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 38
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271 The ayes and noes were called by Nicholas, seconded by Harri- son, and were ayes, 65 ; noes, 85, as follows :
AYES: G. Parker, G. Nicholas, W. Nicholas, Z. Johnston, A. Stuart, W. Dark, A. Stephen, M. McFerran, James Taylor, of Caroline, D. Stuart, C. Simms. H. Marshall, M. Pickett, H. Brooke, J. S. Woodcock, A. White, W. Lewis, T. Smith, John Stuart, D. Fisher, A. Woodrow, G. Jackson, J. Prunty, A. Seymour, His Excellency Governor Ran- dolph, John Marshall, N. Burwell, R. Andrews, James Johnson (who was the latest survivor of the Convention, died at his residence in Isle of Wight county on the 16th day of August, 1845, aged ninety-nine years), R. Bullock, B. Ashton, W. Thornton, H. Towles, L. Powell, W. O. Callis, R. Wormeley, Francis Corbin, W. McClerry, James Webb, James Taylor, of Norfolk, J. Stringer, L. Eyre, W. Jones, T. Gaskins,
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The main question on concurring in the amendments proposed by the committee was then put, and decided in the affirmative without a division. The secretary was ordered to engross the amendments on parchment, to be signed by the president, and to transmit the same, with the ratification of the Federal Consti- tution, to the United States in Congress assembled. A fair en- grossed copy of the form of ratification, with the proposed amendments, was ordered to be signed by the president, and to be forwarded to the executive of each State in the Union. It was further ordered that the proceedings of the body be recorded in a well-bound book, and, when signed by the president and secretary, to be deposited in the archives of the Council of State. The printer was ordered to transmit fifty copies of the form of ratification, with the amendments, to each county in the State. Some accounts of the printer and of the carpenters, who had fitted up the hall of the Academy, were referred to the auditor for settlement, and the business of the Convention was done.
A. Woods, James Madison, J. Gordon, of Orange, W. Ronald, T. Walke, Anthony Walke. Benjamin Wilson, John Wilson, of Randolph, W. Peachey, Andrew Moore, T. Lewis, G. Jones, J. Rinker, J. Williams, Benjamin Blunt, S. Kello, J. Allen, Cole Digges, B. Washington, the Hon. George Wythe, and Thomas Mathews-65.
NOES: The Hon. Edmund Pendleton, president, E. Custis, J. Pride, William Cabell, S. J. Cabell, J. Trigg, C. Clay, William Fleming, Henry Lee, of Bourbon, John Jones, B. Jones, C. Patteson, D. Bell, R. Alex- ander, E. Winston, Thomas Read, the Hon. Paul Carrington, Benjamin Harrison, the Hon. John Tyler, D. Patteson, S. Pankey, junior, Joseph Michaux, French Strother, Joseph Jones, Miles King, J. Haden, John Early, T. Arthur, J. Guerrant, W. Sampson, Isaac Coles, George Car- rington, Parke Goodall, John C. Littlepage, Thomas Cooper, WV. Fleet, Thomas Roane, Holt Richeson, B. Temple, James Gordon, of Lancas- ter, Stevens Thompson Mason, WV. White, Jona. Patteson, J. Logan, H. Pawling, John Miller, Green Clay, S. Hopkins, R. Kennon, Thomas Allen, A. Robertson, Walter Crockett, Abraham Trigg, Solomon Shep- herd, W. Clayton, Burwell Bassett, M. Walton, John Steele, R. Wil- liams. John Wilson, of Pittsylvania, T. Turpin, Patrick Henry, Edmund Ruffin, Theodoric Bland, William Grayson, C. Bullitt, W. Tomlin, W. McKee, Thomas Carter, H. Dickenson, James Monroe, J. Dawson, George Mason, A. Buchanan, John Hartwell Cocke, J. H. Briggs, Thomas Edmunds, the Hon. Richard Cary, S. Edmonson, and J. Mont- gomery-85.
This list of names deserves to be well studied.
