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As the president of the Constitutional Convention, George Washington rarely participated in the debates. However, when the Constitution headed to the states for approval, Washington took an active role in the ratification process. Before leaving Philadelphia for Virginia, Washington sent copies of the document to Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette, hoping for their support.
Washington also sent copies to Benjamin Harrison, Patrick Henry, and Edmund Randolph, the three most recent governors of Virginia who each had serious reservations about the Constitution. Once back home at Mount Vernon, Washington spent his mornings writing letters to political leaders throughout the nation, urging them to support the Constitution. At the same time, Washington knew that if the Constitution was adopted, he would most likely become the first President of the United States and be called away from his beloved estate.
In his correspondence, Washington clearly laid out the reasons why he believed the Constitution should be ratified. The unity of the nation had been sorely tested under the Articles of Confederation. Washington, in fact, feared the current government was so powerless that it would soon dissolve either from deteriorating support of the people or from the fact that states would no longer bother to send representatives to the Confederation Congress. While the Constitution was not perfect, it created a stronger central government that included a Congress with the power to tax, a President who would act as the nation’s chief executive, and a national court system. Washington urged people who had doubts about the Constitution to support it, reminding them that once it was approved it could be amended.
By defending the Constitution, Washington parted company with older revolutionaries such as George Mason, and allied himself with younger political leaders like James Madison. Washington opposed many of his fellow planters who believed the Constitution would destroy the republic. As Washington explained in a letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, he found it "a little strange that the men of large property in the south should be more afraid that the constitution should produce an aristocracy or a monarchy than the genuine democratical people of the east."1 Deeply in debt himself, Washington was also troubled that so many Virginians believed they had a better chance for prosperity in a weak nation rather than a strong one.
At the start of the ratification convention in Richmond in May of 1788, eight states had already approved the Constitution. While Washington did not attend the convention, he stayed in contact with Madison who defended the document in a series of brilliant debates. When the vote was finally taken on June 25, the Constitution was approved by a margin of 89 to 79.
Washington headed for a celebration in Alexandria, believing that Virginia had been the ninth state to approve the document. Even when news arrived that New Hampshire had approved the Constitution immediately before Virginia, the celebrations went on. Many people agreed with James Monroe, that Washington’s influence had "carried this government."2 But a more humble Washington believed that "Providence" had once again smiled on the American people.3
Mary Stockwell, Ph.D.
Notes:
1. "George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, 19 June 1788," quoted in Joseph Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 181.
2. "James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1788," quoted in Ron Chernow, George Washington: A Life (New York: Penguin Press, 2010), 546.
3. "George Washington to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 28 June 1788," quoted in Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, Volume Six, Patriot and President (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954), 140.
Bibliography:
Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. New York: Penguin Press, 2010.
Ellis, Joseph. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography, Volume Six, Patriot and President. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1954.
Maier, Pauline. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
NOTE TO READERS
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The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The United States Constitution that emerged from the convention established a federal government with more specific powers, including those related to conducting relations with foreign governments. Under the reformed federal system, many of the responsibilities for foreign affairs fell under the authority of an executive branch, although important powers, such as treaty ratification, remained the responsibility of the legislative branch. After the necessary number of state ratifications, the Constitution came into effect in 1789 and has served as the basis of the United States Government ever since.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government faced many challenges in conducting foreign policy, largely due to its inability to pass or enforce laws that individual states found counter to their interests. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American War of Independence, stipulated that debts owed by Americans to British subjects were to be honored, and also stipulated that former British loyalists could bring forth suits in U.S. courts to recover confiscated property. These provisions were unpopular and many states blocked their enforcement. This led to British refusal to vacate military forts in U.S. territory. Additionally, after the war, British traders flooded U.S. markets with British goods, to the detriment of American importers and manufacturers. The Confederation Congress lacked the authority to regulate this trade, and intrastate trade was further hampered by states’ own attempts to impose import duties on goods from elsewhere in the United States. Lastly, the Spanish Government, which controlled New Orleans, barred American ships from navigating the Mississippi River. Southern delegates to the Confederation Congress wanted to lift this ban, while coastal merchants, especially in the northeast, were willing to make concessions in exchange for a treaty with otherwise favorable commercial terms. The large majorities necessary for ratification of such measures under the Articles of Confederation often resulted in the deadlock along sectional lines between North and South.
In attempting to resolve such issues, as well as problems arising from the payment of debts from the Revolutionary War and other domestic issues, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention created a model of government that relied upon a series of checks and balances by dividing federal authority between the Legislative, the Judicial, and the Executive branches of government. The framers of the Constitution had originally imagined a weak presidency and a strong legislature divided into a House of Representatives and the Senate. Under the Articles of Confederation, considerable minor paperwork had bogged down important business enough that legislators decided to establish an executive branch to deal with routine paperwork. When writing the Constitution, the framers expected the Senate to handle important issues, particularly the ratification of treaties, while the Executive would attend to matters of lesser consequence. However, as deliberations continued, the Executive branch acquired more power to deal with some of the issues that had been a source of sectional tension under the Articles of Confederation—and so the President acquired the authority to conduct foreign relations. The two-thirds clause for ratification of treaties in the Senate, as opposed to a simple majority, allowed the South a greater voice in these matters and assuaged concerns about the attempts to abandon navigation of the Mississippi.
The Constitution does not stipulate existence of departments within the executive branch, but the need for such departments was recognized immediately. Congress passed legislation creating the Department of Foreign Affairs in its first session in 1789, and in the same year changed the name to the Department of State after it added several additional domestic duties to the Department.
After the ratification of the Constitution in 1789, the machinery of state had been designed, but not yet tested and put to use. The provisions for management of foreign affairs would be put to the test in 1794, when the Senate had the opportunity to accept or reject the controversial treaty with Great Britain negotiated by John Jay.