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. II > Part 17
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166 This fort was built by a man named Richard Chinwith. [A cor ruption, probably, of Chenowith .- EDITOR.]
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the definitive treaty by Great Britain. Certain persons were invested with the exclusive right of running stage-coaches on particular routes; and Fitch was allowed the exclusive privilege of navigating the waters of the State, by steam, for fourteen years. Acts for regulating the customs and the duties of naval officers, carefully prepared, were passed, and for the payment of all arrearages into the treasury. Tobacco was made receivable in payment of certain taxes; and, either by the enactment of new laws or by the amendment of the old, the State was never before so invigorated in her military, financial, and judicial departments. The adjournment of both houses took place on the 8th of Janu- ary, 1788.
A glance at the Treasurer's account of his receipts during the year, extending from the 12th of December, 1786, to November the 30th, 1787, will afford a safe means of comparison with the revenues accruing to the Commonwealth under the new Consti- tution. The sum total of receipts from all sources was not far from one million and a half pounds-Virginia currency.167 This sum was made up of arrears of taxes of previous years, amount- ing to over thirty-three thousand pounds; the revenue taxes of 1786 were one hundred and forty-one thousand five hundred and twelve pounds; the amount of revenue from the customs, including the export duties on tobacco, was near eighty seven thousand pounds. Of course, there was a large amount of cer- tificates of the public debt received in payment of taxes; but in a few years this source would have been exhausted. There were also payments for public. lands sold at Gosport, for public prop- erty, and for public lands generally. When we recall the fact that the duties were almost nominal-rarely exceeding five per cent., and oftener under, owing to the position of Virginia in respect of the custom-houses of Maryland and Pennsylvania just beyond her lines-it is evident that the revenue from customs, which was not far from three hundred thousand dollars, must have repre- sented a vast commerce for those days.
Between the adjournment of the General Assembly, in Janu- ary, 1788, and its meeting on the 23d of June following, the
167 $3.3313 to the pound. The Treasurer's account may be seen in the Senate Journal of January 2, 1788, and in the House Journal of December 13, 1787.
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Federal Convention held its sittings. The bodies came together, for the Convention did not adjourn until the 27th of June, and the Assembly met on the 23d. It was, by the proclamation of the Governor, made on the 14th of May last, that the Assembly was called together. On the first day (23d) neither house formed a quorum. The members generally were doubtless attracted by the proceedings of the Convention; and the members of the Assembly, who were members of the Convention, were unable to leave their seats in the latter body. A single vote might settle important questions; and it was not until the 26th that the final vote on the ratification of the Constitution was taken. On the 25th the Senate obtained a quorum, and Humphrey Brooke, a member of the Convention, was appointed Clerk; and John Jones, a member of the Convention, was, on motion of Stevens Thomson Mason, a member of the Convention, unanimously re-elected Speaker. The members of the Senate, who were also members of the Convention, were, besides Mason and John Jones, Burwell Bassett and John Pride and Joseph Jones. Joseph Jones had long been a member of the House of Delegates, had been a member of Congress, and held a front rank among the statesmen of his day.
The House of Delegates failed to get a quorum on the first day, but on the second a number sufficient to organize the House assembled, when Colonel Monroe nominated the accomplished Grayson as Speaker. This nomination, which at this day we should suppose would have been received by acclamation, was by no means satisfactory; probably, at first sight, because both Monroe and Grayson had warmly opposed in debate the adop- tion of the Constitution, the fate of which was not yet settled, but rather, I am inclined to think, because both gentlemen had been mainly prominent in military and civil stations abroad, and were not in the direct line of succession to honorary posts at home, especially in the Assembly. Meriwether Smith nomi- nated General Thomas Matthews, whose entire public life had been spent within the Commonwealth, and who had been long deemed one of the best parliamentarians in the House. But it seems there was to be be another formidable nomination. Cabell of (" Union Hill"), who had long known Benjamin Harrison, and had served with him in public bodies for almost thirty years, determined to bring him forward for the chair. The House
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determined to vote by ballot, and, upon a count, it was ascertained Matthews had received a majority of the whole House, and was declared Speaker. It should seem that our worthy fathers did not make party politics an exclusive test in filling the office of Speaker, as Smith, who was a decided opponent of the Consti- tution, nominated Matthews, who, coming from a commercial town, was one of its warmest friends, and voted the day after his election by the House of Delegates-a majority of which opposed the Constitution-for the ratification of that instrument. There was also perceptible at all times in the House an esprit de corps which prompted its members to confer its honors on those whose terms of public service were spent on its floor. Hence it was that Richard Henry Lee, who was the imperson- ator of patriotism, eloquence, and honor, though brought forward for the chair repeatedly in the range of thirty years, was always defeated by large majorities.
