More than 210 years after its ratification, the U.S. Constitution appears relatively sturdy, current shenanigans in Washington notwithstanding.
That?s why it?s interesting to read accounts of just how close individual states came to rejecting the document. One such account is Bruce Chadwick?s Triumvirate: The Story of the Unlikely Alliance That Saved the Constitution and United the Nation.
After 10 other states (former British colonies) already had accepted the Constitution, New York delegates voted 30-27 in July 1788 to accept the document. Chadwick tells us that four other potential ?no? votes had left the constitutional ratification convention and skipped the final decision.
Would the vote have been different if New Hampshire and Virginia [the ninth and 10th votes for ratification] had not yet affirmed the Constitution? If anyone else besides Hamilton and Jay had led the fight for the Constitution? If the Antis had not been put under pressure from their colleagues in New York City? If New York City men had not threatened to secede from New York State? If Hamilton had not been so energetic? Or Jay that charming? If the four Anti delegates had not left? If the convention had not been held with the Fourth of July taking place in the middle of it?
As Chadwick says in the next sentence, ?No one will ever know,? but we do know that the fear of an unchecked national government caused many New Yorkers ? and many North Carolinians and other Americans ? to view the Constitution with suspicion.
Though we can thank Chadwick for reminding us of this fact, please don?t take this blog entry as an endorsement of the book. Numerous minor and occasional major factual errors plague the work. Without going into great detail, I?ll name just a couple.
First, Chadwick at one point names Madison as principal author of The Federalist, when Hamilton is generally acknowledged as having written 51 of the 85 essays. Second, and more disturbing, Chadwick repeatedly refers to the Triumvirate of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay as if it were a formal partnership overseeing Federalist efforts to secure the Constitution?s ratification throughout the 13 colonies.
A reader with no previous knowledge of the debates of 1787-88 might infer from the book that all efforts to win support for the nation?s new governing document flowed from some master plan developed by Chadwick?s Triumvirate. Other recent books offer a better description of the actual proceedings that led to our current system of government.