University of Virginia Library

TO JOHN G. JACKSON.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of the 9th came to hand
a few days ago only; and the usages of the season,
with some additional incidents have not allowed
me time for more promptly acknowledging its
friendly contents.

You were right in supposing that some arrangement
of the Mass of papers accumulated through a
long course of public life would require a tedious
attention after my final return to a private station.
I regret to say that concurring circumstances have
essentially interfered with the execution of the task.
Becoming every day more & more aware of the
danger of a failure from delay, I have at length set
about it in earnest; and shall continue the application
as far as health and indispensable avocations
will permit.

With respect to that portion of the Mass which
contains the voluminous proceedings of the Convention,
it has always been my intention that they
should, some day or other, see the light. But I have
always felt at the same time the delicacy attending
such a use of them; especially at an early season.

In general I have leaned to the expediency of letting
the publication be a posthumous one. The result
of my latest reflections on the subject, I cannot
more conveniently explain, than by the inclosed
extract from a letter[27] confidentially written since
the appearance of the proceedings of the Convention
as taken from the notes of Chf . Justc. Yates.

Of this work I have not yet seen a copy. From
the scraps thrown into the Newspapers I cannot
doubt that the prejudices of the author guided his
pen, and that he has committed egregious errors at
least, in relation to others as well as myself.

That most of us carried into the Convention a
profound impression produced by the experienced
inadequacy of the old Confederation, and by the
monitory examples of all similar ones ancient &
modern, as to the necessity of binding the States

together by a strong Constitution, is certain. The
necessity of such a Constitution was enforced by
the gross and disreputable inequalities which had
been prominent in the internal administrations of
most of the States. Nor was the recent & alarming
insurrection headed by Shays, in Massachusetts
without a very sensible effect on the pub. mind.
Such indeed was the aspect of things that in the eyes
of all the best friends of liberty a crisis had arrived
which was to decide whether the Amn. Experiment
was to be a blessing to the world, or to blast forever
the hopes which the republican cause had inspired;
and what is not to be overlooked the disposition
to give to a new system all the vigour consistent
with Republican principles, was not a little stimulated
by a backwardness in some quarters towards
a Convention for the purpose, which was ascribed
to a secret dislike to popular Govt. and a hope that
delay would bring it more into disgrace, and pave
the way for a form of Govt. more congenial with
Monarchical or Aristocratical Predilections.

This view of the crisis made it natural for many
in the Convention to lean more than was perhaps
in strictness warranted by a proper distinction
between causes temporary as some of them doubtless
were, and causes permanently inherent in popular
frames of Gov.t. It is true also, as has been sometimes
suggested that in the course of discussions in
the Convention, where so much depended on compromise,
the patrons of different opinions often

set out on negotiating grounds more remote from
each other, than the real opinions of either were from
the point at which they finally met.

For myself, having from the first moment of
maturing a political opinion down to the present
one, never ceased to be a votary of the principle of
self Govt., I was among those most anxious to rescue
it from the danger which seemed to threaten it;
and with that view was willing to give to a Govt.
resting on that foundation, as much energy as would
insure the requisite stability and efficacy. It is
possible that in some instances this consideration
may have been allowed a weight greater than subsequent
reflection within the Convention, or the actual
operation of the Govt. would sanction. It may be
remarked also that it sometimes happened that
opinions as to a particular modification or a particular
power of the Govt. had a conditional reference
to others which combined therewith would vary
the character of the whole.

But whatever might have been the opinions
entertained in forming the Constitution, it was the
duty of all to support it in its true meaning as
understood by the nation at the time of its ratification.
No one felt this obligation more than I have
done; and there are few perhaps whose ultimate
& deliberate opinions on the merits of the Constitution
accord in a greater degree with that Obligation.

The departures from the true & fair construction
of the instrument have always given me pain, and
always experienced my opposition when called for.

The attempts in the outset of the Govt. to defeat
those safe, if not necessary, & those politic if not
obligatory amendments introduced in conformity
to the known desires of the Body of the people, & to
the pledges of many, particularly myself when vindicating
& recommending the Constitution, was an
occurrence not a little ominous. And it was soon
followed by indications of political tenets, and by
rules, or rather the abandonment of all rules of
expounding it, wch. were capable of transforming
it into something very different from its legitimate
character as the offspring of the National Will.
I wish I could say that constructive innovations
had altogether ceased.

Whether the Constitution, as it has divided the
powers of Govt. between the States in their separate
& in their united Capacities, tends to an oppressive
aggrandizement of the Genl. Govt. or to an Anarchical
Independence of the State Govts. is a problem which
time alone can absolutely determine. It is much
to be wished that the division as it exists, or may
be made with the regular sanction of the people,
may effectually guard agst. both extremes; for it
cannot be doubted that an accumulation of all
Power in the Genl. Govt. wd. as naturally lead to a
dangerous accumulation in the Executive hands,
as that the resumption of all power by the several
States wd. end in the calamities incident to contiguous
& rival Sovereigns; to say nothing of its effect in
lessening the security for sound principles of administration
within each of them.

There have been epochs when the Genl. Govt. was
evidently drawing a disproportion of power into
its vortex. There have been others when States
threatened to do the same. At the present moment
it wd. seem that both are aiming at encroachments,
each on the other. One thing however is certain,
that in the present condition and temper of the
Community, the Genl. Govt. cannot long succeed in
encroachments contravening the will of a Majority
of the States, and of the people. Its responsibility
to these wd., as was proved on a conspicuous occasion,
quickly arrest its career. If, at this time, the powers
of the Genl. Govt. be carried to unconstitutional
lengths, it will be the result of a majority of the
States & of the people, actuated by some impetuous
feeling, or some real or supposed interest, overruling
the minority, and not of successful attempts by the
Genl. Govt. to overpower both.

In estimating the greater tendency in the political
System of the Union to a subversion, or to a separation
of the States composing it, there are some considerations
to be taken into the account which have
been little Adverted to by the most oracular Authors
on the Science of Govt. and which are but imperfectly
developed as yet by our own experience. Such
are the size of the States, the number of them, the
territorial extent of the whole, and the degree of
external danger. Each of these, I am persuaded,
will be found to contribute its impulse to the practical
direction which our great Political Machine
is to take.

We learn, for the first time, the second loss sustained
by your parental affection. You will not
doubt the sincerity with which we partake the grief
produced by both. I wish we could offer better
consolations, than the condoling expressions of it.
These must be derived from other sources. Afflictions
of every kind are the onerous conditions
charged on the tenure of life; and it is a silencing
if not a satisfactory vindication of the ways of
Heaven to man that there are but few who do not
prefer an acquiescence in them to a surrender of
the tenure itself.

We have had for a great part of the last & present
years, much sickness in our own family, and among
the black members of it not a little mortality. Mrs.
Madison & Payne [Todd] were so fortunate as to
escape altogether. I was one of the last attacked
& that not dangerously. The disease was a typhoid
fever, at present we are all well & unite in every
good wish to Mrs. J & yourself & to Mary, & the
rest of your family.