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And now the last scene was at hand. Some member, whose name has not come down to us, offered a resolution expressive of the sense entertained by the Convention of the dignity, the impartiality, and the ability displayed by Pendleton in the chair. It was received with unanimous assent. A motion to adjourn sine die was then made and carried. Then that old man, who had hitherto kept his seat when putting a question to the House, was seen to rise slowly from the chair ; and while he was adjust- ing himself on his crutches, the members on the farthest benches crept quietly into the body of the hall. They were unwilling to lose any of the last words of an eminent man whose name had been honored by their fathers and by their grandfathers ; whose skill in debate was unrivalled, and who was about to close, on a solemn occasion aptly designed for such an event, a parliamentary career the longest and most brilliant in our annals. His first words were almost inaudible to those nearest him. He said "he felt grateful to the House for the mark of respect which they had just shown him. He was conscious that his infirmities had pre- vented him from discharging the duties of the chair satisfactory to himself, and he therefore regarded the expression of the good will of his associates with the more grateful and the more tender sensibility. He knew that he was now uttering the last words that he should ever address to the representatives of the people. His own days were nearly spent, and whatever might be the success or failure of the new government, he would hardly live to see it. But his whole heart was with his country. She had overlooked his failings and had honored him far beyond his deserts, and every new mark of her esteem had been to him a fresh memorial of his duty to serve her faithfully. The present scene would recall to others, as it did to him, a similar one which occurred twelve years ago. The Convention had then declared independence, and the members who had cheerfully incurred the risks of a war with a powerful nation, were about to depart to sustain their country by their counsels and by their valor. He saw some of those members before him. A kind Providence had blessed them beyond their hopes. They had gained their liberty, and their country was placed among the nations of the earth. They had acquired a territory nearly as large as the con- tinent of Europe. That territory connected them with two great warlike and maritime nations, whose power was formidable and
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whose friendship was at least doubtful. The defects of the Con- federation were generally admitted, and the Constitution, which has been ratified by us, is designed to take its place. This Con- vention was called to consider it.
"Heretofore our Conventions had met in the midst of a raging war. Now all was peace. There was no enemy within our bor- ders to intimidate or annoy us. The Constitution was in some important respects defective. The numerous amendments pro- posed by the Convention were designed to point out those de- fects, and to remove them. The members had performed their duty with the strictest fidelity, and he was pleased to see so many young, eloquent, and patriotic men ready to take the places of those who must soon disappear. He beseeched gentlemen who had acquitted themselves with a reputation that would not be lost to posterity, to forget the heats of discussion, and remember that each had only done what he deemed to be his duty to his coun- try. Let us make allowances for the workings of a new system. It is the Constitution of our country. If our hopes should be disappointed, and should the government turn out badly, the remedy was in our own hands. Virginia gave, and Virginia would take away. But all radical changes in governments should be made with caution and deliberation. We could know the present, but the future was full of uncertainties. The best government was not perfect, and even in a government that has serious defects, the people might enjoy, by a prudent and temperate administra- tion, a large share of happiness and prosperity. But it was his solemn conviction that a close and firm union was essential to the safety, the independence, and the happiness of all the States, and with his latest breath he would conjure his countrymen to keep this cardinal object steadily in view. We are brothers ; we are Virginians. Our common object is the good of our country. Let us breathe peace and hope to the people. Let our rivalry be who can serve his country with the greatest zeal ; and the future would be fortunate and glorious. His last prayer should be for his country, that Providence might guide and guard her for years and ages to come. If ever a nation had cause for thankfulness to Heaven, that nation was ours. As for himself, if any unpleas- ant incident had occurred in debate between him and any mem- ber, he hoped it would be forgotten and forgiven ; and he tendered to all the tribute of his most grateful and affectionate respect.
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One duty alone remained to be performed, and he now pro- nounced the adjournment of the Convention without day."
