USA > Virginia > The history of the Virginia federal convention of 1788, with some account of eminent Virginians of that era who were members of the body, Vol. I > Part 14
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116 General Lee died at Dungeness House, the property of the daugh- ter of General Nathaniel Greene, on the evening of the 25th of March, 1818. When he arrived there from the West Indies, he brought with him a number of papers in barrels, and it was thought that he was engaged in writing a history of the United States. If these papers could be found, they might throw light on several subjects of the war of the Revolution. See in the Appendix an extract from an interesting letter of a lady giving an account of the funeral of the General, at which she was present. There is no separate memoir of Lee that I know of; but the reader will find in the latest edition of the letter of his son Henry on Mr. Jefferson's books some authentic details, as also in a memoir prefixed to an edition of Lee's Memoirs, which was writ- ten by his son Charles C. Lee, Esq. [There is a "Life of General Henry Lee" prefixed to the third edition of his Memoirs of the War, Svo, 1870. Edited ostensibly by his illustrious son, Robert E. Lee-ED.]
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of a great military nation which held our frontier posts in the face of a solemn treaty, could long be kept down, and that he might gather new laurels in a familiar sphere.117 And if peace, contrary to present appearances, should prevail, there were pros- pects of a civil career under the new system such as the old Confederation, however modified, was not likely to afford. A long and prosperous course seemed to lie before him ; and, as he was a scholar as well as a politician, there was a vision of a se- rene and honored old age, in which he might imitate Xenophon an Cæsar, and record his history for the eye of future ages.
His external appearance was in unison with his intellectual character. His stature approached six feet ; the expression of his handsome face was bland and captivating ; his voice, which had been trained in war, and had often been heard in battle amid the clangor of charging horsemen, was full and clear, and evi- dently modulated in the closet, made a most favorable impres- sion upon his audiences. But he was a partisan in the Senate as well as in the camp; and, as he knew the result of a panic among soldiers in the beginning of a fight, and saw the effect of Henry's first speech on the House, he sought to rally the mem- bers by a bold attack upon his most formidable opponent. With this view he assailed Henry with a vehemence which few of his seniors would have dared to use : "I feel every power of my mind," he said, "moved by the language of the honorable gen- tleman yesterday. The eclät and brilliancy which have distin- guished that gentleman, the honors by which he has been digni- fied, and the talents which he has so often displayed, have attracted my respect and attention. On so important an occa- sion, and before so respectable a body, I expected a new display of his powers of oratory ; but, instead of proceeding to investi- gate the merits of the new plan of government, the worthy character informed us of horrors which he felt, of apprehensions in his mind, which made him tremblingly fearful of the fate of the Commonwealth. Was it proper, Mr. Chairman, to appea to the fear of this House? I trust that he is come to judge, and not to alarm. I trust that he, and every other gentleman in this
117 The fear of Indian hostilities controlled the vote of the Valley of Virginia in favor of the Constitution ; and the fate of Harman and St. ' Clair, and the battles of Wayne, very soon justified these apprehen- sions.