The members of the Convention who were members of the House were-besides Monroe, Grayson, Smith, Matthews, Cabell, and Harrison-Patrick Henry, Zachariah Johnston, Theodoric Bland, William Ronald, Cuthbert Bullitt, Miles King, French Strother, Francis Corbin, John H. Briggs, Wilson C. Nicholas, William Thornton, Levin Powell, Thomas Smith, John Dawson, David Stuart, Daniel Fisher, Ralph Wormley, William O. Callis, Alexander White, John Early, John S. Wood- cock, George Clendenin, John Allen, Samuel J. Cabell, Bushrod Washington, Andrew Moore,163 Walker Tomlin, John Trigg, Henry Lee (of Bourbon), Binns Jones, John Guerrant, William McKee, Robert Breckenridge, Green Clay, C. Robertson, John H. Cocke, Richard Kennon, Thomas Cooper, John Roane, Thomas Carter, and Samuel Edmiston.
One of the first questions that arose in the House was whether the members of the Convention, who were members of Assem- bly, should receive double mileage and double per diem. This matter, which was quite important in a financial view from the numbers of those who held seats in both bodies, and from the lean state of the treasury, was gravely discussed; and a reso- lution was passed by both houses prohibiting the payment of double mileage and double pay. So the double members were
168 Who was elected during the session a member of the Council. .
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no better off than their single brethren. Forty years later this question was again started in relation to those who were members of the Convention of 1829, and who were at the same time mem - bers of the Assembly. The Convention of that year ran for a month and a half into the session of the Assembly, and both bodies were hard at work at the same time. But the question, though propounded in private, never reached the ear of either house, each member deciding it for himself.169 The fact is, that the law passed by the Assembly of 1788 was ex post facto, and a nullity. Every member of the Assembly and of the Convention was entitled under existing laws to his mileage and per diem, and, having rendered the service, was entitled to receive the wages prescribed by law. How far the Assembly would have been justifiable in increasing the pay is another question; but it is plain they could no more reduce or abolish the pay of a member for services actually rendered than they could reduce or abolish the pay of any other officer under similar circumstances. But the double members were numerous, the treasury was scant of coin, and a law as clearly as unconstitutional as was ever enacted passed both houses with apparent unanimity.
A file of the Richmond papers for the year 1788 is not in existence; and, as the Journals of neither house contain a copy
169 The double members of the Convention and Assembly of 1829 were some twelve or fifteen. I was one of them; but we needed no law to prevent us from receiving double pay. It was a question of equity and honor, and but one member asked and received his double pay, and he has long since passed to a realm where, it is to be hoped, constructive journeys are unknown. That we were not compelled to do right by a special law passed in the very teeth of the Constitution and Declaration of Rights, at a time when there was quite a plethora in the treasury, shows that we were at least as patriotic as our worthy predecessors were forced to be. I remember the state of the treasury in 1829 from a little incident that happened on the day of the publica- tion of the Treasurer's report in the papers. I met with the late Judge Philip P. Barbour, the President of the Convention, at our breakfast- table at the Eagle, and seeing him tickled at something in the morning's paper, inquired about the cause of his mirth He said that he was
amused at the felicitations of the Treasurer over a surplus of fifty or sixty thousand dollars ; that in Congress they made nothing of voting a hun- dred thousand, or even half a million, at a single breath; and that when he thought what would be the effect of such a vote on the keeper of the Virginia fisc, he could not resist a smile.
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of the Governor's proclamation calling them together, I am unable to state positively the reason of the call. It was certainly not on account of the Convention, as the previous Assembly had passed all the necessary laws upon the subject, and the houses would meet in course in October, and the action of the houses had no reference, during their session, to the Conven- tion.170 I am inclined to believe that the call grew out of the remonstrance of the judges of the Court of Appeals to some details of the new District Court law; for both houses imme- diately passed the bill to suspend the operation of the law for the present. They, however, kept its bench full; for on being informed of the declinature of his seat by Gabriel Jones,171 one of the new judges, they supplied the vacancy by the election of Edmund Winston. 172
On the 30th of June, after a session of six days, the Assembly adjourned. Although the Convention had adjourned three days before, and so many of its leading members were members of the Assembly, it does not appear that any allusion was made to its proceedings. Certainly no action was had on the subject.
