Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/335

 1787-89] Ratification followed by amendments. 303 required number of ratifying States. North Carolina at first refused, by a large majority, to ratify, though she did not reject, the Constitution ; but a later convention of the State accepted it on November 21, 1789. Meantime, on April 30 of the same year, Washington had been in- augurated President; the people of eleven States having at that time ratified the action of the Convention. Opposition to the Constitution was based on various grounds. A few persons wished for monarchy ; but these were out of touch with the people, and neither made nor sought to make headway. Many opposed a general union altogether, preferring a division of the States into three or more confederacies ; some would have things as they were ; some would have no union at all. It was commonly asserted and believed that the leaders of these classes were in general restless, ambitious men, who hoped to make gain for themselves out of disruption and saw little to hope for under a stable government. In some States, these men, taking up the watchword " liberty ," which the masses passionately worshipped, spread the cry everywhere, and swept most of the common people into the ranks of discontent and opposition. Others opposed the Constitution for what they deemed its shortcomings; it had failed to promote cherished principles or projects. The absence of a Bill of Rights was one of the chief objections thus raised ; the absence of a declaration in favour of freedom of religious worship was another ; the absence of a provision for general trial by jury created widespread distrust; the absence of any reference to the interests of the western regions in the free navigation of the Mississippi was made a most serious cause of offence in States, such as Virginia, which had territory extending to that river. Amendments were accordingly demanded on every side; and the thoroughgoing foes of the Constitution, in order to defeat it entirely, declared and insisted that these ought to be made before it was adopted. With a new convention everything would be thrown open again. The friends of the Constitution set forth the dangers of such a course in the strongest light. Their arguments prevailed with a sufficient number, and amendments were put off until after ratification; but they were called for in the Acts ratifying the Constitution. It does not fall within the purpose of these pages to speak hi particular of the State conventions; of the great struggle in Massa- chusetts ; of the fight made by Patrick Henry in Virginia against the Constitution at every point ; of the matchless skill put forth in defence of the Constitution, first in the Federalist and then in the Convention of New York, by Alexander Hamilton, youngest and greatest man of them all. Enough to say, that argument prevailed over argument, and that the Constitution was everywhere ratified on its merits. Twelve amendments to the Constitution were proposed at the first session of the new Congress, in the spring of 1789. Ten of these were CH. VIII.