The Constitutional Convention: Extreme Nationalists

Very well, then.  Let us begin our taxonomy of delegates to the Constitutional Convention with the extreme nationalists, i.e., the delegates who wanted either to abolish state governments or to reduce them to administrative departments of the federal government.  This was an extreme view, so, unsurprisingly, there were not many such delegates, only two.  Also unsurprisingly, one was Alexander Hamilton.  The other, even more extreme, delegate was

George Read.  George Read was the only delegate

to go so far as to advocate abolishing state governments altogether.  Furthermore, although opposition to a stronger central government initially came from small states, Read was from Delaware, the smallest state present. Read comes across as a puzzling figure.  When he first spoke up, it was to say that Delaware delegates had been forbidden to accept any plan that did not continue equal representation, and that his delegation would be forced to withdraw if such a plan were adopted.  But when he next spoke, it was with a diametrically different opinion.  "Too much attachment is betrayed to the State Governments," he said.  "We must look beyond their continuance."  He believed that distinct states were a source of discord, and that the only cure was to unite in a single society.  He held the view (also voiced in more moderate terms by Madison) that any system that maintained state autonomy would be dominated by large states, and that the stronger the central government, the less small states would have to fear.  While others complained that the Virginia Plan was too centralized, Read said that on the contrary, "He should have not objection to the system if it were truly national [unitary], but it had to much of a federal admixture in it."  He even opposed federal guarantee of the states' territory because it abetted the idea of distinct states.    His role diminished when it became clear what form the new government would take.  Once the Great Compromise was adopted, he again became a small state man, pushing for more representatives for Delaware and becoming alarmed when equal representation in the Senate was threatened.  But he showed a flash of the old nationalist when he opposed requiring representatives to have an extended residency in the state they represented.  "Such a regulation would correspond little with the idea that we were one people."

Alexander Hamilton.  Hamilton actually comes across as less of a nationalist than Read.  He disfavored abolishing states, but only because public opinion would not allow it.  Instead, he wanted to reduce states to administrative units ("corporations"), which would be necessary to administrative efficiency.  He favored indefinite authority for the national legislature, because, if limited, states would subvert it, just as local governors subverted the central authority of the Roman and Persian Empires.  Unsurprisingly, Hamilton favored proportional representation in both houses and regarded equal representation in the Senate as a "destructive element" that "shocks too much the ideas of Justice and every human feeling."

Unlike Read, Hamilton actually presented a plan for unitary government.  Under Hamilton's plan, the national legislature would have power to pass all laws whatsover," and all contrary state laws would be "utterly void."  In order to prevent states from attempting to defy federal law, state governors would be appointed by the general government with an absolute veto over state legislation.  State militias would be under the sole and exclusive direction of the central government, which would also appoint all militia officers.  Not too surprisingly, only Read endorsed Hamilton's plan.  The others did not so much reject it as ignore it.  Nor did Hamilton expect his plan to be adopted.