Chapter 9 4. When it’s time to act, act

Still, the first question Paterson raised on June 9 was whether the convention had the power to make the constitution. Paterson arrived at the meeting on May 25, and has been attending the meeting since then. He did not leave the meeting until July 23, and came back before September 17 to sign the draft constitution.That is, Paterson was present when General Cotsworth Pinckney of South Carolina asked on May 30 whether the mandates of the states would allow us to set aside the Articles of Confederation, There was no response.Therefore, there must be a reason why he brought up the old story nine days later.

The reason is that the existence of Xiaobang is threatened. As mentioned earlier, the so-called "United States of America" ​​was formed by the union of 13 "semi-national" states.These states have different origins and properties, and they do not belong to each other and have nothing to do with each other.It was only because of common interests (mainly for independence from Great Britain at the time) that this came together into a loose union known as the "Confederacy of America".This point, made abundantly clear in the Articles of Confederation, and reiterated in Randolph's programs and speeches—the purpose of the union is to "establish the common defense, secure civil liberties, and provide for the general welfare."Among them, the so-called "universal welfare" includes two aspects, that is, the mutual interests of the states and the common interests of all states.In other words, interests are the basis of association.

Thus, when Virginia proposed further unification (or full unification), the states responded differently.Some responded positively (such as Pennsylvania), some welcomed it cautiously (this is more), some reluctantly agreed (such as New York), and some firmly resisted (such as Rhode Island).Even if they participate in the meeting, they each have their own ghosts.Everyone wants to get more benefits from the alliance, but they are worried about the loss of their own interests or rights.These interests and rights are not the same.For example, Maryland adheres to the national model of "small country with few people", New Hampshire cares about the moral issues of the republic, and South Carolina hopes to protect and continue slavery.These three states, one in the north (New Hampshire), one in the south (South Carolina), and one in the strategic center of the country (Maryland), each have great differences in political culture, but they are all Proud of these unique traits, it fears that its unique political practice might be lost to so-called "full coalition."

The other gangs also have their own worries and doubts, and the whole meeting can be described as full of doubts.Even Virginia, the leader, is actually worried.For a long time, Virginia had always regarded itself as the leader of the Confederate States, so she was most worried that the North would harm the interests of the South through the new national supreme government.For example, at the request of northern protectionists, the freight rate of goods from the South was increased, so that Virginia's economic interests were swallowed up by the commercial states of the North; freedom of navigation, etc.

However, the Virginians do not plan to sit still.Their method is to pre-empt strikes. They not only propose to convene a constitutional convention, but also put forward their own long-planned plan, trying to create a pre-emptive and preconceived situation.The intention of the Virginia plan is very obvious, which is to control the legislative power and ensure its leadership.Therefore, they advocate: first, the national parliament implements a bicameral system; second, the seats in both houses are selected according to the proportion of the population, and it is best that the members of the first house (House of Representatives) are directly elected by voters, and the members of the second house (Senate) are elected by the first house. Councilor elections.

This plan clearly favored Virginia, which was the most populous state (and second in land area).According to this election method, it is natural that Virginia elects the most representatives.Pennsylvania is not a big problem, because it has the second largest population (fifth largest land area).North Carolina, which ranks third in both population and land, is fine with that.It is the small states that have the greatest opinions.First is Delaware, then New Jersey, then Connecticut and South Carolina.In order for readers to see more clearly, we might as well make a ranking list for these 13 states:

Virginia has the largest population and the second largest land area; Pennsylvania, second in population and fifth in land area; North Carolina, third in population and third in land area; Massachusetts, fourth in population and ninth in land area; Maryland, fifth in population and seventh in land area; New York, sixth in population and fourth in land area; South Carolina, seventh in population and sixth in land area; Connecticut, eighth in population and eleventh in land area; New Jersey, ninth in population and tenth in land area; New Hampshire, tenth in population and eighth in land area;

Georgia has the eleventh population and the largest land area; Rhode Island, twelfth in population and thirteenth in land area; Delaware has the thirteenth population and the twelfth largest land area. It is not difficult to see from this ranking that there are about 4 big states.They are, from largest to smallest: Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Massachusetts.The combined population of these 4 states is more than 1.4 million.Xiao Bang has about 5 of them.They are in descending order: Delaware, Rhode Island, Georgia, New Hampshire and New Jersey.The combined population of these five states is less than 400,000.What is the concept of less than 400,000?That is to say, the combined population of these 5 states cannot reach Virginia.Because the population of Virginia was at least 540,000 in 1787 (538,000 in 1780 and 748,000 in 1790).In this calculation, it is still because of the addition of New Jersey, which is not too small a state.If there are four small states, their total population is only 240,000, less than half that of Virginia, and only slightly more than one-fifth of the total population of the four large states.