While Pendleton was speaking, we are told that the House was in tears. Members who had mixed in the fierce mêlée, and who had uttered the wildest imprecations on the Constitution, as they listened to his calm, monitory voice, could not restrain their emo- tions. Old men, who had heard his parting benediction twelve years before to the Convention which declared independence, and called to mind his manly presence and the clear silver tones of a voice now tremulous and faint from infirmity and age, bowed their heads between their hands and wept freely. But in the midst of weeping the deep blue eye of Pendleton was. undimmed. When he concluded his speech he descended from the chair, and, taking his seat on one of the nearest benches, he bade adieu to the members individually, who crowded around him to press a parting salutation. The warmest opponents were seen to ex- change parting regards with each other. For it was a peculiar and noble characteristic of our fathers, when the contest was de- cided, to forgive and forget personal collisions, and to unite heart and hand in the common cause. On the breaking up of the House many members ordered their horses, and were before sun- set some miles on their way homeward; and before the close of another day all had disappeared ; and there was no object to re- mind the citizen of Richmond, as at nightfall through deserted streets he sought his home, that the members of one of the most illustrious assemblies that ever met on the American continent had finished their deliberations, had discharged the high trust confided to them by their country, and had again mingled with the mass of the people.
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APPENDIX.
As a specimen of the complaints about the state of trade in 1785, I annex, with some comments upon it, an extract from a letter of Mr. Madison, dated Orange C. H., July 7, 1785, and addressed to R. H. Lee, which may be seen in Mr. Rives' His- tory of the Life and Times of Madison, Vol. II, 47, note :
"What makes the British monopoly the more mortifying is the abuse which they make of it. Not only the private planters, who have resumed the practice of shipping their own tobacco, but many of the merchants, particularly the natives of the coun- try, who have no connections with Great Britain, have received accounts of sales this season which carry the most visible and shameful frauds in every article. In every point of view, indeed, the trade of the country is in a most deplorable condition.
"A comparison of current prices here with those in the Northern States, either at this time or at any time since the peace, will show that the loss direct on our produce, and indirect on our imports, is not less than fifty per cent. Till very lately the price of one staple has been down at 325. and 33s. on James river, at 28s. on Rappahannock river tobacco. During the same period the former was selling in Philadelphia, and I suppose in other Northern ports, at 44s. of this currency, and the latter in proportion, though it cannot be denied that tobacco in the Northern ports is intrinsically worth less than it is here, being at the same distance from the ultimate market, and burthened with the freight from this to the other States. The price of merchandise here is, at least, as much above, as that of tobacco is below, the Northern standard."
The British monopoly spoken of in the letter was nothing more or less than that England, having more ships than any
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other nation, sent more of them to Virginia than any other nation did. Had France, or Spain, or Holland, or any other country, been fortunate enough to own more ships than its neighbor, the same ground of complaint would have existed ; or had all the foreign shipping that entered our ports been equally divided among foreign powers, the ground of complaint would have been the same. The ship-carpenters, and the mer- chants who owned home-built ships, were dissatisfied at the state of things, and called for relief. And supposing, for the sake of argument, it would have been expedient to burden for- eign vessels with taxes, the Assembly of Virginia had full au- thority to administer the proposed relief, which was done at the session following the date of the letter by the passage of an act imposing a tax on British shipping. And if it be alleged that, if Virginia imposed a tax, Maryland would admit the vessel taxed duty-free, it is conclusive to say that Virginia, with the assent of Congress, which followed as a matter of course, could form any agreement she pleased with Maryland, and did take effi- cient measures for so doing at the session of 1785. Thus far all that is complained of by Mr. Madison could be accomplished by an ordinary Act of Assembly, and required no change in the organic law.
The next ground of complaint is, that the foreign commission merchants made fraudulent returns to the planter ; a very bad thing indeed, and justified a change of agents; but surely such a change could be made without overturning the government of the Confederation. Indeed, the Philadelphians, as it appears from the last sentence of the letter, did find honest agents abroad, we may suppose, if it be true, as alleged, that they sold their imported articles so much lower than they could be sold on James river. What the Northern merchant could do under the exist- ing Confederation, we could do as well.
