I. wish "that such amendments as would give security CHAP. to the rights of human nature and the discordant interests of the different parts of this union might employ another convention."1 But the influence of Washington outweighed them all. He was embosomed in the affections and enshrined in the pride of the people of Virginia; and in all their waverings during the nine months following the federal convention he was the anchor of the constitution. His neighbors of Alexandria to a man agreed with him; and Fairfax county unanimously instructed its representatives, of whom George Mason was one, "that the peace, security, and prosperity of Virginia and of the United States depended on the speedy adoption of the federal constitution."" In the close division of parties in the state it was of vital importance to secure the influence of Edmund Randolph, its governor; and his old military chief in due time received from him an elaborate paper which he had prepared in the form of an address to the speaker of the house of delegates. In this letter, not yet pledging himself to the unconditional support of the constitution, he avowed that he prized the intimate and unshaken friendship of Washington and Madison as among the happiest of all his acquisitions; but added: "Dreadful as the total dissolution of the union is to my mind, I entertain no less horror at the thought of partial confederacies. The utmost limit of any partial confederacy, which Virginia could expect to form, would comprehend the three south 1R. H. Lee to Washington, New York, 11 Oct., 1787. Letters to W., iv. 180, 181. Meeting of Fairfax county, 1787. Oct. CHAP. ern and her nearest northern neighbor. But they, I. like ourselves, are diminished in their real force 1787. by the mixture of an unhappy species of popula tion."1 Oct. 19. 25. Monroe wrote to Madison that his "strong objec tions" to the constitution "were overbalanced by the arguments in its favor."" The legislature of Virginia was to hold its regular meeting on the third Monday of October; this year there was a quorum on the first day of the session, which had not happened since the revolution. On the nineteenth, the vote of congress transmitting the constitution came before the house; Patrick Henry, refusing to make an issue where he would have met with defeat, declared that the constitution must go before a convention, as it transcended the power of the house to decide on it.' But when, on the twenty-fifth, Francis Corbin proposed "a convention to be called according to the recommendation of congress," Henry objected that under that limitation its members "would have pow er to adopt or reject the new plan, but not to propose amendments" of its "errors and defects." His motion to give this power to the convention of the state was seconded by Mason, who added: "I declare that from the east of New Hampshire to the south of Georgia there is not a man more fully convinced of the necessity of establishing some general govern 1 Edmund Randolph to the speaker of the house of delegates of Virginia, 10 Oct., 1787. Elliot, i. 487. * Monroe to Madison, 13 Oct., 1787. MS. Bushrod Washington to G. W., 19 Oct., 1787. Sparks, ix. 273. ment than I am; that I regard our perfect union as CHAP. the rock of our political salvation."1 I. Oct. After some debate, John Marshall, of Richmond, 1787. conceding the point as to "leaving the door open for 25. amendments," ,"pleaded that the legislature should not seem to disapprove the new federal government, and, for the form of the resolution, proposed that "the new constitution should be laid before the convention for their free and ample discussion." This form was silently accepted by Henry, while Mason declared "that the house had no right to suggest anything to a body paramount to itself." The vote was unanimous, the form of the resolution being that of Marshall; while in its substance it yielded up all that Henry and Mason required. From "unfriendly intentions toward the constitution," the choice of the convention was postponed till the court days in March, and its time of meeting to the first Monday in June. Should many of the states then be found against the constitution, Virginia could assume the office of mediator between contending parties, and dictate to all the rest of the union." Since amendments had been unanimously authorized, it seemed fair that any expense of an attempt to make them should be provided for with the other I. 1787. Oct. 25. CHAP. charges of the convention.' A letter from Richard Henry Lee, a representative from Virginia in congress, to the governor of the commonwealth, recommended, as a policy open to "no objection and promising great safety and much good," that amendments adopted severally by the states should all be definitively referred to a second federal convention. Nov. 30. To carry out this policy, resolutions were on the last day of November introduced into the house, and supported by Henry and Mason, pledging the general assembly to defray the expense of a deputy or deputies which the convention of the commonwealth in the following June might think proper to send to confer with a convention of any one or more of the sister states, "as well as the allowance to be made to the deputies to a federal convention, in case such a convention should be judged necessary." The friends of the constitution, who now perceived the direction in which they were drifting, made a rally; but they were beaten by a majority of about fifteen. A bill pursuant to the resolutions, reported by a committee composed mainly of the most determined "malcon12. tents," soon became a law. Friends of the constitution who had been jubilant at the first aspect of the legislature now doubted whether it any longer had a majority in its favor; its enemies claimed a decisive victory. Early in December, Monroe reported to Madison: "The cloud which hath hung over us for some time past is not likely soon to be dispelled."* But on Washington's mind no cloud rested. Dec. "If I. Nov. 30. there are characters who prefer disunion, or separate CHAP. confederacies, to the general government which is offered to them, their opposition may, for aught I 1787. know, proceed from principle; but, as nothing, according to my conception of the matter, is more to be deprecated than a disunion or three distinct confederacies, as far as my voice can go it shall be offered in favor of the general government." Nor did he lose heart or trust; but as Virginia has delayed her convention till June, our narrative must turn to the state which was the first to meet in convention. 1 In Sparks, ix. 284, for "these distinct confederacies " read "three distinct confederacies." |