It has been said that “money is the root of all evil.” However, the original saying was quite different, and often overlooked. The original version is found in the book of Timothy in the New Testament of the Bible and reads, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” It is an important distinction. One is about greed, the other is about a medium of exchange and a common measure of value. Simply put, money buys things. It buys food, clothes, animals, land, services of carpenters and coopers, and a myriad of necessities and luxuries of life. It is used by government to build armies, equip navies, and pay tax collectors, judges, and others in government service. Money is important, even if the love of money can be ruinous.
Like people and businesses, government needs money to operate, but government does not create goods or services for people to buy. Its primary source of money is taxation. The power to tax is so powerful, it can destroy. Excessive and unfair taxation has toppled kings and empires. It was the cause de celebre that provoked the American colonies to revolt against Britain. The inability of Congress to adequately fund the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War was due to its lack of authority to tax.
The power of the proposed national government to tax is a critical issue, now beginning to attract the attention of delegates, albeit wrapped in the controversy over representation. Today, Elbridge Gerry proposed that “direct taxation shall be assessed on the inhabitants of the several States according to the number of their representatives in the first branch.” Hearing objections to “inhabitants,” he modified his motion to “authorize the assessment on the States.” The motion was approved by a vote of 5 – 4 - 1, reflecting the continued bitter division on representation, but the “power of the purse” is essential to any functional government and will, of necessity, soon be addressed.
Last Saturday, the Convention approved Edmund Randolph’s motion to “authorize the legislature to adjust from time to time the representation upon the principles of wealth and numbers of inhabitants.” This afternoon, he moved to strike the word “wealth,” leaving population, including the three-fifths clause, as the sole criterion for representation in the first, or lower, branch of the legislature.
Gouverneur Morris objected instantly. “If Negroes are to be as inhabitants and the revision is to proceed on the principle of number of inhabitants, they ought to be added in their entire numbers and not in the proportion of 3/5,” he insisted. “If as property, the word ‘wealth’ is right, and striking it out would produce the very inconsistency which it was meant to get rid of.” Until now, Morris had thought the distinction between northern and southern States was groundless. However, he now “sees that it is persisted in, and the southern gentlemen will not be satisfied unless they see the way open to their gaining a majority in the public councils.”
Increasingly impatient with parochial bickering, Morris laid down the gauntlet. Prepared now to support equality in the Senate to “provide some defense for the northern States,” he declared, “either this distinction is fictitious or real; if fictitious let it be dismissed and let us proceed with due confidence. If it be real, instead of attempting to blend incompatible things, let us at once take a friendly leave of each other. There can be no end of demands for security if every particular interest is to be entitled to it.”
Morris continued by asking and answering his own question. “In this struggle between the two ends of the Union, what part ought the Middle States in point of policy to take? To join their eastern brethren according to my ideas!”
Morris wasn’t finished. The delegates are well aware of the hotly contested negotiations between the United States and Spain over navigation rights on the Mississippi River. Morris did not hesitate to use it. The west is primarily linked to large States. What if the southern States get power into their hands and “be joined, as they will be, with the interior country,” he demanded. “They will inevitably bring on a war with Spain for the Mississippi. The interior country, having no property nor interest exposed on the sea, will be little affected by such a war. What security will the northern and middle States have against this danger?”
Pierce Butler was equally blunt and used few words to get his point across. “The security the southern States want is that their negroes may not be taken from them, which some gentlemen within or without doors, have a very good mind to do.”
Tempers were escalating. James Wilson rose from his seat, hoping to cool the hot rhetoric. “Conceiving that all men, wherever placed, have equal rights and are equally entitled to confidence,” he began, “I view without apprehension the period when a few States should contain the superior number of people. The majority of people wherever found ought in all questions to govern the minority. If the interior country should acquire this majority, they will not only have the right, but will avail themselves of it whether we will it or no.”
It was this kind of jealousy of power that Great Britain had with regard to America, believing the colonies were growing too fast and their growth needed to be stunted, he said. “What were the consequences? First, enmity on our part, then actual separation. Like consequences will result on the part of the interior settlements, if like jealousy and policy be pursued on ours.” Returning specifically to the main issue of representation and the motion before them, Wilson probed further, “If numbers be not a proper rule, why is not some better rule pointed out? No one has yet ventured to attempt it. Congress have never been able to discover a better. No State as far as I have heard, has suggested any other.”
Finally, Wilson concluded he “could not agree that property is the sole or the primary object of government and society,” as other gentlemen had asserted. “The cultivation and improvement of the human mind is the most noble object…as well as other personal rights.” Randolph’s motion to strike “wealth” as a criterion for representation in the lower branch passed 9 – 0 – 1. Delaware was divided.