The second paragraph, which relates to current prices of to- bacco in Philadelphia and in the Virginia waters, will strike every man of business as representing an abnormal state of trade, which is frequently seen under every system of laws. The obvious ex- planation is, that Philadelphia was not a tobacco market, and that what little tobacco she had was mainly designed to make up the complement of assorted cargoes, and would naturally command , under such circumstances a higher price than the article was sell-
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ing for several hundred miles off. If the Philadelphia market had been stable at the prices named in the letter, and if the Vir- ginia planter lost fifty per cent. of his crop and of his return purchases by sending it to England, it is plain that the whole to- bacco crop of Virginia would have been at the foot of Market- street wharf in that city in less than six weeks from the time when the intelligence reached James river ; for vessels were abundant, according to the letter itself. The saving in time, in freight, and in foreign purchases, would have put the Northern market ahead of all the world. Such inequalities, then, could have been reme- died by a little management and common sense alone, without any change in the Federal alliances of Virginia.
But the great value of this letter, which has been selected from the files of Mr. Madison to show the desperate condition of affairs under the government of the Confederation, and to justify that statesman in his policy of depriving his native State of the invaluable right of regulating her own trade, consists in affording an unconscious, but not the less remarkable, proof of the commer- cial prosperity of Virginia at the time in question. Let it be re- membered that the treaty with Great Britain, that ended the war of the Revolution, was not signed at Paris till the 3d day of Sep- tember, 1783, and was not ratified by Congress until the 14th day of January, 1784 ; and that this letter of Mr. Madison was written in July, 1785; and that, besides the large trade and com- merce of Norfolk, which we know from other sources, it repre- sents the planters shipping from their own estates their abundant agricultural products in the ships of a single nation which were so numerous as to monopolize the trade and fix what rates they pleased ; and that all this trade and commerce was the growth of less than eighteen months, and we have before us, under all the circumstances of the case, a picture of prosperity almost without a parallel. And this picture is heightened by the purport of three petitions, which are given on the same pages which con- tain the above letter. These petitions come from Norfolk, Ports- mouth and Suffolk. That from Norfolk is in the following words : "That the prohibition laid by Great Britain on the trade to the West Indies, and the almost total monopoly of the other branches of trade by foreigners, has produced great distress and much injury to the trade of the Commonwealth ; that the rapid de- crease of American bottoms, the total stop to ship-building and
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to the nursery of American seamen occasioned thereby, threaten the most alarming consequences unless timely avoided by the wisdom of the Legislature."
The object of this petition, which comes from the ship-carpen- ters and the merchants who built vessels, is the laying of a tax on the ships of all countries trading to our ports to favor their own private gain, which, so far as that private gain is the public gain, and no farther, is commendable ; and in asking for a tax on foreign tonnage, they sought what the Assembly could grant most effectually if it pleased, and was granted at the said session of 1785, no change in the Federal system being necessary for such a purpose. As for the prohibition on the West India trade, which only means that Great Britain would not allow our vessels, any more than the vessels of other nations, to engage in what she regards as her coasting trade, the petition, whether presented in 1785 or 1826, would have been beyond the power of any nation under any possible form of government to have granted. Great Britain determined to be the carrier of the productions of her Colonies in her own bottoms; but-and this is one of the bright signs of those times-all those productions were brought to our ports by her vessels, which received in return the products of our own industry, and the result was a most profitable busi- ness that greatly enhanced our prosperity. The complaint of the Norfolk merchants was that, in addition to the gains resulting from such a commerce, they could not secure the profits of the carrying trade. They sucked the orange dry, and muttered that the producer of the orange kept the rind to himself.
