Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (151 page)

25
. JM to Edmund Randolph, 31 May 1789,
Papers of Madison
, 12: 190.

26
. During a Single two-year Congress today, the House may hold as many as 4, 500 committee meetings.

27
.
Annals of Congress
, 1st Congress, 1st session (13 May 1789), I, 352.

28
. Ames to George Richards Minot, 3 May 1789,
Works of Ames
, ed. Allen, 1: 569.

29
. Richard Labunski,
James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights
(New York, 2006), 145.

30
. Editorial Note,
Papers of Madison
, 12: 54.

31
.
The Diary of William Maclay and other Notes on Senate Debates
, ed. Kenneth R. Bowling and Helen E. Veit (Baltimore, 1988), 253.

32
.
Diary of Maclay
, 5–6, 27, 28, 37.

33
.
Diary of Maclay
, 5–6.

34
.
Diary of Maclay
, 11.

35
. There is no contemporary evidence that he also said “so help me god” at the end of the oath; the matter is very controversial today. See Forrest Church,
So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle over Church and State
(New York, 2007), 445–49. Since the Judiciary Act of 1789 declared that the oath to be sworn by the justices of the Supreme Court and the other federal judges included the phrase “So help me God,” it is likely that Washington may have also used the phrase (1 Cong. Ch. 20, 1 Stat. 73, Sec. 8). I owe this information to Steven G. Calabresi.

36
.
Diary of Maclay
, 13; Editorial Note,
Papers of Washington: Presidential Ser
., 2: 155; Smith,
City of New York in the Year of Washington’s Inauguration,
230.

37
. GW to Knox, 1 April 1789,
Washington: Writings
, 726.

38
. GW, First Inaugural Address, 30 April 1789,
Washington: Writings
, 733.

39
. Gordon S. Wood,
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787
(Chapel Hill, 1969), 539.

40
. John Bach McMaster and Frederick D. Stone, eds.,
Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 1787–1788
(Philadelphia, 1888), 143–44, 313–16.

41
. Wood,
Creation of the American Republic
, 540–41.

42
. TJ to John Jay, 23 May 1788, to JM, 20 Dec. 1787,
Papers of Jefferson
, 13: 190; 12: 440.

43
. JM to TJ, 17 Oct. 1788,
Papers of Jefferson
, 14: 18.

44
. TJ to Francis Hopkinson, 13 March 1789,
Papers of Jefferson
, 14: 650.

45
. JM to TJ, 24 July 1788,
Papers of Jefferson,
13: 412, 414.

46
. Robert Allen Rutland,
The Birth of the Bill of Rights, 1776–1791
, rev. ed. (Boston, 1983), 159–89.

47
. On the Origins of the Bill of Rights, See Patrick T. Conley and John P. Kaminiski, eds.,
The Bill of Rights and the States: The Colonial and Revolutionary Origins of American Liberties
(Madison, WI, 1991); and Gordon S. Wood, “The Origins of the Bill of Rights,” American Antiquarian Society,
Proc
, 101 (1992), 255–74.

48
. JM to TJ, 17 Oct. 1788,
Papers of Jefferson
, 14: 18.

49
. JM, “To a Resident of Spotsylvania County,” 27 Jan. 1789,
Papers of Madison
, 11: 428–29.

50
. JM to Richard Peters, 19 Aug. 1789,
Papers of Madison
, 12: 347.

51
. JM to Edmund Randolph, 15 June 1789,
Papers of Madison
, 12: 219.

52
. JM to Richard Peters, 19 Aug. 1789,
Papers of Madison
, 12: 347.

53
. JM, June 1789, in Helen E. Veit et al., eds.,
Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress
(Baltimore, 1991), 66–68, 77–86.

54
. JM, June 1789, in Veit et al., eds.,
Creating the Bill of Rights
, 188.

55
. One of Madison’s proposed amendments—the one requiring a House election to take place before the Congress can raise its salaries—was finally ratified by the requisite number of states in 1992 and became Article XXVII of the Constitution that same year.

56
. Up until the twentieth century, the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, a position endorsed by the Supreme Court in
Barron
v.
City of Baltimore
(1833). Only during the first half of the twentieth century did the Supreme Court contend that the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) incorporates or absorbs the First Amendment and other amendments of the Bill of Rights. On the doctrine of incorporation, see Akhil Reed Amar,
The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstitution
(New Haven, 1998), 215–30.

57
. “Symposium on the Second Amendment: Fresh Looks,” ed. Carl T. Bogus,
Chicago-Kent Law Review
, 76 (2000), 60–715; Saul Cornell,
A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America
(New York, 2006); Mark V. Tushnet,
Out of Range: Why the Constitution Can’t End the Battle over Guns
(New York, 2007).

58
. Leonard W. Levy,
Origins of the Bill of Rights
(New Haven, 1999), 157.

59
. Mason, 16 June 1788, in John P. Kaminiski and Gaspare J. Saladino, eds.,
The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution
(Madison, WI, 1976–), 10: 1326, 1328.

60
. John C. Miller,
The Federalist Era, 1789–1801
(New York, 1960), 24.

61
. William Grayson to Patrick Henry, 29 Sept. 1789, and Thomas Tudor Tucker to St. George Tucker, 2 Oct. 1789, in Veit et al., eds.,
Creating the Bill of Rights
, 300.

62
. Grayson to Henry, 12 June 1789, in William Wirt Henry,
Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence and Speeches
(New York, 1891), 3: 391.

63
. Thomas Hartley to Jasper Yeates, 16 Aug. 1789, and John Brown to William Irvine, 17 Aug. 1789, in Veit et al., eds.,
Creating the Bill of Rights
, 279.

