Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/298

 JAMES WILSON — NATION BUILDER member of the American Philosophical Society, and on July 7, 1789, was elected an honorary member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. He was an asso ciate of Benjamin Franklin, serving with him in many organizations and on numer ous committees, and when Franklin was unable to speak in the United States Con stitutional Convention, it was to Wilson he sent his manuscript with the request that he would read his views. It was also to Wilson that that brilliant politician and leader of men, Alexander Hamilton, turned for help in the effort to elect George Wash ington President of the United States, send ing him on January 25, 1789, this letter,1 which has not as yet found a place in any of the many editions of Hamilton's writings : "A degree of anxiety about a matter of importance to the new government induces me to trouble you with this letter. I mean the election of the President. We all feel of how much moment it is that Washington should be the man; and I aver I cannot think there is material room to doubt that this will be the unanimous sense. But as a failure in this object would be attended with the worst consequences, I cannot help con cluding that even possibilities should be guarded against. "Everybody is aware of that defect in the constitution which renders it possible that the man intended for Vice-President may in fact turn up President. Everybody sees that the unanimity in Adams as VicePresident and a few votes insidiously with held from Washington might substitute the former to the latter. And everybody must perceive that there is something to fear from the machinations of Anti-federal malig nity. What in this situation is wise? By my accounts from the North, I have every reason to believe that Adams will run there universally. I learn that he is equally espoused in Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Dela ware and that Maryland is not disinclined to him. I hear of no persons thought of to the South, but Rutledge in South Carolina and Clinton in Virginia. As the accounts of 1 In the possession of Mr. Israel W. Morris, of Philadelphia, executor of Wilson's last surviving •descendant, a granddaughter, Miss Emily Hollings•worth.

271

the appointments of electors will satisfy the partisans of those Gentlemen in each of those states, that they will have no coad jutors elsewhere, it seems not improbable that they will relinquish the attempt in favor of their intended candidates. Here then is a chance of unanimity in Adams. Nothing is so apt to beget it as the opinion that the current sets irresistibly towards him. Men are fond of going with the stream. Suppose personal caprice or hostility to the new system should occasion half a dozen votes only to be withheld from Washington — what may not happen? Grant there is little danger. If any, ought it to be run? "The votes from New Hampshire to Delaware inclusively, and exclusive of New York, are 41, south of Delaware, 32. Here, supposing equal unanimity on each side in a different candidate, the chance is that there will be Eight votes to spare from Adams, leaving him still a majority. Take the probability of unanimity in the North in Adams and of division in the South be tween different candidates, and the chances are almost infinite in his favor. Hence I conclude it will be prudent to throw away a few votes, say 7 or 8, giving these to persons not otherwise thought of. Under this im pression I have proposed to friends in Con necticut to throw away two, to others in Jersey to throw away an equal number, and I submit it to you whether it will not be well to lose three or four in Pennsylvania. Your advices from the South will serve you as the best guide; but for God's sake let not our zeal for a secondary object defeat or endanger a first. I admit that in several important views, and particularly to avoid disgust to a man who would be a formidable head to Antifoederalists — it is much to be desired that Adams may have the plurality of suffrage for Vice-President; but if risk is to be run on one side or on the other can we hesitate where it - ought to be pre ferred? "If there appears to you to be any danger, will it not be well for you to write to Mary land to qualify matters there? "Yrs sincerely and affec'ly "A. Hamilton." In January, 1789, Wilson was elected at the head of the Pennsylvania electoral ticket, and the deliberations of the first electoral college resulted in George Wash ington triumphing over Adams and being