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house, comes with a firm resolution coolly and calmly to exam - ine, and fairly and impartially to determine. He was pleased to pass an eulogium on that character who is the pride of peace and the support of war, and declared that, even from him, he would require the reason of proposing such a system. I cannot see the propriety of mentioning that illustrious character on this occasion ; we must all be fully impressed with a conviction of his extreme rectitude of conduct. But, sir, this system is to be ex- amined on its own merits. He then adverted to the style of the government, and asked what authority they had to use the ex - pression' 'We, the people' instead of ' We, the States.' This expression was introduced into that paper with great propriety ; this system is submitted to the people for their consideration, because on them it is to operate if adopted. It is not binding upon the people until it becomes their act. It is now submitted to the people of Virginia. If we do not adopt it, it will always be null and void to us. Suppose it was found proper for our adoption, in becoming the government of the people of Virginia, by what style should it be done ? Ought we not to make use of the name of the people? No other style would be proper." He then spoke of the characters of the men who framed the Con- stitution, and continued: "This question was inapplicable, strange, and unexpected ; it was a more proper inquiry whether such evils existed as rendered necessary a change of govern- ment. This necessity is evidenced by the concurrent testimony of almost all America. The legislative acts of different States avow it. It is acknowledged by the acts of this State; under such an act we are here now assembled. If reference to the Acts of Assembly will not sufficiently convince him of this ne- cessity, let him go to our seaports-let him see our commerce languishing-not an American bottom to be seen. Let him ask the price of land and of produce in different parts of the coun- try ; to what shall we ascribe the very low prices of these ? To what cause are we to attribute the decrease of population and industry ?118 and the impossibility of employing our tradesmen
118 It is to be regretted that the speaker did not specify some fact in proof of his assertions. Even Edmund Randolph spoke of the popu- lation flowing into Virginia. The truth is that Lee represented the landed interest of a particular section which had lost slaves, carried off by the enemy, and all its investments in bonds and securities, which
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and mechanics ? To what cause will the gentleman impute these and a thousand other misfortunes our people labor under ? These, sir, are owing to the imbecility of the Confederation-to that defective system which never can make us happy at home nor respectable abroad. The gentleman sate down as he began, leaving us to ruminate on the horrors which he opened with. Although I could trust to the argument of the gentlemen who spoke yesterday in favor of the plan, permit me to make one observation on the weight of our representatives in the Govern- ment. If the House of Commons in England, possessing less power, are now able to withstand the power of the Crown; if that House of Commons, which has been undermined by cor- ruption in every age, with far less power than our representatives posses, is still able to contend with the executive of that country, what danger have we to fear that our representatives cannot suc- cessfully oppose the encroachments of the other branches of the Government? Let it be remembered that in the year 1782 the East India bill was brought into the House of Commons. Although the members of that House are only elected in part by the landed interest, that bill was carried in the House by a majority of one hundred and thirty, and the king was obliged to dissolve the Parliament to prevent its effect. If, then, the House of Commons was so powerful, no danger can be apprehended that our House of Representatives is not amply able to protect our liberties. I trust that this representation is sufficient to se- cure our happiness, and that we may fairly congratulate our- selves on the superiority of our Government to that I just referred to."
had been paid off in depreciated currency during the war. As for the price of lands, those in Westmoreland and that section had been culti- vated for more than a century without domestic or foreign manures, and all the lands of the Piedmont country, to say nothing of Kentucky, could be purchased on moderate terms, at a time when the money flowing in from abroad, to fill the vacuum made by the Revolution, had only begun to diffuse itself through the ordinary channels of trade. The lands in Westmoreland, even, would have brought as good prices at that time as they would have done when the new government had been in operation half a century. The great and innumerable facts of a prosperous period gradually succeeding' a state of depression pass . unheeded by a common observer ; while some specific grievance, which, when properly explained, is no grievance at all, looms in gigan- tic proportions.
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Henry, who was always placable, and showed through a long life an indisposition to engage in personal controversies, and who was well aware that clever young men, speaking under the excitement of the floor, were prone to utter what in their calmer moments they would be the first to condemn, now rose, and after a slight recognition of the compliment which Lee paid to his genius, passed at once to the discussion of his subject : " I am not free from suspicion," he said; " I am apt to entertain doubts. I rose yesterday to ask a question which arose in my mind. When I asked that question, I thought the meaning of my inter- rogation obvious ; the fate of this question and America may depend on this. Have they said, 'We, the States' ? Have they made a proposal of a compact between States? If they had, this would be a confederation. It is otherwise most clearly a consolidated government. The question turns, sir, on that poor little thing-the expression, 'We, the people,' instead of the States of America. I need not take much pains to show that the principles of this system are extremely pernicious, impolitic, and dangerous. Is this a monarchy like England-a compact between prince and people, with checks on the former to secure the liberty of the latter? Is this a confederacy like Holland, an association of a number of independent States, each of which retains its individual sovereignty ? It is not a democracy, wherein the people retain all their rights securely. Had these principles been adhered to, we should not have been brought to this alarming transition from a confederacy to a consolidated
government. We have no detail of those great considerations, which, in my opinion, ought to have abounded, before we should recur to a government of this kind. Here is a resolution as radical as that which separated us from Great Britain. It is as radical, if in this transition our rights and privileges are endan- gered and the sovereignty of the States be relinquished ; and cannot we see that this is actually the case? The rights of con- science, trial by jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities and franchises, all pretensions to human rights and privileges, are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this change so loudly talked of by some, and inconsiderately by others. Is this tame relin- quishment of right worthy of freemen? Is it worthy of that manly fortitude that ought to characterize republicans ?
