trust, sir, our political hemisphere will ever direct their operations to the security of those objects.

Consider our situation, sir. Go to the poor man and ask him what he does. He will inform you that he enjoys the fruits of his labor, under his own fig tree, with his wife and children around him, in peace and security. Go to every other member of society; you will find the same tranquil ease and content; you will find no alarms or disturbances. Why, then, tell us of danger, to terrify us into an adoption of this new form of government? And yet who knows the dangers that this new system may produce? They are put out of the sight of the common people, who cannot foresee latent consequences. I dread the operation of it on the middle and lower classes of people; it is for them I fear the adoption of this system.

III. THE PRESIDENT A KING

Henry sees great jeopardy in the Constitution, because the President, as commander in chief of the army, may easily become king and "render himself absolute."

I fear I tire the patience of the committee; but I beg to be indulged with a few more observations. When I thus profess myself an advocate for the liberty of the people, I shall be told I am a designing man, that I am to be a demagogue. But, sir, conscious rectitude outweighs those things with me. I see great jeopardy in this new government. I see none from our present one. I hope some gentleman or other will bring forth in full array those dangers, if there be any, that we may see and touch them.

This Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features, sir, they appear to me to be horribly frightful. Among other deformities it has an awful squinting; it squints toward monarchy; and does not this raise indignation in the breast of every true American ?

Your President may easily become king. Your Senate is so imperfectly constructed that your dearest rights may be sacrificed by what may be a small minority, and a very small minority may

continue forever unchangeably this government, although horribly defective. Where are your checks in this government? Your strongholds will be in the hands of your enemies. It is on a supposition that your American governors shall be honest that all the good qualities of this government are founded; but its defective and imperfect construction puts it in their power to perpetrate the worst of mischiefs, should they be bad men; and, sir, would not all the world, from the eastern to the western hemisphere, blame our distracted folly in resting our rights upon the contingency of our rulers being good or bad? Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt.

If your American chief be a man of ambition and abilities, how easy it is for him to render himself absolute! The army is in his hands, and if he be a man of address it will be attached to him, and it will be the subject of long meditation with him to seize the first auspicious moment to accomplish his design. And, sir, will the American spirit solely relieve you when this happens? I would rather infinitely — and I am sure most of this convention are of the same opinion have a king, lords, and commons, than a government so replete with such insupportable evils. If we make a king, we may prescribe the rules by which he shall rule his people, and interpose such checks as shall prevent him from infringing them; but the President, in the field at the head of his army, can prescribe the terms on which he shall reign master, so far that it will puzzle any American ever to get his neck from under the galling yoke. I cannot with patience think of this idea. If ever he violates the laws, one of two things will happen: he will come at the head of his army, to carry everything before him; or he will give bail, or do what Mr. Chief Justice will order him. If he be guilty, will not the recollection of his crimes teach him to make one bold push for the American throne? Will not the immense difference between being master of everything, and being ignominiously

tried and punished, powerfully excite him to make this bold push? But, sir, where is the existing force to punish him? Can he not at the head of his army beat down every opposition? Away with your President! We shall have a king! The army will salute him monarch! Your militia will leave you and assist in making him king, and fight against you! And what have you to oppose this force? What will become of you and your rights? Will not absolute despotism ensue?

What can be more defective than the clause concerning the elections? The control given to Congress over the time, place, and manner of holding elections will totally destroy the end of suffrage. The elections may be held at one place, and the most inconvenient in the state; or they may be at remote distances from those who have a right of suffrage. Hence nine out of ten must either not vote at all or vote for strangers; for the most influential characters will be applied to, to know who are the most proper to be chosen. I repeat, that the control of Congress over the manner of electing well warrants this idea. The natural consequence will be that this democratic branch will possess none of the public confidence; the people will be prejudiced against representatives chosen in such an injudicious manner. The proceedings in the northern conclave will be hidden from the yeomanry of this country. We are told that the yeas and nays shall be taken, and entered on the journals. This, sir, will avail nothing. It may be locked up in their chests, and concealed forever from the people; for they are not to publish what parts they think require secrecy. They may think, and will think, the whole requires it.

Another beautiful feature of this Constitution is the publication from time to time of the receipts and expenditures of the public money. This expression, from time to time, is very indefinite and indeterminate; it may extend to a century. Grant that any of them are wicked; they may squander the public money so as to ruin you, and yet this expression will give you no redress. I say they may ruin you; for where is the responsibility? The yeas and nays will show you nothing, unless they be fools as well as knaves; for, after

having wickedly trampled on the rights of the people, they would act like fools indeed, were they to publish and divulge their iniquity when they have it equally in their power to suppress and conceal it. Where is the responsibility - that leading principle in the British government? In that government a punishment certain and inevitable is provided; but in this there is no real, actual punishment for the grossest maladministration. They may go without punishment, though they commit the most outrageous violation on our immunities. That paper may tell me they will be punished. I ask, By what law? They must make the law, for there is no existing law to do it. What! will they make a law to punish themselves?

This, sir, is my great objection to the Constitution, that there is no true responsibility, and that the preservation of our liberty depends on the single chance of men being virtuous enough to make laws to punish themselves.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), the great advocate, Federalist, and statesman, was of Scotch-Huguenot parentage and was a native of the island of Nevis, of the West Indies. His early schooling, which

was to play so great a part in the life of one of the great leaders of the Revolution, was begun at Santa Cruz, where he learned to write and speak the French language fluently. Later he came under the tutelage of Dr. Knox, a Presbytcrian clergyman, under whose skillful training he advanced rapidly in his studies. During his employment in a countinghouse he pursued his studies still further in preparation for college. It was finally decided that he should come

to America to complete his education. Not yet sufficiently advanced to enter college, he was placed in a preparatory school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. From this time on, until he finished his college course, he had the best educational advantages offered to young men of that day. When prepared for college he applied for admission to Princeton, but on learning that he could not progress faster than his class he withdrew his application and entered King's College,