WEBVTT NOTE 68. Conservative Counter-Revolution: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Volume 4, Chapter 68, Conservative Counter-Revolution, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in 1780 2 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:20.000 Ironically, just as the great havoc wreaked by the flood of paper money was fading away, with the money collapsing and passing out of circulation, 3 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:35.000 In this generation, the conservatives, especially those of New York and Pennsylvania, were preparing to use the paper emergency to put through a veritable counterrevolution in the American economy and society. 4 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:57.000 These men had long yearned for the reestablishment, in America, of the British system without Great Britain, a strong centralized government dictating to the people of the various states, centralizing and controlling the vital money power through a central system of taxation. 5 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:03.160 Now that the financial oligarchy had unto itself so much of the federal public debt, 6 00:01:03.160 --> 00:01:08.800 it was newly inspired to found a strong central government so that its greatly depreciated 7 00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:15.020 securities might be redeemed in full and so that they could establish a new form of paper 8 00:01:15.020 --> 00:01:18.680 inflation which they could control. 9 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:24.240 Instead of continental paper, which after its emission traveled haphazardly into the 10 00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:31.240 The way was paved for the triumph of conservatism in the latter years of the war, but in the 11 00:01:54.240 --> 00:02:00.720 by changes in two pivotal states, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. 12 00:02:00.720 --> 00:02:06.200 In Massachusetts, the people in a referendum had overwhelmingly rejected the conservative 13 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:09.840 constitution of 1778. 14 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:14.760 Bowing to the inevitable, the conservatives realized that they would have to accede to 15 00:02:14.760 --> 00:02:21.640 the long-standing radical demand for a constitutional convention for the state separate from the 16 00:02:21.640 --> 00:02:25.120 and the existing legislature, the General Court. 17 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.640 The towns, for example, had urged a separate convention by a majority greater than two 18 00:02:30.640 --> 00:02:31.640 to one. 19 00:02:31.640 --> 00:02:39.360 In June 1779, therefore, the General Court called such a convention for early September, 20 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:43.480 with voting for delegates by universal manhood suffrage. 21 00:02:43.480 --> 00:02:49.440 In another concession to radical demands, the various articles of any proposed constitution 22 00:02:49.440 --> 00:02:55.540 would have to be ratified by two-thirds vote at a popular referendum. 23 00:02:55.540 --> 00:03:03.040 The Constitution of 1780 was drafted at the convention by three people, the extremely 24 00:03:03.040 --> 00:03:10.280 wealthy conservative James Bowden and the two Adams cousins with John Adams as the major 25 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:12.120 author. 26 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:19.140 Like its aborted predecessor, the Constitution was a highly conservative document, a reflection 27 00:03:19.140 --> 00:03:27.340 of the willingness of Sam Adams to tag along with John, despite the former's radical instincts. 28 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:35.300 A high property value qualification for voting, 60 pounds, was imposed for all state elections. 29 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:40.940 This was substantially higher than that called for by either the old colonial charter or 30 00:03:40.940 --> 00:03:44.300 the rejected constitution of 1778. 31 00:03:44.300 --> 00:03:56.300 Furthermore, the sole qualification for office holders was now to be in real estate, so that money, or other personal property, would not suffice to be eligible for holding office. 32 00:03:56.300 --> 00:04:07.300 A strong independent executive and upper house were imposed, and the governor could veto a legislative act, which could be overridden only by a two-thirds vote. 33 00:04:07.300 --> 00:04:13.540 A Bill of Rights was appended to the new Constitution, but it was rather weak. 34 00:04:13.540 --> 00:04:19.980 Part of this Declaration of Rights authorized the legislature to require the towns to tax 35 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:26.500 the public for church support, thus giving a constitutional mandate for a religious, 36 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:31.140 that is a congregational, establishment in Massachusetts. 