Letter from R.D. Spaight to James Iredell (1787)

by R.D. Spaight
  • August 12, 1787
Image: The official portrait of Supreme Court Justice James Iredell. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JamesIredell.jpg
What does Spaight imply about consequences of opposing the draft of the Constitution, particularly regarding the nation’s “contemptible situation”? What does he mean by this?
How might Spaight's concern about the power of "one or two States" reflect continued tension within the Convention regarding balancing state and national interests in the new government?
Constitutional Convention

Sir1,

The Convention having agreed upon the outlines of a plan of government for the United States, referred it to a small committee to detail: that committee have reported, and the plan is now under consideration. I2 am in hopes we shall be able to get through it by the 1st or 15th of September.

It is not probable that the United States will in future be so ideal as to risk their happiness upon the unanimity of the whole; and thereby put it in the power of one or two States to defeat the most salutary propositions, and prevent the Union from rising out of that contemptible situation to which it is at present reduced.

Footnotes
  1. 1. James Iredell (1751–1799) played a key role in developing North Carolina’s provisional government and judicial system. He was one of the state’s first Supreme Court justices and later became an advocate for ratification of the Constitution.
  2. 2. Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr. (1758–1802) served as delegate from North Carolina.
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