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 33
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stitution, and as fearless on the floor as in the field, he now rose to give utterance to his feelings. Indeed, his speech is rather a fierce personal attack upon Henry than a defense of the judiciary, which was the topic in debate, or of the Constitution at large." "The gentleman," says Stephen, " means to frighten us by his bugbears and hobgoblins-his sale of lands to pay taxes-Indian purchases, and other horrors, that I think I know as much about as he does. I have traveled through the greater part of the Indian countries ; I know them well. I can mention a variety of resources by which the people may be enabled to pay their taxes." (He then went into a description of the Mississippi and its waters, Cook's river, the Indian tribes residing in that coun- try, and the variety of articles which might be obtained to advan- tage by trading with those people.) "I know, he said, of several rich mines of gold and silver in the western country. And will the gentleman tell me that these precious metals will not pay taxes ? If the gentleman does not like this government, let him go and live among the Indians. I know of several nations that live very happy ; and I can furnish him with a vocabulary of their lan- guage."
Nicholas rose to answer some arguments which had fallen from the gentlemen on the other side. He denied that the Eng- lish judges were more independent than the judges of the Fed- eral judiciary. May not a variety of pensions be granted to the judges with a view to influence their decisions? May they not be removed by a vote of both Houses of Parliament ? We are told that quit-rents are to be sued for. To satisfy gentlemen, I beg leave to refer them to an Act of Assembly, passed in the year 1782, before the peace, which absolutely abolishes the quit- rents, and discharges the holders of lands in the Northern Neck from any claim of that kind. As to the claims of certain com- panies which purchased lands of the Indians, they were deter- mined prior to the opening of the land office by the Virginia Assembly; and it is not to be supposed that they will be again disposed to renew their claim. But, said Nicholas, there are gentlemen who have come by large possessions that it is not easily to account for. Here Herry interfered, and hoped the gentleman meant nothing personal. Nicholas answered : "I . mean what I say, sir." He then alluded to the Blue Laws of Massachusetts, of which he said he had never heard till yester-
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day, and said he thought those laws should have as little weight in the present discussion as an argument which he had heard out of doors, to the effect that as New England men wore black stockings and plush breeches, there could be no union with them. He said the ground had been so much traveled over, he thought it unnecessary to trouble the committee any farther on the subject.
Henry rose and said that if the gentleman means personal in- sinuations, or wishes to wound my private reputation, I think this an improper place to do so. If, on the other hand, he means to go on in the discussion of the subject, he ought not to apply ar- guments which might tend to obstruct the discussion. As to land matters, I can tell how I came by what I have ; but I think that gentleman (Nicholas) has no right to make that inquiry of me. I mean not to offend any one-I have not the most distant idea of injuring any gentleman. My object was to obtain infor- mation. If I have offended in private life, or wounded the feel- ings of any man, I did not intend it. I hold what I hold in a right and just manner. I beg pardon for having obtruded thus far. Nicholas then observed that he meant no personality in what he said, nor did he mean any resentment. If such conduct meets the contempt of that gentleman, I can only assure him, said Nicholas, it meets with an equal degree of contempt from me.
The President hoped gentlemen would not be personal, and that they would proceed to investigate the subject in a calm and peaceable manner. Nicholas again rose and said that he did not mean the honorable gentleman (Henry), but he meant those who had taken up large tracts of land in the western country. The reason he could not explain himself before was that he thought some observations had dropped from the honorable gentleman as ought not to have come from one gentleman to another. 228
228 Nicholas was the brother-in-law of Randolph, and was, it is be- lieved, deeply interested in western lands, and in fact removed to Ken- tucky in a short time after the adjournment of the Convention. The account of the quarrel. as reported in the debates, I have given, but there does not seem to be any excuse for the prompt refusal of Nicholas to make an explanation. The explanation may, perhaps, be found in the high state of excitement which prevailed as the final voting was coming on ; in the tone in which Henry made his inquiry, and not a little, perhaps, in the feeling with which Henry was regarded by the
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An animated conversation in respect of the powers of the judi- ciary now sprang up between Monroe, Madison, Grayson, Henry and Mason, when the sections under consideration were passed over, and the first section of the fourth article was read. 229
Mason observed that how far Congress shall declare the degree of faith to which public records were entitled to was proper, he could not clearly see. Madison answered that the clause was absolutely necessary, and that he had not employed a thought on the subject.