37 00:04:31.140 --> 00:04:35.720 The military was to be under the complete control of the governor, who could also appoint 38 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:41.840 and all Judges. The Governor was to be fully as powerful as in the New York Constitution 39 00:04:41.840 --> 00:04:48.080 where he had a right of veto. Furthermore, judicial tenure was to be on good behavior 40 00:04:48.080 --> 00:04:55.000 for all practical purposes for life, thus setting up an unchecked and long-lasting judicial 41 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:57.640 oligarchy. 42 00:04:57.640 --> 00:05:03.080 The heaviest opposition to the Constitution came over the Declaration of Rights and its 43 00:05:03.080 --> 00:05:07.920 This weakness in ensuring freedom of speech or habeas corpus. 44 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:14.560 Many towns opposed the property qualifications as well as the appointive power of the executive 45 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:18.280 and the oligarchy of independent judges. 46 00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:23.940 Also bitterly fought in the press and in the towns was the clause on establishment of religion. 47 00:05:23.940 --> 00:05:28.760 The conservatives insisted that a government religion was crucial to the government's own 48 00:05:28.760 --> 00:05:33.120 and Existence, as well as to the existence of religion. 49 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:39.840 As one clergyman fulminated, let the restraints of religion once be broken down, as they infallibly 50 00:05:39.840 --> 00:05:45.200 would be by leaving the subject of public worship to the humor of the multitude, and 51 00:05:45.200 --> 00:05:51.280 we might well defy all human wisdom and power to support and preserve order in government 52 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:53.200 and state. 53 00:05:53.200 --> 00:05:58.960 One rightist attributed much of the opposition to religious establishment to profane and 54 00:05:58.960 --> 00:06:06.200 licentious deists and avaricious worldlings. Even so, many towns rebuffed the religious 55 00:06:06.200 --> 00:06:13.240 establishment clause, including Boston, Bristol, Granville, and eight towns in Berkshire, as 56 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:19.720 well as seven in Middlesex County. The towns objecting to the high property qualifications 57 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:26.160 were concentrated in the West. They cogently raised the all too familiar issue of taxation 58 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:32.360 without representation. Entering the list once more for battle against the restricted 59 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:39.240 suffrage of the new Constitution was Joseph Hawley, the only leading Massachusetts radical 60 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:45.400 at the outbreak of the revolution to keep firmly to the left path. He pointed out that 61 00:06:45.400 --> 00:06:51.220 that the suffrage requirement was in direct contradiction to the Constitution's professed 62 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:58.520 devotion to the equal natural rights of all, the provision violated the principle of taxation 63 00:06:58.520 --> 00:07:01.280 only with representation. 64 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:07.000 Other demands by opposition towns were for election of local officials, a tight rein 65 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:12.440 on the governor, a unicameral legislature, and a loosening of the highly restrictive 66 00:07:12.440 --> 00:07:19.000 Provisions for Amendment of the Constitution. Even though such articles as the Bill of Rights 67 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:25.160 really failed to receive the required two-thirds ratification by the people, the Massachusetts 68 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:33.280 Convention fraudulently declared the entire Constitution ratified. On June 16, 1780, the 69 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:41.640 precedent of popular ratification was thus continued, but with a heavy admixture of chicanery. 70 00:07:41.640 --> 00:07:47.840 The first American constitution formed and ratified by democratic processes was therefore 71 00:07:47.840 --> 00:07:54.280 a highly conservative one, more conservative indeed than the one it replaced. 72 00:07:54.280 --> 00:08:01.000 In part this reflected and foreshadowed the growing conservative sentiment in America 73 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:03.720 beginning in 1780. 74 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:11.200 In part two it reflected the absence of radical leadership in Massachusetts to give a statewide 75 00:08:11.200 --> 00:08:15.960 Lead and Cohesion to the Opposition Towns. 76 00:08:15.960 --> 00:08:22.080 Sam Adams' complete adherence to the conservative line of John is a case in point. 77 00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:28.520 Of the eminent leaders in the state, only the Aileen Hawley could give even partial leadership 78 00:08:28.520 --> 00:08:30.660 to the radical cause. 