"It is said that eight States have adopted this plan. I declare
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that, if twelve States and a half had adopted it, I would with manly firmness, and in spite of an erring world, reject it. You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people; but how your liberties can be secured, for liberty ought to be the direct end of your government. Having premised these things, I shall, with the aid of my judgment and information, which, I confess, are not extensive, go into the discussion of this system more minutely. Is it necessary for your liberty that you should abandon those great rights by the adoption of this system? Is the relinquish- ment of trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty ? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty ? Liberty-the greatest of all earthly blessings-give us that precious jewel, and you may take everything else. But I am fearful that I have lived long enough to become an old-fashioned fellow. Perhaps an invinci- ble attachment to the dearest rights of man may in these refined and enlightened days be deemed old-fashioned ; if so, I am con- tented to be so. I say the time has been when every pulse of my heart beat for American liberty, and which, I believe, had a counter-part in the breast of every American. But suspicions have gone forth-suspicions of my integrity-publicly reputed that my professions are not real.119 Twenty-three years ago, was I supposed to be a traitor to my country ? I was then said to be a bane of sedition, because I supported the rights of my country."
" We have come hither to preserve the poor Commonwealth of Virginia, if it can possibly be done ; something must be done to preserve your liberty and mine. The Confederation-this same despised government-merits in my opinion the highest en- comium. It carried us through a long and dangerous war. It
119 Even Madison, in a letter to Edmund Randolph, dated New York, January 10, 1788, talks of Henry's "real designs"; and Washington, in the heat of the moment, wrote about Henry and Mason-the Gamaliels at whose feet he sate for twenty years-in a manner that be- trayed more passion than judgment. Great as were the merits of Washington and Madison, and none rejoices in them more than I do, it is simply stating a historical fact in saying that in 1788 neither of them stood in the estimation of the Virginia of that day on the same platform with Patrick Henry and George Mason as a statesman.
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rendered us victorious in that bloody conflict with a powerful nation. It has secured us a territory greater than any European monarch possesses. And shall a government which has been thus strong and vigorous be accused of imbecility and abandoned for want of energy? Consider what you are about to do before you part with this government. Take longer time in reckoning things. Revolutions like this have happened in almost every country in Europe ; similar examples are to be found in ancient Greece and ancient Rome ; instances of the people losing their liberty by their own carelessness and the ambition of a few."
After animadverting at length on the inadequate representa- tion in the House of Representatives, he then aimed his attacks at the system in general. "In some parts of the plan before you," he said, " the great rights of freemen are endangered; in other parts absolutely taken away. How does your trial by jury stand? In civil cases gone-not sufficiently secured in criminal-this best privilege is gone ! But we are told that we need not fear, because those in power, being our representatives, will not abuse the powers we put into their hands. I am not well versed in history, but I will submit to your recollection whether liberty has been destroyed most often by the licentiousness of the peo- ple or by the tyranny of rulers ? I imagine, sir, that you will find the balance on the side of tyranny. Happy will you be, if you miss the fate of those nations, who, omitting to resist their oppressors, or negligently suffering their liberty to be wrested from them, have groaned under intolerable despotism. Most of the human race are now in this deplorable condition. And those nations which have gone in search of grandeur, power, and splendor, they have also fallen a sacrifice, and been the victims of their own folly. While they acquired these visionary bless- ings, they lost their freedom."