The second section of the fourth article was then read. 230 Mason said that on a former occasion gentlemen were pleased to make some observations on the security of property coming within this section. It was then said, and he now said, that there is no security, nor have gentlemen convinced him that there was. 231
leading friends of the Constitution, who laid the whole burden of oppo- sition at his door. There were repeated attempts to wound his feel- ings, but he treated most of them with silence.
229 " Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be passed, and the effect thereof."
230 " The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."
" A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another State shall, on de- mand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime."
" No person held to service or labour in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another shall, in consequence of any law or regu- lation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due."
231 More than sixty years after this remark was made by Mason, one of his grandsons in the Senate of the United States drew up an act to carry this clause of the Constitution into effect.
If it had been objected to the first clause of this section, that a Southern gentleman could not travel with his servants through another State without having them forcibly taken from him, or in transitu to some other State, the friends of the Constitution would have answered that from their own experience no such result would ever follow.
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The third section of the fourth article was then read. 232 Gray- son said that it appeared to him that there never can be a South- ern State admitted into the union. There are seven States who are a majority, and whose interest it is to prevent it. The bal- ance being actually on their side, they will have the regulation of commerce and the Federal ten miles square whenever they please. It is not to be supposed then, that they will admit any Southern State into the union so as to lose that majority. Madi- son thought this part of the plan more favorable to the Southern States than the present Confederation, as there was a greater chance of new States being admitted.233 Mason glanced at differ- ent parts of the Constitution, and argued that the adoption of a system so replete with defects could not but be productive of the most alarming consequences. He dreaded popular resist- ance to its operation. He expressed in emphatic terms the dreadful effects which must ensue should the people resist, and concluded by observing that he trusted gentlemen would pause before they decided a question which involved such awful con- sequences. Lee declared that he was so overcome by what Mason had said that he could not suppress his feelings. He revered that gentlemen, and never thought he should hear from him sentiments so injurious to the country, so opposed to the dignity of the House, and so well calculated to bring on the horrors which the gentleman deprecated. Such speeches within those walls would lead the unthinking and the vicious to overt acts. God of Heaven, said Lee, avert that fearful doom ; but should the madness of some and the vice of others risk that awful appeal, he trusted that the friends of the Constitution would
232 "SEC. III. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the juris- diction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of Congress."
"The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belong- ing to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State.
233 Under the Confederation, the assent of all the States was neces- sary to the admission of a new State.
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encounter with alacrity and resignation every difficulty and dan- ger in defence of the public liberty.
The remainder of the Constitution was then read, and we only know, in the absence of any reported debate, that the part re- ferring to amendments to the Constitution was animadverted upon by its opponents. The committee then rose, and the House adjourned.
On Tuesday, the twenty-fourth of June, the members began to assemble in the hall at an early hour, and all appeared con- scious that the crisis was at hand. That day or the next the final vote would be cast ; and the grave question, which had so long engaged their serious attention, and on the decision of which, in the estimation of both parties, depended the fate of the country, would be irrevocably settled. The same policy which had in- duced the friends of the Constitution to select Pendleton to open the debate on the judiciary, impelled them to select Wythe as the proper person to bring forward the resolution of ratification. As soon as the House was called to order, a motion was made that it should resolve itself into committee, and adopted. Pen- dleton, who was privy to the plans of his friends, beckoned Thomas Mathews to the chair. Of this gentleman, who, born in one of the British West India islands, had emigrated in early life to Norfolk, which borough he represented for many years in the General Assembly; who opposed with zeal those measures of the British Parliament that led to the Revolution, and served faithfully during the war (attaining the rank of lieutenant-col- onel); who was long Speaker of the House of Delegates; whose fine person, whose courteous manners, and whose lively wit made him popular even with men who were apt to frown on those lighter foibles which were quite as conspicuous in our earlier as in our later statesmen, and whose name, conferred upon an east- ern county created during his speakership, is fresh in our own times, we have not leisure to speak at large. Like most of the military men of the Revolution, he approved the Constitution, and faithfully executed the will of a town which celebrated the inauguration of that instrument with one of the most brilliant exhibitions in her history.234 Wythe instantly rose to address