The petitioners further urged as a grievance that, besides their inability to substitute their own vessels for the vessels owned by the West Indians who brought their valuable cargoes to Norfolk, and took back our produce in return, "there was an almost total monopoly of other branches of trade by foreigners." The history of the case is this : Norfolk had been reduced to ashes at the beginning of the war, and the whole population sent into the interior. It was so effectually destroyed by the British and by our own people that it was a boast that in that once flourish- ing town a shed could not be found to shelter a cow. Let it be remembered that among the merchants and traders of the town before it was burned, comparatively few were native Virginians, who regarded mercantile employments with dislike. As soon
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as the war was over, hundreds of enterprising business men of every class and of every country flocked to the town, and in a short time restored it to a degree of prosperity which it had never known before. These men from abroad brought with them a capital in money as well as skill, and the business natu- rally fell into their hands. They became good citizens, married good Virginia wives, and the blood of one who came to Virginia from Scotland in 1783, and helped to build up the prosperity of that era, flows in the veins of him who traces these lines. I only wish we had the same ground of complaint now that the Nor- folk petitioners had then.
The Norfolk petition further urges some relief against "the decrease of American bottoms." Then the business men of that day had a choice between home and foreign bottoms, and preferred the foreign. Now, according to the received laws of free trade, for which the South has ever been such an advocate, that preference was just; as to place the home bottoms on a level with the foreign, by legislation, would be to pay the home ship-owner a bounty not only equal to the difference in the charge of freight, but to the costs of collection. But, whatever we may think of the doctrines of free trade, the Assembly was competent to apply the remedy, and no organic change was needed on this account. And let it be kept in mind that, as Norfolk was a wilderness, destitute of people, capital, and skill at the close of the war, the men, the capital, and the skill which built these home-made vessels, which were said to be diminish- ing, were all the result of a space of time not exceeding eighteen months.
The Portsmouth memorial, quoted by Mr. Rives, is as follows: The petitioners affirm that "the present deplorable state of trade, occasioned by the restrictions and policy of the British acts of navigation, has caused great and general distress, and threatens total ruin and decay to the several branches of com- merce ;" and we add from the Journal of the House of Delegates (October session of 1785, page 24, ) the mode of relief desired by the petitioners, which is "that certain restrictive acts may be imposed on the British trade, or other more adequate and effec- tual measures adopted for relief therein." Here we have the remedy proposed by the petitioners, which is to tax foreign ton- nage to such a degree as either to drive it from our ports or to
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enable them to build ships to compete with it. And Suffolk adds "that even the coasting trade and inland navigation had fallen into the hands of foreigners." What we would call atten- tion to is the fact that these petitioners fully believed that the Assembly possessed the power, as it assuredly did, to grant the relief desired, and professed no wish for a change in our federal system. As to a business view of the matter, when we recall the fact that, on the declaration of peace, we had hardly a canoe to launch on the waters of the Elizabeth, and not a solitary dollar in specie, and that our merchants had accumulated so early a moneyed capital which inspired them with the hopes of driving all foreign bottoms from our waters-and all this in the space of eighteen months-we see in all these memorials from our sea - ports, not the proofs of a decreasing trade, as some would have us believe, but the most infallible indications of commercial success.
Of all the men of his times, Mr. Madison possessed that caste of intellect best adapted for the discussions of commerce and political economy. But his sphere of personal observation was very limited. He never visited Petersburg, I believe; and, as well as I could learn from his writings, from the recollections of his intimate friends, and from conversations which I have had with him from time to time about Norfolk, he never visited our seaport in the interval between 1783 and 1788, if ever. He lived far beyond the scent of salt water in Orange, which was then as distant from Norfolk, if we measure distance by the time of ordi- nary travel, as Quebec or New Orleans is now. The only breath of sea air he probably ever drew was in crossing from the Jersey shore to New York to take his seat in Congress. He served but a single session in our Assembly, the October session of 1776, when he was twenty-five, and the next deliberative body of which he was a member was Congress, in which he remained the consti- tutional term of three years, and to which he was returned as soon as he was eligible. He was thus led to regard the Union as his patriotic stand-point-and a glorious stand-point it was- and not the State of Virginia, one more glorious still ; and his occasional appearances in the Assembly, in which he rendered invaluable service to his country, but in which on federal topics he was almost powerless, did not conquer his central preposses- sions. But in or out of Congress, a truer patriot never lived.
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CONSTITUTION.
WE the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Bles- sings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and estab- lish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America.
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