Observations on the New Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions, by a Columbian Patriot

Observations on the New Constitution, and on the

Mercy Otis Warren, writing as "A Columbian Patriot," argues against ratification of the proposed federal Constitution, framing government as instituted for the protection and happiness of the people, with ultimate power resting in the people's right to reject or revise the acts of their deputies. She charges that partisans of arbitrary power are using insidious arts to push the country into accepting a "complicated system of government" that mixes republican, monarchical, and aristocratic features without honest discussion, noting that even the term "Federal Republic" was coined by Mr. Wilson only because no one dared call the new system a monarchy, aristocracy, or oligarchy outright. She then lists eighteen specific objections. Among them: the change from annual to biennial elections removes the responsibility that frequent elections secure, comparing the Massachusetts Convention's advocates to Mr. Hutchinson's earlier scheme (described in a letter to Lord Hillsborough) to lengthen terms against the people's wishes; the system offers no security for liberty of conscience or the press; judiciary powers are left undefined and dangerous; executive and legislative powers are improperly blended; trial by jury in civil causes is abolished, a right traced to Saxon ancestors and defended by Blackstone and Sir Matthew Hale; a standing army, defended by Mr. Wilson, threatens liberty and puts the militia under the control of the President and Senate for foreign treaty obligations; the guarantee of republican government to the states is empty since Congress monopolizes revenue; Congress can set its own salaries without restraint; there is no rotation in office; citizens can be dragged to distant courts under the Supreme Federal Court's appellate jurisdiction; representation of one per thirty thousand inhabitants is inadequate; the electoral college (only ten electors in this State) effectively excludes the people from choosing the chief magistrate; a Senate elected for six years amounts to appointment for life; there is no bill of rights, including no protection against warrants unsupported by evidence, recalling the hated writs of assistance; a single legislature cannot adequately govern territory from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, echoing Hutchinson's own admission that one government over such an expanse was impracticable; no legislature authorized its convention delegates to do more than amend the existing confederation, yet they produced a wholly new consolidated system; ratification by only nine states threatens the union of all thirteen; and the Constitution was pushed on the people without prior review by Congress or the state legislatures. Warren recounts the secrecy of the Philadelphia Convention, including the prohibition on members corresponding with others about the proceedings, corroborated by Mr. Martin of Maryland, who objected to being barred from consulting outside opinion or taking copies of the Journals. She reviews the ratification status state by state: Massachusetts narrowly assented after being lulled with promises of future amendments; Virginia, with a Governor who thinks for himself, had not yet acted; Maryland was expected to reject it; Georgia acceded from fear of war with the Indigenous nations; Pennsylvania adopted it amid riots and effigy-burnings; New Jersey and Delaware joined from self-interest tied to the future federal city; Connecticut rushed it through from resentment toward a sister state; New York was expected to refuse; and the fate of the Carolinas, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island remained undetermined, with she hoping these states might yet force a second general convention. She closes by warning against monarchy and aristocracy alike as foes to public virtue, invoking examples such as Cato, Padilla, and Tell, and urging that if the people do choose to surrender their liberties after fair deliberation, those who love freedom should still strive for peace, while retreating in spirit to philosophic contemplation of the rise and fall of governments.

By Mercy Otis Warren · First published 1788 · Genre: Political Essay, Polemics, Political Pamphlet · 7,663 words

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All writers on government agree, and the feelings of the human mind witness the truth of these political axioms, that man is born free and possessed of certain unalienable rights -- that government is instituted for the protection, safety and happiness of the people, and not for the profit, honour, or private interest of any man, family, or class of men -- That the origin of all power is in the people, and that they have an incontestible right to check the creatures of their own creation, vested with certain powers to guard the life, liberty and property of the community: And if certain selected bodies of men, deputed on these principles, determine contrary to the wishes and expectations of their constituents, the people have an undoubted right to reject their decisions, to call for a revision of their conduct, to depute others in their room, or if they think proper, to demand further time for deliberation on matters of the greatest moment: it therefore is an unwarrantable stretch of authority or influence, if any methods are taken to preclude this reasonable and peaceful mode of enquiry and decision. And it is with inexpressible anxiety, that many of the best friends of the Union of the States -- to the peaceable and equal participation of the rights of nature, and to the glory and dignity of this country, behold the insidious arts, and the strenuous efforts of the partisans of arbitrary power, by their vague definitions of the best established truths, endeavoring to envelope the mind in darkness the concomitant of slavery, and to lock the strong chains of domestic despotism on a country, which by the most glorious and successful struggles is but newly emancipated from the spectre of foreign dominion.

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Federal Constitution · Constitutional ratification · Anti-Federalism · State sovereignty · Separation of powers · Trial by jury · Standing armies · Aristocracy · Monarchy · Tyranny · Liberty · Republican government

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