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 20
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162 I do not feel altogether at liberty to state the circumstances which led to the reconciliation between Mr. Madison and Colonel Monroe, but it will be known in due time.
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not the elevation and grandeur of the tree which he is about to fell, or the magnificent sweep of those branches which have wrestled with the tempests of ages, or in the shadow of which, ere the foot of the Anglo-Saxon had touched the shores of the New World, the Indian hero had wooed his dusky mate, or the tremulous glory of its leaf, he disregarded that splendid illustra- tion which invests the speeches of an Everett with the dignity of an epic, and looked to the staple of a speech as the only ob- ject that could justify a rational creature in expending his own breath and the time of other people. Hence there is hardly a perceptible change, certainly no improvement, in his oratorical powers from the beginning to the end of his parliamentary course. As he spoke now, so he spoke forty years later, when, in the midst of an august assembly whose passions were roused by a prolonged discussion of the most exciting topics, he most unexpectedly rose to present his views of the subject under de- bate. Now, as then, his manner, if indeed he may be said to have had any manner at all, was to the last degree awkward, warring at once with the common laws of motion and the estab- lished rules of pronunciation ; while in both instances his matter was sterling, his purposes were manifestly sincere, and his aims were those of a statesman who had reflected profoundly upon his theme. What seemed at the first view to be a defect, really con- tributed no little to his success in public bodies. The temper of mind which made him overlook the mere drapery of rhetoric rendered him ever ready to take the floor. He had no idea of the mollia tempora fandi. He could not conceive why a man who had anything to say could not say it at one time as well as another. The same temper rendered him invulnerable to the gibes of wit and to the sword of sarcasm ; and, free from ner- vous palpitations, and unhurt in the wildest storm of party mis- siles, he was an invaluable leader in times of trouble.
It is not an unworthy office to hold up the example of Monroe for the imitation of the young, and especially of the friendless young, who are entering on the public stage. It is a beacon, the light of which may not necessarily, in the shifting changes of the world, conduct to ultimate triumph in politics, but will lead to personal improvement, certainly to distinction, and as certainly to the esteem and love of mankind. And even this view of the subject appears low when we look abroad and embrace within
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the scope of our vision those grand arrangements of Providence which control the operation of human affairs, which so frequently confound the schemes of a vain imagination and even of brilliant genius, and which stamp the moral virtues with a far deeper im- press of approval than those more alluring and more dazzling qualities which men are so eager to cultivate and rely upon as the foundation of success in the business of life.
We have said that the training of Monroe was effected mainly by his commerce with the world; and to him the scene now shifting its many-colored hues around him was the best of schools. Before he entered the Convention he had studied the new plan carefully, aided by the lights which, from both sides, had been cast upon it ; and during the present discussion he had listened at- tentively, making notes of the arguments and referring to the cited authorities ; and his speech is a wonderful proof of the success with which he prosecuted his labors. Viewed apart from the discussions of the period, both in and out of the House, both on the rostrum and from the press, it evinces not only a thorough acquaintance with the instrument itself, perfect logical consis- tency, and no little familiarity with the more abstruse illustra- tions drawn from ancient and modern history, with which it was sustained or opposed, but such a comprehensive grasp of his subject as to lead to the conviction that he had demonstrated the true cause of the existing troubles of the country, that he was ready to apply an immediate, safe, and effective remedy. His introduction was modest and appropriate : " I cannot avoid ex- pressing," he said, "the great anxiety which I feel upon the present occasion-an anxiety that proceeds not only from a high sense of the importance of the subject, but from a profound respect for this august and venerable assembly. When we contemplate the fate that has befallen other nations, whether we cast our eyes back into the remotest ages of antiquity, or derive instruction from those examples which modern times have presented to our view, and observe how prone all human institutions have been to decay ; how subject the best formed and wisely organized gov- ernments have been to lose their checks and totally dissolve ; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled, as it were, by an irresistible fate to despotism ; if we look forward to those prospects that sooner or later await our country, unless
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we shall be exempted from the fate of other nations, even to a mind the most sanguine and benevolent, some gloomy apprehen- sions must necessarily crowd upon it. This consideration is suffi- cient to teach us the limited capacity of the human mind-how subject the wisest men have been to error. For my own part, sir, I come forward here, not as the partisan of this or that side of the question, but to commend where the subject appears to me to deserve commendation, to suggest my doubts where I have any, to hear with candor the explication of others, and, in the ulti- mate result, to act as shall appear for the best advantage of our common country."
