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Convention: A Daily Journal

Center for Civics Education

Convention: A Daily Journal

Convention: A Daily Journal is a day-by-day journal of the 1787 Constitutional Convention convened by twelve of the original thirteen states to amend the Articles of Confederation and create a “more perfect union.” It chronicles the daily activities of the Convention, profiles the delegates and their interactions with each other, and looks back to life in America in the 1780s. Writing in the first person, the story is told from an “observer” hearing events as told in contemporary newspaper accounts and delegates’ personal notes and letters.


Monday, June 18, 1787

June 18, 2020 - 4 minute read


Alexander Hamilton

Consideration of the contrasting principles embodied in the Virginia and New Jersey plans began in earnest on Saturday. Twice, debate has been postponed, giving delegates time to review what has been presented to them. When James Wilson rose to compare the two plans point by point, he was well prepared and delivered a thorough and comprehensive rebuttal to the author of the New Jersey Plan. The exchange between Wilson and William Paterson had been intense. Sunday offered delegates a time to reflect, cool off, and ponder the weighty issues before them.  

Delegates on both sides undoubtedly feel the weight of their decisions. The near-bankrupt Confederation Congress looms ever in their minds. The impotency of the national government in the face of Shay’s Rebellion, as well as that of the Massachusetts government, pervades conversations both public and private. Above all, they are mindful that “we are providing a Constitution for future generations and not merely for the circumstances of the moment.” Wilson is not alone in this sentiment. John Rutledge declared, “as we are laying the foundation for a great empire, we ought to take a permanent view of the subject and not look at the present only.”

Today, however, the debate did not resume as expected. Instead, Alexander Hamilton took the floor and held it for nearly six hours, disparaging both plans before them and presenting his own.  Other than participating on the committee which drafted the rules for the Convention, he has been uncharacteristically silent. According to James Madison, it may have been due “partly from respect to others whose superior abilities, age and experience render him unwilling to bring forward ideas dissimilar to theirs, and partly from his delicate situation with respect to his own State, to whose sentiments as expressed by his colleagues he could by no means accede.” 

Hamilton is one of the youngest members of the Convention, but he had wholly proved himself in the Revolutionary War as George Washington’s military aide, crossing the Delaware River on Christmas 1776, enduring the bitter months at Valley Forge, and leading a command at Yorktown. He represents New York in the Confederation, has earned a reputation as an excellent writer and lawyer, and is among the most well-known of the delegates. However, he can be “stiff…with a degree of vanity that is highly disagreeable.”

 Born in about 1755 on the remote island of Nevis in the West Indies, Hamilton arrived in New York City when he was seventeens years old, bearing letters of introduction. Arrangements were made for his housing and education, including studying law under William Livingston, also a delegate to this Convention. Hostilities against the British broke out while he was a student at King’s College (later Columbia University), inspiring him to write widely read pamphlets and enlisting for military service, becoming an indispensable aide and confidante to General George Washington. Their close friendship continues.

 In 1780, Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of wealthy and powerful Philip Schuyler, a general in the Revolutionary War and leader of patriots in New York. In 1777, Schuyler and General George Clinton competed to be the first governor of New York under its new status as an independent State. Schuyler was supported by the old, land-owning families and endorsed a strong national government. Clinton represented rural, agrarian interests, paper money and States’ rights. Clinton won the election.

Earlier this year, on March 6, the Clinton-dominated New York Assembly appointed three delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Two of them, Robert Yates and John Lansing, are confirmed anti-nationalists. Clinton can rely on them. Hamilton is another matter. He is a zealous nationalist and has tangled with Clinton on various matters, including the disposition of loyalist properties and violations of the peace treaty with England.  It is only through a political bargain engineered by his father-in-law, General Schuyler, that Hamilton received his appointment as a delegate.  At the Convention, virtually every issue is finding Hamilton on one side, Yates and Lansing on the other.

Slender, of medium stature, and meticulously attired, Hamilton rose to deliver his plan. He denounced democracy as the basis for government. “The people,” he said, “are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right.”  Nevertheless, his plan includes a lower branch of the legislature to be elected by the people. At the same time, he claims “the English model is the only good one. It is the best in the world.” Following that model, mirroring the British House of Lords,  he would have the upper branch or Senate be elected for life by electors chosen by the people in electoral districts. The national executive would also be chosen by electors and serve for life. Anticipating he would be challenged for monarchical tendencies, Hamilton asserted, “Monarch is an indefinite term. It marks neither the degree nor duration of power.” Madison referred to it as an “elective monarch.” 

Ordinarily, it would be appropriate to summarize an epic monologue. However, in this instance, there is no reason to do so. Not one delegate responded, either favorably or unfavorably. They were relieved when it was over. If we might get ahead of our story, it is remarkable that tomorrow no one will refer to it. No one will probe its underlying principles or specific provisions.  No one will challenge or oppose it. Although brilliantly delivered and laced with history and philosophy, William Johnson aptly captured the sentiments of his colleagues: Hamilton’s speech “has been praised by everybody, but supported by none.”

Postscript: In 1789, Philip Schuyler will be elected as New York’s first United States Senator. Two years later, he will lose reelection to Aaron Burr. On July 11, 1804, Aaron Burr will fatally wound Hamilton in a duel on a rocky ledge above the Hudson River.  Three years later, Hamilton’s oldest son, Philip, will die the same death as his father.

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