" The honorable gentleman who presides (Pendleton) told us that to prevent abuses in our government, we will assemble in Convention, recall our delegated powers, and punish our servants for abusing the trust reposed in them. O ! sir, we should have fine times indeed, if to punish tyrants it were only sufficient to assemble the people. Your arms wherewith you could defend yourselves are gone ! You have no longer an aristocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you ever read of any revolu-
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tion in any nation brought about by the punishment of those in power inflicted by those who have no power at all ?"
He then contrasts the security of the State government founded on the Declaration of Rights with the various provisions of the Federal Constitution, and opposes the policy of direct taxation. "The voice of tradition," he said, "will, I trust, inform pos- terity of our struggles for freedom. If our descendants be worthy of the name of Americans, they will preserve and hand down to the latest posterity the transactions of the present time ; and although my exclamations are not worthy the hearing, they will see that I have done my utmost to preserve their liberty. For I will never give up the power of direct taxation but for a scourge. I am willing to give it conditionally, that is, after a non-compliance with requisitions. I will do more, sir, and what I hope will convince the most skeptical man that I am a lover of the American Union; that, in case Virginia shall not make punctual payment, the control of our custom-houses and the whole regulation of our trade shall be given to Congress, and that Virginia shall depend upon Congress even for passports, till Virginia shall have paid the last farthing, and furnished the last soldier. Nay, sir, there is another alternative to which I would consent ; even that they should strike us out of the Union and take away from us all Federal privileges, till we comply with Federal requisitions ; but let it depend on our own pleasure to pay our money in the most easy manner for our people. Were all the States, more terrible than the mother country, to join against us, I hope Virginia could defend herself; but, sir, the dissolution of the Union is most abhorrent to my mind. The first thing I have at heart is American liberty ; the second thing is American union." He then proceeded to show the incom . patibility of direct taxation at the same time by the Federal and State governments, drawing a vivid picture of the malfeasance of the State sheriffs who acted under the eye of the Assembly, and of the utter ruin of the people by the combined array of Federal and State collectors, and closing the part of his speech with a declaration that "on this subject he should be an infidel till the day of his death."
When he had rallied for a moment, he continued his general examination of the new plan, opening with that description of
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the Constitution which has been repeated so often since by the school-boy and the statesman, " This Constitution is said to have beautiful features ; but when I come to examine these features, sir, they appear to me horribly frightful. Among other de- formities it has an awful squinting-it squints towards monarchy. And does not this raise indignation in the breast of every true American? Your President may easily become king. Your Senate is so imperfectly constituted that your dearest rights may be sacrificed by what may be a small minority, and a very small minority may continue forever unchangeably this Government although horribly defective. Where are your checks in this Government ? Your strongholds will be in the hands of your enemies. If your American chief be a man of ambition and abilities, how easy it is for him to render himself absolute ! The army is in his hands, and if he be a man of address, it will be attached to him ; and it will be a subject of long meditation with him to seize the first auspicious moment to accomplish his designs. And, sir, will the American spirit solely relieve you when this happens? I would rather infinitely, and I am sure most of this Convention are of the same opinion, have a king, lords, and commons, than a government so replete with insup- portable evils. If we make a king, we may prescribe the rules by which he shall rule his people, and interpose such checks as shall prevent him from infringing them; but the President in the field at the head of his army can prescribe the terms on which he shall reign master so far that it will puzzle any Ameri- can. to get his neck from under the galling yoke. I cannot with patience think of this idea. If ever he violates the laws, one of two things will happen : he will come at the head of his army to carry every thing before him, or he will give bail to do what Mr. Chief Justice will order him.120 If he be guilty, will not the recollection of his crimes teach him to make one bold push for the American throne? Will not the immense difference between being master of everything, and being ignominiously tried and punished, powerfully excite him to make this bold push ? But, sir, where is the existing force to punish him? Can he not at
120 This was uttered in the presence of gentlemen, two of whom afterwards became President of the United States, one of whom be- came Chief Justice, and another of whom became a Justice of the Supreme Court.