79 00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:36.480 Even the town of Pittsfield, the Reverend Thomas Allen and the Berkshire Constitutionalists, 80 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:46.480 The theory of their long struggle yielded now and meekly submitted to the new constitution, eliminating their own raison d'etre. 81 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:57.480 But old Hawley did his best, as his biographer states, unlike most of his old colleagues, he had not turned away from political liberalism. 82 00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:05.480 Bitterly critical of the religious establishment and the constitution's requirement that all legislators take a church oath, 83 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:11.880 He was not allowed to take a seat in the Massachusetts Senate because he refused to take the oath. 84 00:09:11.880 --> 00:09:17.960 Hawley decried this as an infringement on free elections and on the rights of the individual. 85 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:26.360 The Constitution of 1780 disoriented what remained of the Massachusetts left, and conservatism 86 00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:28.960 swept into power in the state. 87 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:34.680 The opportunistic conservative John Hancock, personally very popular in the state as a 88 00:09:34.680 --> 00:09:40.680 and the charismatic symbol of the revolution was easily elected governor. 89 00:09:40.680 --> 00:09:50.680 His efforts to drive Sam Adams from political power culminated in Adams's ouster from the Continental Congress in 1782. 90 00:09:50.680 --> 00:09:56.680 Conservatives also took control of the pivotal state of Pennsylvania during 1780. 91 00:09:56.680 --> 00:10:11.180 The high water mark of radical control of Pennsylvania had come on October 4, 1779, when radical hatred of the leading conservative Republicans erupted in mob action. 92 00:10:11.180 --> 00:10:22.680 For some time before, the radicals had been planning to seize the families of all defecting Tories and to deport them to British-occupied New York City. 93 00:10:22.680 --> 00:10:33.680 But at a Philadelphia militia meeting on October 4, their goal spontaneously changed to ousting the major conservative leaders from Philadelphia. 94 00:10:33.680 --> 00:10:41.680 This mob of militia seized three Tories and advanced upon the house of the hated James Wilson. 95 00:10:41.680 --> 00:10:49.680 Wilson, General Thomas Mifflin, and other Republican leaders gathered there with arms, and a battle ensued at the Wilson home. 96 00:10:49.680 --> 00:10:55.520 The mob broke in and several persons were killed at this Battle of Fort Wilson, but 97 00:10:55.520 --> 00:11:01.960 Pennsylvania President Joseph Reed managed to arrive with a silk-stocking troop of lighthorse 98 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:05.200 militia and they carried the day. 99 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:11.000 As the war dragged on, the radical leadership of Pennsylvania was inevitably saddled with 100 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:17.440 all the errors and excesses of the war effort, including the Battle of Fort Wilson, but more 101 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:23.440 or particularly the economic chaos caused by inflation and price controls. 102 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:30.440 Even so, the upheaval of the October 1780 elections in Pennsylvania came as a sudden surprise. 103 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:35.440 Philadelphia in particular turned out its radical constitutionalist representatives 104 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:40.440 and swept the conservatives into power by a three-to-one vote. 105 00:11:40.440 --> 00:11:44.440 With the overthrow within Pennsylvania as their base, 106 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:52.640 The conservatives were able to change drastically the ideological complexion of that state's delegation in Congress. 107 00:11:52.640 --> 00:12:01.040 The stage was set for Robert Morris's accession to almost supreme power in the United States. 108 00:12:01.040 --> 00:12:11.340 In Virginia, the moderate administration of Governor Thomas Jefferson was discredited by the British invasion and by the defeats in the war. 109 00:12:11.340 --> 00:12:18.780 These led to his replacement by the ultra-conservative Thomas Nelson, who had opposed independence. 110 00:12:18.780 --> 00:12:23.860 Thus Virginia, too, was ripe for a swing to conservatism. 111 00:12:23.860 --> 00:12:30.380 The old Adamsley radical Junto was no more, Richard Henry Lee having abandoned Congress 112 00:12:30.380 --> 00:12:33.460 during 1781. 113 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:39.920 As for the remainder of the South, invaded, war-torn and battered, it was hardly in any 114 00:12:39.920 --> 00:12:46.640 position to play a leading role in national politics. And in New York, George Clinton's 115 00:12:46.640 --> 00:12:53.240 centrist administration permitted the conservative oligarchs plenty of room for maneuver, while 116 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:59.280 at the same time, its existence frightened the conservatives sufficiently to turn to 117 00:12:59.280 --> 00:13:06.280 national centralization as a refuge against political insecurity in New York.