He called attention to the spectacle of a people about to frame a new plan of government as in striking contrast with the history of Europe for the last twelve centuries ; pointed out the distinct- ive elements of our colonial settlement, and the change effected by the Revolution, which put the government into the hands of one class only-not of nobles and freemen as in other systems, but of freemen only ; that the success of the American polity could only be sustained by the union of the States, and that this union was dearly cherished by all the States except Rhode Island,153 and that the question now was on what principles the union should be constructed. With a view of reaching a cor- rect result, he reviewed the Federal alliances of ancient and modern times, and especially the construction of the Amphyc- tionic Council, and showed the causes of its downfall ; he next ad- verted to the Achaian league, and pointed out its closer analogy with the Articles of Confederation, arguing with seeming force from that resemblance that our Confederation was not as weak as was contended by the friends of the new plan, and seeking to sustain his argument by quotations from Polybius, which he read to the House. He successively reviewed in detail the constitu- tion of the Germanic body, of the Swiss Cantons, of the United Netherlands, and of the New England Confederacy, and inferred that as the destruction or inadequacy of the foreign federal asso- ciations arose from a dissimilarity of structure in the individual members, the facility of foreign interference, and the recurrence
153 The conduct of Rhode Island during the Revolution and subse- quently, met with no quarter from either side of the House throughout the debates.
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to foreign aid, which were not applicable to us, there was no pro- priety in rejecting a federal system and in accepting a consoli- dated government in its stead. This view was enforced at great length, and with an intimate knowledge of the circumstances of the country. He then discussed the question, "What are the powers which the Federal Government ought to possess?" arguing from various considerations that the entire control of commerce ought to be given to the new plan, and that the power of direct taxation, from its inexpediency, from the impracticability of its use, and from its peculiarity, should be withheld from it, demonstrated that the present pressure on the Confederation was from obvious causes not likely to occur again, but temporary, and would soon pass away ; and that the means of relief, in addi- tion to the control of commerce and the imposts which at five per cent. it was estimated would exceed a million of dollars, would be found in the sale of public lands which were rapidly settling, in loans, which would be readily negotiated at a low rate under the auspices of a large and certain revenue, and in the last resort to requisitions upon the States. These topics were argued deliberately and with great tact. He then pro- ceeded to analyze the new scheme of government, and concluded that it was dangerous ; that a bill of rights was necessary ; that the doctrine that all powers not ceded were retained might prove utterly delusive, as by an evasion the Congress, under the clause which gives power to pass all laws necessary for carrying the plan into effect, might pass what laws they pleased, and might destroy trial by jury, and the liberty of the press, and other precious rights. He considered the alleged probability of har- mony between the General Government and the States, conclud- ing that, as history did not afford a single instance of the con- current exercise of powers by two parties without producing a struggle between them, such would certainly be the case with us. He then objected to the construction of the executive depart- ment as violating the correct idea of a legislative power, and of other parts of the new plan, ending in these words, " upon review - ing this government, I must say, under my present impression, I think it a dangerous government and calculated to secure neither the interests nor the rights of our countrymen. Under such an one I shall be averse to embark the best hopes and prospects of a free people. We have struggled long to bring
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about this Revolution by which we enjoy our present freedom and security. Why then this haste, this wild precipitation ?"
Monroe was immediately succeeded on the floor by a tall young man, slovenly dressed in loose summer apparel, with piercing black eyes, that would lead the observer to believe that their possessor was more destined to toy with the Muses than to worship at the sterner shrine of Themis, his senior by three years ; who had been his colleague in the old-field school, in the army of the North through a long and perilous war, in the col- lege, and at the bar ; who, as on the present occasion, differed with him in opinion, as on all others, during their continuous race of half a century, and who was destined, like him, to fill the mission to France when one of the greatest political mael- stroms of modern times was in full whirl, and to preside in the Department of War and in the Department of State under the Federal Constitution. But when one of them withdrew from the House of Representatives and the other from the Senate of the United States, their paths diverged, the elder devoting himself entirely to politics, the younger to law, each with such success that the pen which traces the history of James Monroe as the head of the Federal Executive, will record on the same page the history of John Marshall as the head of the Fed- eral Judiciary. Marshall was in his thirty-third year, and from the close of the war to the meeting of the Convention, had applied himself, with the exception of an occasional session in the House of Delegates, to the practice of the law. His manners, like those of Monroe, were in strange contrast with those of Ed- mund Randolph or of Grayson, and had been formed in the tutelage of the camp, without, however, a tinge of that martinet address which derides the rule of Hogarth, and consists in making a stiff vertebral column the line of beauty and of grace ; his habits were convivial almost to excess ; and he regarded as matters beneath his notice those appliances of dress and de- meanor which are commonly considered not unimportant to ad- vancement in a public profession. Nor should those personal qualities which cement friendships and gain the affections of men, and which he possessed in an eminent degree, be passed over in a likeness of this young man-qualities as prominently marked in the decline of his honored life, when his robe had for a third of a century been fringed with ermine, as when, in