23 The historical student will see the name of Thomas Mathews, as Speaker of the House of Delegates, certifying the ratification of the
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the chair. There was need of haste; for Henry had prepared a series of amendments which he desired the House to adopt, and thus postpone the final vote on the Constitution for an in- definite period. He looked pale and fatigued ; and so great was his agitation that he had uttered several sentences before he was distinctly heard by those who sat near him. When he was heard, he was recapitulating the history of the Colonies previous to the war, their resistance to the oppressions of Great Britain, and the glorious conclusion of that arduous conflict. To perpetuate the blessings of freedom, he contended that the union of the States should be indissoluble. He expatiated on the defects of the Confederation. He pointed out the impossibility of securing liberty without society, the impracticability of acting personally, and the inevitable necessity of delegating power to agents. He recurred to the system under consideration. He admitted its imperfection, and the propriety of some amendments. But, he said, it had virtues which could not be denied by its opponents. He thought that experience was the best guide, and that most of the improvements that had been made in the science of govern- ment, were the result of experience. He appealed to the advo- cates for amendments to say whether, if they were indulged with any alterations they pleased, there might not be still a necessity of alteration? He then proceeded to the consideration of the question of previous or subsequent amendments. He argued that, from the dangers of the crisis, it would be safer to adopt the Constitution as it is, and that it would be easy to obtain all needful amendments afterwards. He then proposed a form of ratification, which was handed to the clerk and read to the committee. 235
Well might Wythe evince unusual emotion in presenting his scheme. Henry rose in a fierce humor strangely mixed with grief and shame. Whether he felt discomfitted by having been
first amendment of the series proposed by Congress to the considera- tion of the States. [He was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ma- sons of Virginia from October 28, 1790, to October 28, 1793 .- ED.] John Pride, another member of the Convention, was at that date (December 15, 1791,) Speaker of the Senate of Virginia ; and Humphrey Brooke, another member, was clerk of the Senate at the time.
235 See the form as it was adopted the following day.
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forestalled by Wythe in offering his own scheme, which had been prepared with great care, to the committee, or was moved by the terms of Wythe's proposition, or was influenced by the sense of the imminent danger of losing the great battle which he had been waging in behalf of what he deemed the common liberty, there was something in his manner and in the subdued tones of his voice that foretold a fearful explosion. In the beginning of his speech he pitched his passion to a low key. He thought the proposal of ratification premature, and that the importance of the subject required the most mature deliberation. He dissented from the scheme of Wythe, because it admitted that the new . system was capitally defective; for immediately after the pro- posed ratification comes the declaration that the paper before you is not intended to violate any of the three great rights-liberty of . the press, liberty of religion, and the trial by jury. What is the inference when you enumerate the rights which you are to enjoy ? That those not enumerated are relinquished. He then discanted on the omission of general warrants, so fatal in a vast country where no judge within a thousand miles can be found to issue a writ of habeas corpus, and where an innocent man might rot in jail before he could be delivered by process of law ; the dangers of standing armies in times of peace, and ten or eleven other things equally important, all of which are omitted in the scheme of Wythe. Is it the language of the Bill of Rights that these things only are valuable? Is it the language of men going into a new government ? After pressing with great force the incon- sistency and futility of a ratification with subsequent amendments, he exhorted gentlemen to think seriously before they ratified the Constitution and persuaded themselves that they will succeed in making a feeble effort to obtain amendments. With respect to that part of Wythe's proposal which states that every power not granted remains with the people, it must be previous to adop- tion, or it will involve this country in inevitable destruction. To talk of it as a thing subsequent, not as one of your inalienable rights, is leaving it to the casual opinion of the Congress who shall take up the consideration of that matter. They will not reason with you about the effect of this Constitution. They will not take the opinion of this committee concerning its opera- tion. They will construe it as they please. If you place it . subsequently, let me ask the consequences ? Among ten thou-
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sand implied powers which they may assume, they may, if we be engaged in war, liberate every one of your slaves if they please. And this must and will be done by men, a majority of whom have not a common interest with you.
