,689 | 3,469 | 952 | 69,110 | |Connecticut, | 232,581 | 2,801 | 2,759 | 238,141 | |New York, | 314,142 | 4,654 | 21,324 | 340,120 | |New Jersey, | 169,954 | 2,762 | 11,423 | 184,139 | |Pennsylvania, | 424,099 | 6,537 | 3,737 | 434,373 | |Delaware, | 46,310 | 3,899 | 8,887 | 59,096 | |Maryland, | 208,649 | 8,043 | 103,036 | 319,728 | |Virginia, | 442,115 | 12,765 | 293,427 | 748,307 | |North Carolina, | 288,204 | 4,975 | 100,572 | 393,751 | |South Carolina, | 140,178 | 1,801 | 107,094 | 249,073 | |Georgia, | 52,886 | 398 | 29,264 | 82,548 | | +-----------+---------------+---------+-----------+ | Aggregate, | 2,898,172 | 58,197 | 682,633 | 3,639,002 | +----------------+-----------+---------------+---------+-----------+
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.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Edmund Randolph. See ante, Vol. I. p. 480.
[11] Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, ay, 6; Connecticut, no, 1; New York divided (Colonel Hamilton ay, Mr. Yates no). Madison, Elliot, V. 132, 134.
[12] Madison, Elliot, V. 134, 135.
[13] Ibid. 135. The vote of Pennsylvania, in compliance with the wishes of Dr. Franklin, was given for a single house.
[14] Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, ay, 6; New Jersey, South Carolina, no, 2; Connecticut and Delaware divided.
[15] See Mr. Sherman's remarks, made in committee, June 6; Madison, Elliot, V. 161.
[16] See Mr. Madison's views, as stated in his debates, Elliot, V. 161.
[17] Connecticut, New Jersey, South Carolina, ay, 3; Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, no, 8.
[18] Mr. Wilson was in favor of this plan, and Mr. Madison seems to have favored it.
[19] Madison, Elliot, V. 170.
[20] Ante, Vol. I. Book I. ch. I. pp. 15-17.
[21] Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, ay, 7; New York, New Jersey, Delaware, no, 3; Maryland, divided.
[22] They contained 1,793,407 inhabitants; the other eight States had 1,845,595 when the federal census of 1790 was taken.
[23] See the census of 1790, post, p. 55.
[24] The population of the States was adopted in the committee of the whole, instead of their quotas of contribution, which, in one or another form, was the alternative proposition. The slaves were included, in a proportion accounted for in the text, as a part of the aggregate population; and it was not until a subsequent stage of the proceedings that this result was defended on the ground of their forming part of the aggregate wealth of the State.
[25] Ante, Vol. I. Book II. ch. III. p. 213, note 2, where the origin of the proportion of three fifths is explained.
[26] By Mr. Sherman and Mr. Ellsworth.
[27] Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, ay, 6; Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, no, 5. Elliot, V. 182.
[28] Madison, Elliot, V. 139.
[29] Mr. Madison, Mr. Wilson, Mr. C. Pinckney, Mr. Dickinson. On the other hand, Mr. Williamson, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Bedford, and Mr. Butler strenuously opposed this plan.
[30] Accordingly, a proposition to extend the negative on State legislation to all cases received the votes of three States only, viz. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.