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the heyday of youth, dressed in a light roundabout, he won his way to every heart. Nor, as it is our duty as well as our plea- sure to dwell on the domestic relations of our subjects, should we fail to say that he had married, some years before, a charming woman, whose loveliness was the least of her perfections ; who was the guardian angel of his earlier years, beckoning him from the snares which thickly beset his amiable temper and social pro- pensities ; who was the delight of his long life ; whom, when laid for years upon that bed from which she was never to rise, he tended with the watchfulness of early love; and whom, when taken from him after an union of near half a century, he commemorated, on the first anniversary of her death, in a tri- bute which never saw the light till he was no more, written with such exquisite pathos as to touch the sternest heart, and which, in a mere literary point of view, excels the productions, not only of his own pen, but the pen of almost all his illustrious contem- poraries. 154
His speech now delivered has the peculiar marks which were visible in his subsequent speeches in the House of Delegates, and especially in that most celebrated of all his speeches-the speech delivered in the case of Jonathan Robbins in the House of Representatives, of which Gallatin, when pressed by a leading politician to answer it, said in his then broken English : " An- swer it yourself ; for my part I think it unanswerable." It will afford in after times a worthy theme to those who are curious in watching the development of a great mind in the several stages of its progress. Nothing could be more directly to the point than its exordium. "I conceive," he said "that the object of the discussion now before us is whether democracy or despotism be most eligible. I am sure that those who framed the system submitted to our investigation, and those who now support it, intend the establishment and security of the former. The sup-
154 The maiden name of Mrs. Marshall was Mary Ambler, who was married to the Judge on the 3d of January, 1783, and died on the 25th day of December, 1831. The paper alluded to was written on the 25th of December, 1832. and may be found in Bishop Meade's "Old Churches," Etc., II, 222. The letter of Mr. Jefferson to John Adams is another specimen of tender affection, and shows, in connection with the paper in question, that long and almost exclusive attention to pub- lic affairs does not always deaden the kindlier feelings of the heart.
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porters of the Constitution claim the title of being firm friends of liberty and of the rights of mankind. They say that they consider it as the best means of protecting liberty. We, sir, idolize democracy. Those who oppose it have bestowed eulo - giums on monarchy. We prefer this system to any monarchy, because we are convinced that it has a greater tendency to se- cure our liberty and promote our happiness. We admire it, because we think it a well-regulated democracy. It is recom- mended to the good people of this country ; they are, through us, to declare whether it be such a plan of government as will establish and secure their freedom. Permit me to attend to what the honorable gentleman (Henry) has said. He has expatiated on the necessity of a due attention to certain maxims, to certain fundamental principles from which a free people ought never to depart. I concur with him in the propriety of the observance of such maxims. They are necessary in any government, but more essential to a democracy than to any other. What are the favorite maxims of democracy ? A strict observance of justice and public faith, and a steady adherence to virtue. These, sir, are the principles of a good government. No mischief-no mis- fortune ought to deter us from a strict observance of justice and public faith. Would to heaven that these principles had been observed under the present government! Had this been the case, the friends of liberty would not be so willing now to part with it. Can we boast that our government is founded on these maxims? Can we pretend to the enjoyment of political freedom or security, when we are told that a man has been, by an Act of Assembly, struck out of existence without a trial by jury, without examination, without being affronted by his accusers and witnesses, without the benefits of the law of the land ? Where is our safety, when we are told that this act was justifi- able, because the person was not a Socrates ?155 What has be- come of the worthy member's maxims? Is this one of them ?
155 Nothing shows more plainly the desire of the friends of the Con- stitution to undermine the influence of Henry than the repetition of this charge, which is not only false in every respect, but which, if true, would only prove mal-administration in the State government, which the new plan, if adopted, could neither punish nor prevent a repetition of. The belief at the time was, though wholly wrong, that Henry, as Governor, had recommended the measure.
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Shall it be a maxim that a man shall be deprived of his life with- out the benefit of law? Shall such a deprecation of life be justi- fied by answering that the man's life was not taken secundum artem, because he was a bad man ? Shall it be a maxim that government ought not to be empowered to protect virtue?"
His purpose was to follow in the track of Henry ; and pro- ceeded to controvert the views of that gentleman on the Missis- sippi question; on the relative expediency of previous and subse- quent amendments, and on the propriety of vesting the power of direct taxation in Congress, which he discussed at considerable length. He agreed with Henry that a government should rest on the affections of the people, and that the Constitution, founded upon their authority, and resting upon them, deserved and would receive their cordial support; showed that the argument derived from the union of the purse and the sword in the same hands would apply to every government as well as the one under con- sideration; that the objection urged against the Constitution from the construction of the British government, which requires war to be declared by the executive and the resources for carrying it on to be provided by Parliament, was inapplicable, and that in fact the new plan gave a far greater and more reliable security to the people ; and closed with an able and critical comparison of the British Constitution with the plan under discussion, which last, he contended, was superior in every respect to the British, and peculiarly adapted to the wants and to the genius of the people of America.