It has been repeatedly said here that the great object of a national government is national defence. All the means in the possession of the people must be given to the government which is entrusted with the public defence. In this State there are two hundred and thirty-six thousand blacks, but there are few or none in the Northern States. And yet, if the Northern States shall be of opinion that our numbers are numberless, they may call forth every national resource May Congress not say that every black man must fight ? Did we not see a little of this last war? We were not so hard pushed as to make emancipation general, but Acts of Assembly passed that every slave who would go to the army should be free. Another thing will con- tribute to bring this thing about. Slavery is detested ; we feel its fatal effects ; we deplore it with all the pity of humanity. Let all these considerations, at some future period, press with full force upon the minds of Congress. They will search that paper and see if they have the power of manumission. And have they not, sir ? said Henry. Have they not the power to provide for the general defence and welfare ? May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery ? May they not pronounce all slaves free, and will they not be warranted by that power? This is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. That paper speaks to the point. They have the power in clear, unequivocal terms, and will clearly and certainly exercise it. The majority of Congress is to the North, and the slaves are to the South. In this situation I see great jeopardy to the property of the people of Virginia, and their peace and tranquility gone away. Dwell- ing on this topic for some time, he recurred to the subject of subsequent amendments, and denounced the novelty as well as the absurdity of such a proposition. He said he was distressed when he heard the expression from the lips of Wythe. It is a new thought altogether. It is opposed to every idea of forti- tude and manliness in the States or in anybody else. Evils ad- mitted in order to be removed subsequently, and tyranny sub- mitted to, in order to be excluded by a subsequent alteration, are things totally new to me. "But I am sure," he said, "that the
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gentleman meant nothing but to amuse the committee. I know his candor. His proposal is an idea dreadful to me. I ask, does experience warrant such a thing from the beginning of the world to the present day? Do you enter into a compact of govern- ment first, and afterwards settle the terms of the government ? It is admitted by everyone that this is a compact. Although the Confederation be lost, it is a constitutional compact, or something of that nature. I confess I never heard of such an idea before. It is most abhorrent to my mind. You endanger the tranquility of your country. You stab its repose, if you accept this gov- ernment unaltered. How are you to allay animosities ? For such there are, great and fatal. He flatters me, and tells me that I can reconcile the people to it. Sir, their sentiments are as firm and steady as they are patriotic. Were I to ask them to apos- tatize from their ancient religion, they would despise me. They are not to be shaken in their opinions with respect to the pro- priety of preserving their rights. You can never persuade them that it is necessary to relinquish them. Were I to attempt to persuade them to abandon their patriotic sentiments, I should look on myself as the most infamous of men. I believe it to be a fact that the great body of the yeomanry are in decided oppo- sition to that paper on your table. I may say with confidence that for nineteen counties adjacent to each other, nine-tenths of the people are conscientiously opposed to it. I have not hunted popularity by trying to injure this government. Though public fame may say so, it was not owing to me that this flame of oppo- sition has been kindled and spread. These men will never part with their political opinions. Subsequent amendments will not do for men of this cast. You may amuse them by proposing amendments, but they will never like your government."
He invoked the committee to look to the real sentiments of the people even in the adopting States. "Look," he said, " at Penn- sylvania and Massachusetts. There was a majority of only nine- teen in Massachusetts. We are told that only ten thousand were represented in Pennsylvania, although seventy thousand were entitled to be represented. Is not this a serious thing? Is it not worth while to turn your eyes from subsequent amendments to the situation of your country ? Can you have a lasting union in these circumstances ? It will be in vain to expect it. But if · you agree to previous amendments, you shall have union firm
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and solid. I cannot conclude without saying that I shall have nothing to do with the Constitution, if subsequent amendments be determined upon. I say I conceive it my duty, if this gov- ernment is adopted before it is amended, to go home. I shall act as my duty requires. Every other gentleman will do the same. Previous amendments are, in my opinion, necessary to procure peace and tranquility. I fear, if they be not agreed to, every movement and operation of government will cease; and how long that baneful thing, civil discord, will stay from this country, God only knows. When men are free from constraint, how long will you suspend their fury? The interval between this and bloodshed is but a moment. The licentious and the wicked of the community will seize with avidity everything you hold. In this unhappy situation, what is to be done? It sur- passes my stock of wisdom. If you will, in the language of freemen, stipulate that there are certain rights which no man under heaven can take from you, you shall have me going along with you ; not otherwise."
He then informed the committee that he had a resolution prepared to refer a Declaration of Rights, with certain amend- ments to the most exceptionable parts of the Constitution, to the other States of the confederacy, for their consideration pre- vious to its ratification. The clerk read the resolution, the Declaration of Rights, and the amendments, which were nearly the same as those ultimately proposed by the Convention 236 When the clerk had read the resolution and amendments, Henry resumed his remarks, and by considerations drawn from our domestic and foreign affairs, enforced the necessity of the adop- tion of previous amendments.
Randolph replied to Henry. He declared that he anticipated this awful period, but he confessed that it had not become less awful by familiarity with it. Could he believe that all was tran - quil as was stated by the gentleman, that no storm was ready to burst, and that previous amendments were possible, he would concur with the gentleman ; for nothing but the fear of inevitable destruction compelled him to approve the Constitution. "But," says Randolph, "what have I heard to-day? I sympathized most warmly with what other gentlemen said yesterday, that,
236 See them in the Appendix.
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