University of Virginia Library

TO JAMES HILLHOUSE.

Dear Sir—I have received your letter of the
10th inst: with the pamphlet containing the proposed
amendments of the Constitution of the U. States,
on which you request my opinion & remarks.[112]

Whatever pleasure might be felt in a fuller compliance
with your request, I must avail myself of the
pleas of the age I have reached, and of the controul of
other engagements, for not venturing on more than
the few observations suggested by a perusal of what
you have submitted to the public.

I readily acknowledge the ingenuity which devised
the plan you recommend, and the strength of reasoning

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1.

• The first that occurs is, that the large States
  would not exchange the proportional agency they
  now have in the appointment of the Chief Magistrate,
  for a mode placing the largest & smallest States on
  a perfect equality in that cardinal transaction. N.
  York has in it, even now more than 13 times the
  weight of several of the States, and other States according
  to their magnitudes wd. decide on the
  change with correspondent calculations & feelings.

  The difficulty of reconciling the larger States to the
  equality in the Senate is known to have been the
  most threatning that was encountered in framing
  the Constitution. It is known also that the powers
  committed to that body, comprehending, as they do,
  Legislative, Ex. & Judicial functions, was among the
  most serious objections, with many, to the adoption
  of the Constitution.

2.

• As the President elect would generally be
  without any previous evidence of national confidence,
  and have been in responsible relations only to a
  particular State, there might be danger of State
  partialities, and a certainty of injurious suspicions
  of them.

3.

• Considering the ordinary composition of the
  Senate, and the number (in a little time nearly 50)
  out of which a single one was to be taken by pure
  chance; it must often happen, that the winner of the
  prize would want some of the qualities necessary
  to command the respect of the nation, and possibly be
  

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  marked with some of an opposite tendency. On
  a review of the composition of that Body thro' the
  successive periods of its existence, (antecedent to
  the present which may be an exception) how often
  will names present themselves, which would be
  seen with mortified feelings at the head of the
  nation. It might happen, it is true, that, in the
  choice of Senators, an eventual elevation to that
  important trust might produce more circumspection
  in the State Legislatures. But so remote a contingency
  could not be expected to have any great
  influence; besides that there might be States not
  furnishing at the time, characters which would
  satisfy the pride and inspire the confidence of the
  States & of the People.

4.

• A President not appointed by the nation and
  without the weight derived from its selection &
  confidence, could not afford the advantage expected
  from the qualified negative on the act of the Legislative
  branch of the Govt. He might either shrink
  from the delicacy of such an interposition, or it
  might be overruled with too little hesitation by the
  body checked in its career.

5.

• In the vicissitudes of party, adverse views &
  feelings will exist between the Senate & President.
  Under the amendments proposed, a spirit of opposition
  in the former to the latter would probably be
  more frequent than heretofore. In such a state of
  things, how apt might the Senate be to embarrass the
  President, by refusing to concur in the removal of
  an obnoxious officer; how prone would be a refractory
  

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  officer, having powerful friends in the Senate,
  to take shelter under that authority, & bid defiance
  to the President; and, with such discord and anarchy
  in the Ex. Department, how impaired would
  be the security for a due execution of the Laws!

6.

• On the supposition that the above objection
  would be overbalanced by the advantage of reducing
  the power and the patronage now attached
  to the Presidential office; it has generally been
  admitted, that the Heads of Depts. at least who
  are at once the associates & the organs of the
  Chief Magistrate, ought to be well disposed towards
  him, and not independent of him. What would
  be the situation of the President, and what might
  be the effect on the Executive business, if those
  immediately around him, and in daily consultation
  with him, could, however adverse to him in their
  feelings & their views, be fastened upon him, by a
  Senate disposed to take side with them? The
  harmony so expedient between the P. & Heads of
  Departments, and among the latter themselves, has
  been too liable to interruption under an organization
  apparently so well providing against it.

I am aware that some of these objections might
be mitigated, if not removed; but not I suspect in a
degree to render the proposed modification of the
Executive Department an eligible substitute for the
one existing. At the same time, I am duly sensible
of the evils incident to the existing one, and
that a solid improvement of it is a desideratum that
ought to be welcomed by all enlightened patriots.

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In the mean time, I cannot feel all the alarm you
express at the prospect for the future as reflected from
the mirror of the past. It will be a rare case that the
Presidential contest will not issue in a choice that
will not discredit the station, and not be acquiesced
in by the unsuccessful party, foreseeing, as it must
do, the appeal to be again made at no very distant
day to the will of the nation. As long as the country
shall be exempt from a military force powerful in
itself and combined with a powerful faction, liberty
& peace will find safeguards in the elective resource
and the spirit of the people. The dangers which
threaten our political system least remote are
perhaps of other sorts and from other sources.

I will only add to these remarks, what is indeed
sufficiently evident, that they are too hasty & too
crude for any other than a private, and that an
indulgent eye.

Mrs. M. is highly gratified by your kind expressions
towards her, & begs you to be assured that she still
feels for you that affectionate friendship with which
you impressed her many years ago. Permit me
to join her in best wishes for your health & every
other happiness.