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the head of his army beat down every opposition? Away with your President ; we shall have a king. The army will salute him monarch ; your militia will leave you and assist in making him king, and fight against you. And what have you to oppose this force? What will then become of you and your rights ? Will not absolute despotism ensue?" (Here, says the reporter, Mr. Henry strongly and pathetically expatiated on the proba- bility of the President's enslaving America, and the horrid con- sequences that must result).
He then passed on to the subject of the elections under the Constitution, which he discussed at length ; and when he had examined the argument of Lee, derived from the composition of the House of Commons, apologized for the time he had con- sumed and for his departure from the order adopted by the Con- vention, and indulged the hope that the House would allow him the privilege of again addressing it, ending with the prayer, " may you be fully apprized of the dangers of the new plan of government, not by fatal experience, but by some abler advo- cate than I."
The speech of Henry lasted more than three hours, and was not only the longest he ever made, but the most eloquent ever pronounced in public bodies.121 Two well-authenticated instances of its effect have come down to us. General Thomas Posey was an officer of distinction in the army of the Revolution, was sub- sequently second in command under Wayne in the successful
121 I am inclined to think that this was the longest speech made by Henry during the session. Judge Curtis (History of the Constitution, &c .. II, 558, note) reports a newspaper rumor that Henry spoke on some one occasion seven hours, and thinks it was when this speech was delivered. Pendleton and Lee, the only speakers that day, did not consume much of the morning before Henry began and spoke till the adjournment. We know that the speech of Randolph, delivered in reply the following day consumed two hours and a half, and that Madi- son and George Nicholas made long and elaborate speeches after him. In the debates, the speech of Randolph occupies more space than the speech of Henry, but in the case of the latter, we have the confession of the reporter that he could not follow him in his pathetic appeals. Tradition affirms that if Henry had offered at the close of his speech a motion of indefinite postponement of the Constitution, it would have succeeded by a considerable majority. The testimony of General Posey would lead us to think so.
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Indian campaigns of that general, and was warmly in favor of the adoption of the Constitution ; yet he declared to a friend that he was so overpowered by the eloquence of Henry on this occa- sion as to believe that the Constitution would, if adopted, be the ruin of our liberties as certainly as he believed in his own exist- ence; that subsequent reflection reassured his judgment, and his well considered opinion resumed its place. 122 Mr. Best, an intelligent gentleman of Nansemond, who heard the fervid de- scription which Henry gave of the slavery of the people wrought by a Federal executive at the head of his armed hosts, declared that so thrilling was the delineation of the scene, "he involun- tarily felt his wrists to assure himself that the fetters were not already pressing his flesh ; and that the gallery on which he was sitting seemed to become as dark as a dungeon."123
An incident occurred while Henry was speaking which shows that the feelings of the husband and father were not wholly lost in those of the patriot. As his eye ranged over the house, when in the height of his argument, he caught the face of his son, whom he had left a few days before in Prince Edward as the pro- tector of his family during his absence, and he knew that some important domestic event had brought him to Richmond. He hesitated for a moment, stooped down, and with a full heart whispered to a friend who was sitting before him: "Dawson, I see my son in the hall ; take him out." Dawson instantly with- drew with young Henry, and soon returned with the grateful intelligence that Mrs. Henry had been safely delivered of a son, and that mother and child were doing well. That new-born babe, called from a maternal ancestor Spotswood, lived to become familiar with the features of his father's face, and to enjoy his splendid fame ; and in the quiet burial-ground of Red Hill, at the mature age of sixty-five, was laid by his side.134
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