When we look to the subsequent career of Monroe and Mar- shall, their speeches delivered successively in the same debate have an interest which might not attach to them in an abstract view. The speech of Marshall is direct and conclusive, never departing a hair's breadth from the line of his argument. The objection which he wishes to overcome is stated fairly and fully, and he proceeds forthwith to remove it, using when possible the concessions of his antagonist for his purposes, and sometimes with such effect that an honest antagonist, confiding in his own maxims, feels inclined to accept the hostile commentary in place of his own. But his speech on this occasion, though in passing judgment the circumstances of its delivery must be kept in view, is plainly rather that of a lawyer than a statesman. He demon- strates with apparent conclusiveness the propriety of adopting
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the Constitution, but he seeks to effect his object not so much by arguments derived from the state of affairs, or from an examina- tion of the different Federal systems analogous to our own, or from a statesmanlike survey of the instrument itself, but mainly from the weakness of the arguments urged against it by its oppo- nents, a mode of argumentation as applicable to the defence of the worst as well as the wisest political system.
In drawing the auguries of subsequent success from these speeches of the young debaters, while it is evident that each, as an intellectual effort, exhibited abilities likely to attain distinction in any sphere of public employment, the speech of Marshall indicates those qualities which become rather the bar and the bench than the Senate and the cabinet, while the opposite con- clusion would probably be drawn from the speech of Monroe. It will be observed that these speeches, although following con- secutively in the same debate, have no relation to each other, each speaker having arranged his line of argument before he entered the House.
Those who have come upon the stage since this illustrious man has descended to his grave, have a right to inquire into his habits of public speaking. Of his intellectual powers, the speeches, few indeed, but signally representative, which he has left behind him,156 his celebrated letter to Adet, and his diplo- matic correspondence, his arguments in the Virginia reported cases, and above all, his judicial opinions, which from the first abounding in strength, became more elaborate and more elegant as he advanced in life, afford imperishable materials for the for- mation of a critical judgment. But not only have his equals and rivals, who heard his finest speeches at the bar and in public assemblies, passed away with him, but nearly all of that brilliant second growth of eminent men who took their places at the bar, and on whose ears the echoes of his speeches were almost as distinct as the original sounds which gave them birth, now rest beneath the sod. There is not more than one man living in Vir- ginia, himself distinguished, who heard his speeches in the House of Delegates during Washington's administration, nor, perhaps,
156 I regret to say that with the exception of his speech in the present Convention, in the case of Jonathan Robbins, and those in the Conven- tion of 1829-30, I fear all are lost; but even in this respect he is more fortunate than most of his compeers.
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with the exception of an eminent citizen of Massachusetts, who, in extreme old age but with unimpaired faculties, appeared to honor a literary festival recently held in his native State,157 who heard the speech of Marshall in the case of Jonathan Robbins. Yet, we are rejoiced to say that so prolonged was his life, so prominent was his position as the head of the Federal Judiciary and the presiding judge of his circuit for the first third of the present century, so accessible by the young as well as the old, by the poor as well as the rich, by the fair sex as well as the manlier, the former of which he treated with a true and a high chivalrous courtesy, which Bayard could not have surpassed-a courtesy the more sincere, as it was but the reflection of his own guileless bosom-that there are hundreds yet living who can recall with delight the modest and the deep thoughtful lines of his benignant face, those piercing black eyes which never let the image of a friend any more than the semblance of an argument escape his vision, and his lofty figure clothed in the plainest dress of an ordinary citizen, and mingling constantly and kindly with his fellow-men in the street, in the market, on the quoit-ground, or reverently bent in the humblest posture at the Throne of Grace. But, in- timate as was his knowledge of the human heart, gathered from a long experience in the camp and at the bar, those fruitful schools of human nature, it was not by appeals to the interests and to the passions of men that he sought to lay the stress of his public efforts. Indeed, so utterly did he disregard all such appeals, that he launched in the opposite extreme, and as if conscious of the true sources of his power, he avoided every- thing that might influence the mind through the eye. Indeed, like his friend Monroe, he had no manner at all as a public speaker, if by manner we mean something deliberate and studied in action; and he might be as readily expected to speak in a court-room with his hands on a chair, or with one of his legs over its back, or within two feet of a presiding officer in a public body, as in any other way. We have heard in early life from those who knew him at the bar, that his manner did not differ
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