The two smallest states are Delaware and Rhode Island.There are two of them, one (Delaware) has the last last population and the second last land; one (Rhode Island) has the last last land and second last population.According to rough statistics in 1780, the population of Delaware was 45,000, and the population of Rhode Island was 53,000, less than 1/10 of Virginia (538,000).Therefore, these two states are the most suspicious and most vigilant.Rhode Island did not send representatives to the meeting at all (and was the last to ratify the constitution).Delaware said the ugly words at the beginning: If the voting system of one vote per state must be changed, brother, I will not accompany it!

Delaware's attitude caused strong dissatisfaction.Several representatives said that Delaware had gone too far and thought it was justified to remove the representatives.Is it not even possible to submit the plan to the committee of the whole body and the general assembly for discussion?The Delaware delegation couldn't help it, because they were relatively isolated at the beginning of the meeting.Rhode Island did not participate, New Hampshire could not come, Georgia remained silent, and New Jersey was waiting, so they had to stay temporarily and continue to participate in the discussion.

However, on June 8, Delaware representative Gangning Bedford finally couldn't bear to take the case, and protested angrily, denouncing Virginia and Pennsylvania for "monsters".The reason for this was the provision in the Virginia Plan that gave the national legislature the power to overrule the legislation of the state legislatures if they believed that such legislation violated the Articles of Confederation (the Constitution in question) or foreign treaties.Charlton Pinckney of South Carolina, Madison of Virginia, and Wilson of Pennsylvania voted for it, while Williamson of North Carolina, Gerry of Massachusetts, and Dickinson of Delaware opposed it.After Dickinson spoke, Bedford fired. Bedford said emotionally that when talking about the dangers this veto brought to the states, he couldn't help but think of how weak his own state was, and that others could damage it at will as long as they liked, without mercy.He said he found that the purpose of all this was to deprive small states of equal voting rights.According to the current method, Delaware can only occupy 1/99 seats in the National Congress, and Pennsylvania and Virginia together have 1/3 of all seats.Isn't there the drive of profit and commercial competition?Therefore, he said angrily: It seems that Pennsylvania and Virginia hope to create such a system-in this system, these two states have "enormous, monster-like influence"! Madison certainly cannot accept such accusations.He asked Bedford, his classmate and roommate at the College of New Jersey, you said that seats cannot be allocated according to the population ratio. Is there any more effective system that can be implemented?If the defects of the existing system were not corrected and a more effective national government was established, the Confederacy would be dissolved.Once the Confederacy falls apart, anything can happen.At that time, what kind of consequences will Xiaobang taste?Under the premise that the situation in the whole country is out of control, can a small state next to a big state feel safer? That's a little intimidating.This kind of thing had already been done by Wilson and Pinckney at the June 5 meeting.Wilson said that he hoped that the whole committee would accept his view that the cause of the re-alignment of the majority on a better plan should not be weighed down by the selfish acts of a few without consideration for others!A principle can be established that admits that this is a voluntary union and then opens the door to all states that agree to the new regulations.In other words, whoever disagrees with the new regulations can withdraw from the federation.We will form an alliance like this, will you Xiaobangai come or not! Even Madison privately thought that such words were meant to frighten those little states.It's just that Delaware and New Jersey ignored it at the time.Now that Madison came again, Paterson felt compelled not to speak.Seriously, New Jersey's population of 140,000 is not small.But she still considers herself a small state (9th in population, 10th in land area), and consciously or unconsciously considers herself a "third world leader".What's more, New Jersey and Delaware live next to each other, and they are both next to the big state of Pennsylvania, so there is a feeling of cold lips and teeth.For this feeling, for all Xiaobang, and for New Jersey itself, Paterson must "raise his eyebrows and draw his sword."