against Grayson and Richard Henry Lee. All the states except New York were for the motion; and all except New York and Virginia were unanimously so. The majority in congress was impatient to express its approval of the acts of the convention in still stronger language; Carrington of Virginia, therefore, seconded by Bingham of Pennsylvania, proposed that it be recommended to the legislatures of the several states to cause conventions to be held as speedily as may be, to the end that the same may be adopted, ratified, and confirmed.* In this stage of the business congress adjourned. The friends of the new constitution desired to send it to the states by the unanimous vote of congress. The members from New York would not consent to any language that implied approval. To win their vote the resolution of congress must be neutral. On the other hand, the idea of unanimity required the effacement of every motion adverse to the reference of the constitution. Accordingly, congress, when it next assembled, expunged from its journal the proposed amendments of Richard Henry Lee, and the vote of the preceding day; † and having obliterated every record of opposition, it resolved on the twenty-eighth unanimously, eleven states being present, Maryland having one delegate, Rhode Island alone being altogether unrepresented, that the said report, with the resolutions and letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several legislatures, in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in each state by the people thereof in conformity to the resolves of the convention. + Baffled within the convention, Richard Henry Lee appealed to the world through the press in a series of "Letters from the Federal Farmer," of which thousands of copies were scattered through the central states. He acknowledged the necessity of reforming the government, but claimed to discern a strong tendency to aristocracy in every part of the proposed constitution, which he slighted as the work of visionary young men, bent on changing the thirteen distinct independent republics under a federal head into one consolidated government. He way *MS. Journals of Congress in State Department. + MS. Journals of Congress. Journals of Congress, iv., 782. # #Letters from the Federal Farmer, 8. laid Gerry when bound for home, and assisted him in preparing an official letter to explain his refusal to sign the constitution. He addressed himself to Samuel Adams, the "dear friend with whom he had long toiled in the vineyard of lib. crty," submitting to his wisdom and patriotism the objections to the new constitution which he had proposed in congress in the form of amendments, but disingenuously substituting other words for his remonstrance against vesting congress with power to regulate commerce. He extended his intrigues to Pennsylvania and Delaware, hoping to delay their decisions. "I am waiting with anxiety for the echo from Virginia, but with very faint hopes of its corresponding with my wishes," wrote Madison from New York city to Washington.* The party in power in New York was passionately opposed to the constitution; but already day had begun to scatter the dusk of earliest morning. In the first moment after his return to Mount Vernon, Washington sent a copy of the constitution to Patrick Henry,t to IIarrison, and to Nelson, each of whom had been governor of Virginia. In a propitiatory letter he appealed to their experience of the difficulties which had ever arisen in attempts to reconcile the interests and local prejudices of the several states. "I wish," he continued, "the constitution which is offered had been more perfect; but it is the best that could be obtained at this time, and a door is opened for amendments hereafter. The political concerns of this country are suspended by a thread. The convention has been looked up to by the reflecting part of the community with a solicitude which is hardly to be conceived; and if nothing had been agreed on by that body, anarchy would soon have ensued, the seeds being deeply sown in every soil." A visitor at Mount Vernon, just after this letter was sent out, writes of Washington: "He is in perfect health, and looks almost as well as he did twenty years ago. I never in my life saw him so keen for anything as he is for the adoption of the new form of government." Throughout the whole country he * Madison to Washington. Gilpin, 646; Elliot, 567. Washington to Henry, 24 September 1787. Sparks, ix., 265. was the centre of interest; in Virginia of power. The leaders of opposition answered him frankly, but with expressions of deference and affection. "The seeds of civil discord," replied Harrison, "are plentifully sown in very many of the powers given both to the presi dent and congress. If the constitution is carried into effect, the states south of the Potomac will be little more than appendages to those to the northward of it. My objections chiefly lie against the unlimited powers of taxation, the regulation of trade, and the jurisdictions that are to be established in every state altogether independent of their laws. The sword and such powers will, nay, must, sooner or later establish a tyranny." " Avowing very sincerely "the highest reverence" for Washington, Patrick Henry answered positively: "I cannot bring my mind to accord with the proposed constitution." + George Mason, who had rendered the highest and wisest service in shaping the constitution, now from wounded pride resisted his inmost convictions, enumerating to his old friend his objections, of which the grant to congress of power to regulate commerce by a bare majority was the capital one. ‡ Next Richard Henry Lee, professing himself "compelled by irresistible conviction of mind to doubt about the new system for federal government," wrote: "It is, sir, in consequence of long reflection upon the nature of man and of government, that I am led to fear the danger that will ensue to civil liberty from the adoption of the new system in its present form." And, having at once fixed in his mind the plan on which resistance to its adoption should be conducted, he avowed his wish "that such amendments as would give security to the rights of human nature and the discordant interests of the different parts of this union might employ another convention." # 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 *Sparks, ix., 266, 267. Note. Sparks, ix., 266. Note. George Mason to Washington, 7 October 1787. Sparks, ix., 267, 268. Note. #R. H. Lee to Washington, New York, 11 October 1787. Letters to W., iv., 180, 181. 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 southern and her nearest northern neighbor. But they, like ourselves, are diminished in their real force by the mixture of an unhappy species of population." † Monroe wrote to Madison that his "strong objections" 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 conven * Meeting of Fairfax county, Tuesday, 2 October 1787. Carey's Museum, ii., 392, 393. + Edmund Randolph to the speaker of the house of delegates of Virginia, 10 October 1787. Elliot, i., 487. Monroe to Madison, 13 October 1787. tion, 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 power 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 government than I am; that I regard our perfect union as the rock of our political salvation." + After some debate, John Marshall of Richmond, conceding the point as to "leaving the door open for 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 substance it yielded up all that Henry and Mason required. From "unfriendly intentions toward the constitution," A 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. ◊ *Bushrod Washington to G. W., 19 October 1787. Sparks, ix., 273. + Report of Debate in Packet, 10 November 1787. Madison, i., 363, 364. Report of the Debate from Penn. Packet, 10 November 1787. Compare George Mason to G. W., 6 November 1787, in Letters to G. W., iv., 190. Report of Debates in Penn. Packet, 10 November 1787. Bushrod Washington in Sparks, ix., 287. A Edward Carrington to T. Jefferson, 10 November 1787. Bushrod Washington was inexperienced, and at first judged the disposition of the legislature too favorably; Carrington had keener-eyed correspondents. ◊ Monroe to Madison, 7 February 1788. Carrington to Madison, 18 January |