64
. This is the theme of Conley and Kaminiski, eds.,
Bill of Rights and the States
.

65
. Indeed, none of the States in 1787 possessed an executive with a four-year term; ten executives were elected annually, most of them by the legislature, and only the Massachusetts governor had a veto power similar to that given to the new federal president.

66
. Max Farrand, ed.,
The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787
(New Haven, 1911, 1937), 1: 65, 119; 2: 513. Article II is so vague that some Federalists seem to have assumed that the president had inherited all the prerogative powers wielded by the English crown except for those, such as the coining of money, the establishment of post offices, the constituting of courts, and the declaring of war, that Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution specifically granted to the Congress.

67
. Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, 5 May 1788, in Farrand, ed.,
Records of the Federal Convention
, 3: 302.

68
. Thornton Anderson,
Creating the Constitution: The Convention of 1787 and the First Congress
(University Park, PA, 1993), 168.

69
. TJ to David Humphreys, 18 March 1789,
Papers of Jefferson
, 14: 679; James Wilson, “Lectures on Law” (1790–1791), in
The Works of James Wilson
, ed. Robert Green McCloskey (Cambridge, MA, 1967), 1: 288.

70
. Anderson,
Creating the Constitution
, 130–31.

71
. Louise Burnham Dunbar,
A Study of “Monarchical” Tendencies in the United States from 1776 to 1801
(1922; New York, 1970), 127.

72
. William Strickland,
Journal of a Tour in the United States of America, 1794–1795
, ed. Rev. J. E. Strickland (New York, 1971), 53.

73
. Dunbar,
Study of “Monarchical” Tendencies in the United States
, 99–100.

74
. Anderson,
Creating the Constitution
, 132.

75
. James McHenry to GW, 29 March 1789,
Papers of Washington: Presidential Ser
., 1: 461; Winifred E. A. Bernard,
Fisher Ames: Federalist and Statesman, 1758–1808
(Chapel Hill, 1965), 92.

76
. David W. Robson,
Educating Republicans: The College in the Era of the American Revolution, 1758–1800
(Westport, CT, 1985), 149; Smith,
City of New York in the Year of Washington’s Inauguration
, 217–19.

77
. GW, Draft of First Inaugural Address, c. Jan. 1789,
Washington: Writings
, 702–16.

78
. Congress decided that whether or not Washington wanted a salary he had to accept one—$25,000, out of which he was to pay all his expenses. David P. Currie,
The Constitution in Congress: The Federalist Period, 1789–1801
(Chicago, 1997), 33.

79
. AH to GW, 5 May 1789,
Papers of Hamilton
, 5: 335–37.

80
. Leonard D. White,
The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History
(New York, 1948), 108.

81
.
Diary of Maclay
, 182, 212.

82
. Joanne B. Freeman,
Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic
(New Haven, 2001), 45–46; David Waldstreicher,
In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820
(Chapel Hill, 1997), 120–22; Barry Schwartz,
George Washington: The Making of an American Symbol
(New York, 1987), 53–54; Burrows and Wallace,
Gotham
, 301.

83
. GW to JM, 30 March 1789,
Papers of Washington: Presidential Ser
., 1: 464–65; JA to Rush, 21 June 1811,
Spur of Fame
, 181.

84
. GW to Philip Schuyler, 24 Dec. 1775, W.W. Abbot et al., eds.,
The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series,
2: 599–600 (Charlottesville, 1985–); GW to JM, 3 Dec. 1784,
Papers of Madison
, 12: 478; GW to John Hancock, 24 Sept. 1776, Fitzpatrick, ed.,
Writings of Washington
, 6: 107–8.

85
. Don Higginbotham,
George Washington: Uniting a Nation
(Latham, MD, 2001), 62, drawing on the work of David Shields and Fredrika Teute.

86
. Lisle A. Rose,
Prologue to Democracy: The Federalists in the South, 1789–1800
(Lexington, KY, 1968), 27–28.

87
. Joseph J. Ellis,
His Excellency, George Washington
(New York, 2004), 195–96; Editorial Note,
Papers of Washington: Presidential. Ser
., 8: 73–74.

88
. C. M. Harris, “Washington’s Gamble, L’Enfant’s Dream: Politics, Design, and the Founding of the National Capital,”
WMQ
, 56 (1999), 527–64.

89
. Kenneth R. Bowling, “A Capital Before a Capitol: Republican Visions,” in Donald R. Kennon, ed.,
A Republic for the Ages: The United States Capitol and the Political Culture of the Early Republic
(Charlottesville, 1999), 45, 46.

90
. Pierre L’Enfant to GW, 11 Sept. 1789,
Papers of Washington: Presidential Ser
., 4: 15–17.

91
. GW to the Commissioners for the Federal District, 7 May 1791,
Papers of Washington: Presidential Ser
., 8: 159.

92
. Harris, “Washington’s Gamble, L’Enfant’s Dream,” 542–43, 557; Neil Harris,
The Artist in American Society: The Formative Years, 1790–1860
(New York, 1966), 16–17, 42.

93
. Kenneth R. Bowling,
The Creation of Washington, D.C.: The Idea and Location of the American Capital
(Fairfax, VA, 1991); Bowling, “A Capital Before a Capitol,” in Kennon, ed.,
Republic for the Ages
, 54; Dumas Malone,
Jefferson and the Rights of Man
(Boston, 1951), 372.

94
.
Diary of Maclay
, 21; Schwartz,
Washington: The Making of an American Symbol
, 62.

95
.
Diary of Maclay
, 21.

96
. GW to David Stuart, 26 July 1789,
Papers of Washington: Presidential Ser
., 3: 322.

97
.
Diary of Maclay
, 70.