03: The New Nation

Whither shall the coloured emigrants go? And the sooner we put some plan under way, the greater hope there is that it may be permitted to proceed peaceably to it’s ultimate effect. But if something is not done, and soon done, we shall be the murderers of our own children.

the revolutionary storm now sweeping the globe will be upon us,

My opinion was never worthy enough of notice to merit citing:<a class="ptr" id="TSJN-01-14-0427-fn-0002-ptr" href="#TSJN-01-14-0427-fn-0002" title="jump to note 2">2</a> but since you ask it I will tell it you.

If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.

My great wish is to go on in a strict but silent performance of my duty: to avoid attracting notice and to keep my name out of newspapers, because I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

It seemed necessary, for the security of property among uninformed, and perhaps licentious people, as the greater part of those who go there are, that a strong toned government should exist, and the rights of property be clearly defined. Our next object, is to consider of a proposition made for the purchase of 5 or 6 millions of Acres, in order to lessen the domestic debt. An object of much consequence this, since the <a id="GEWN-04-05-02-pb-0259"></a> extinguishment of this part of the public debt would not only relieve from a very heavy burthen, but by demolishing the Ocean of public Securities, we should stop that mischievous deluge of speculation that now hurts our morals, and extremely injures the public affairs.

At least appearances are against it at present Time will discover whether our Union is natural; or rather whether the Dispositions &amp; Views of the several Parts of the Continent are so similar as that they can &amp; will be happy under the same Form of Government.— There is too much Reason to beleive they are not—

What the result will be, of retaining your public securities, is a thing of great uncertainty upon which opinions are very different: Unless there be a quiet and peaceable transition from the present american government, into another more powerful and independent of the people, the public debts and even private debts will in my opinion be extinguished by acts of the several Legislatures of the several states.

If the proposed constitution be agreed to, and the administration be mild, just and wise, if it be so conducted as to engage the affections of the people, the public securities will appretiate and in a few years perhaps, be of considerable value.

His picture of Sarah delivering Agar to Abraham is delicious. I would have agreed to have been Abraham though the consequence would have been that I should have been dead five or six thousand years

The letter printed below, running to seventeen manuscript pages, contains JM’s detailed explanation of that opinion and reveals that the man who later became an indefatigable publicist in support of the new Constitution was in fact profoundly disappointed with the results of the convention.

M’s essays in <span style="font-style: italic">The Federalist</span> are an incomplete statement of his political thought. One must turn to this letter to Jefferson to observe the full scope of his ideas.

The question with regard to the Negative underwent repeated discussions, and was finally rejected by a bare majority. As I formerly intimated to you my opinion in favor of this ingredient, I will take this occasion of explaining myself on the subject. Such a check on the States appears to me necessary 1. to prevent encroachments on the General authority. 2. to prevent instability and injustice in the legislation of the States.<a class="ptr" id="JSMN-01-10-02-0151-fn-0008-ptr" href="#JSMN-01-10-02-0151-fn-0008" title="jump to note 8">8</a>

A constitutional negative on the laws of the States seems equally necessary to secure individuals agst. encroachments on their rights.<a class="ptr" id="JSMN-01-10-02-0151-fn-0011-ptr" href="#JSMN-01-10-02-0151-fn-0011" title="jump to note 11">11</a> The mutability of the laws of the States is found to be a serious evil. The injustice of them has been so frequent and so flagrant as to alarm the most stedfast friends of Republicanism. I am persuaded I do not err in saying that the evils issuing from these sources contributed more to that uneasiness which produced the Convention, and prepared the public mind for a general reform, than those which accrued to our national character and interest from the inadequacy of the Confederation to its immediate objects.

I am fully convinced that your Opinion is a just and political one, that congress can do all that a convention can, and certainly with more safety to original principles—

I suppose to be self-evident, ‘<span style="font-style: italic">that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living</span>’: that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it