The peculiarity of her geographical position, therefore, the rising importance of her commerce, the acknowledged intelligence and enterprise of her inhabitants, the great ability and fearlessness of her statesmen and popular leaders, the widely spread influence of her political action in former days, not yet wholly forgotten, and her unflinching devotion to the then existing Union of the states, had rendered it important, in the highest degree, that New York should assent to the proposed “Constitution for the United States”; while, on the other hand, her undeviating opposition to any centralization of political powers within the federal government, which the constituent states, as such, could not entirely control, her uncompromising adherence to her rights as a free, sovereign, and independent republic, the unanimity of her well-tried popular leaders and of her inhabitants, in opposition to the proposed constitution, and the perfect organization of her citizens, in every county throughout the state, to prevent the official approval of that instrument, had indicated that the task of securing that approval of the Constitution, in the form which it then possessed, would be difficult, if not impossible.
It need not be a matter of surprise, therefore, that while the best friends of the new Constitution, throughout the Union, had desired the organization of measures for securing the assent and approval of the State of New York to that instrument, there were but few among her citizens who were inclined, and a still smaller number who were qualified, from their associations and their acquirements, to come before the people, and to undertake that delicate but arduous duty.
Robert R. Livingston—firm and patriotic, and possessed of abundant abilities—had evinced, in public, but little interest in the subject. His social position and his high attainments would have amply qualified him for a leader of the people of his native state, in any political emergency, had not an overpowering love of ease prevailed over every other trait in his character, withdrawn him as far as possible from public duties, and rendered him dilatory and uncertain.
James Duane’s sympathy with the royal authorities in colonial New York; his collusion with Lieutenant-Governor Colden to frustrate the earlier efforts of his neighbors and fellow-citizens, while the latter were struggling with the Crown for their original political rights; and his concerted opposition to the measures which had been recommended by the Continental Congress of 1774, of which body he had been an active but unworthy member—had disqualified him for any position through which the people was to be controlled in its political action, and rendered useless any efforts which he might make in a cause which was dependent for its ultimate success on the sympathy of the great body of the people of New York.
John Jay, a long-tried and faithful servant of the state and of the Congress, was also a native and a citizen of New York, but, like the greater number of the leading friends of the proposed constitution in that state, he was not adapted for leadership in its support and establishment. Descended from one of the most respectable families in the Province, an eminent and highly successful member of its bar, from an early age an active participant in the momentous political events which had rendered New York so distinguished among the republics which formed “the new constellation” in America, an acute and remarkably successful diplomatist, candid, above most of his associates, in the declaration of his carefully considered sentiments, and resolute and untiring above all of them in seeking an open and unequivocal accomplishment of his well-conceived purposes, he nevertheless failed—if he ever tried—to secure the hearty sympathy of the masses of his countrymen, and was not qualified to direct them in any struggle whatever. Taking an abstract and self-evident truth as the basis of his argument, he was accustomed to reason independently and boldly for the right, per se, without regarding or respecting the opinions of those with whom he was associated; and with equal boldness, and with an energy which scorned fatigue, he pushed forward to the front, for the establishment of his own principles, without swerving either to the right or to the left, alike irrespective of the movements of his associates and of the prejudices and sympathies and personal or local interests of those whom they led. While his great abilities, the value of his public services, and his personal integrity were freely recognized by all, the greater number of his fellow-citizens considered him selfish, impracticable, and aristocratic; and some portions of his earlier political action—at that time remembered by many of his opponents—his generally reserved manner, and his evident want of fellowship with the great body of the people, gave color to the popular opinion concerning him, and impaired his influence and his usefulness.
In the discussion of the great question which attracted the attention of the people of the State of New York, at the period referred to, Mr. Jay’s inclination does not appear to have led him to take any part whatever, nor does the people appear to have looked to him for either counsel or personal leadership. His well-known and freely acknowledged preference for a complete centralization of all political power—even to the extent of dissolving the political and constituent powers of the several states, of reducing them to the grade of counties, and of making them entirely dependent, even for their nominal existence and for their local officers, on the will of a consolidated, national government—having received no favorable consideration in the Federal Convention, he had found little in the proposed Constitution