Both houses reassembled on the 20th of October, 1788; but, as was usual, when two sessions of the Assembly were held in the same year, no quorum appeared in either house on the first day. The Senate did not succeed in obtaining one until the 28th, but the House of Delegates was able to proceed to busi- ness on the second day. The Speaker held over. Johnston was put at the head of the Committee of Religion; Harrison, of Privileges and Elections; Cabell (of "Union Hill"), of Propo- sitions and Grievances; Patrick Henry, of Courts of Justice; Richard Lee, of Claims; and John Page (taking the post of Matthews, who was Speaker), of the Committee of Commerce.
An incident occurred on the third day of the session (24th) which showed the feelings of the House on Federal affairs.
170 They made a slight alteration in the fund, from which the expenses of the Convention were to be paid; but this was purely accidental.
171 Gabriel Jones twice declined a judicial office and once a seat in Congress.
172 As Governor Randolph had doubtless made up his mind before the date of the proclamation to quit the anti-Federalists, it is not likely that he would have convoked an anti-Federal Legislature with- out some paramount consideration.
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Colonel Edward Carrington, who had been elected a member of Congress the preceding November, and had taken his seat in that body, was returned to the present House at the April fol- lowing from the county of Powhatan. It was proved that he did not hear of his election as a member of the House until the last of June, during which month a session of the House was held, and that he had resigned his seat in Congress some days before. The Committee of Elections reported in favor of his holding the seat, but the House reversed the report, and declared his seat vacant. 173 This distrust of servants who were called to serve two masters was manifested at an early period, and was altogether wise and proper. Our early legislation on this sub- ject merits a passing review. As early as 1777 an act was passed declaring members of Congress ineligible to either house of Assembly; but in 1779, evidently for some temporary purpose, it was enacted that, should any person holding an executive, legislative, or judicial office in the Commonwealth be appointed a delegate to Congress, his office shall not thereby be vacated. In 1783 an act passed declaring it improper that a delegate to Congress should at the same time be a member of Assembly, and that if a member of Assembly should accept a seat in Con- gress his seat in the Assembly should be vacated. Before the passage of the act of 1777 members of Congress were almost invariably members of Assembly, and, when Congress was not sitting, took their seats in the houses-an arrangement which was at that early day extremely convenient and beneficial to the public service. No newspapers worthy of the name were then published in the States; and if there had been, the proceedings of Congress, which were secret, could not have been found in them. The presence of a member of Congress in the Assembly might have a good effect upon legislation; for, although he could not directly reveal the proceedings of Congress, unless required by a direct vote of the houses, his advice and suggestions were valuable and welcome. This policy, however, was put an end
173 He was sent back immediately by the people of Powhatan, and voted throughout the session with the Federal minority. This distin- guished patriot, after serving faithfully during the Revolution, particu- larly as the quartermaster-general of Greene, and filling many civil offices, and declining more (especially a seat in the Cabinet of Wash- ington), died in Richmond, October 28, 1810; aged sixty-one.
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to by the jealousy with which a majority of both houses regarded Richard Henry Lee, and which led to the momentary ostracism of that illustrious patriot.
On the 27th of October, 1788, both houses for the first time held their sessions "in the new Capitol on Shockoe Hill," and have continued to hold them there, with the exception of a single session, ever since.
The name of Robert Carter Nicholas, the old Treasurer of the Colony, and the first Treasurer of the Commonwealth, was brought up on the 30th to the consideration of the House. It appeared that he had been appointed by one of the Con- ventions in 1775 one of a committee to procure gunpowder for the use of the Colony; and for this purpose borrowed of Messrs. Norton & Sons, of London, the sum of five thou- sand six hundred pounds sterling, for which he gave-at a time when the Colony, not having declared independence, had no name of her own-his private bond, with a number of gentlemen as his securities. The collection of the bond was now pressed upon his executor, who was his oldest son, George, a member of the House, and relief was asked of the Assembly. It is credi- ble to all parties that the bond was instantly ordered to be paid, with six per cent. interest until it was paid.
The absorbing topic which was likely to employ the time of the Assembly, and which filled the public mind with doubt and apprehension, and even with serious alarm, was the Federal Constitution. Both parties were not indisposed to propose amendments to that instrument; but the stress was on the mode of making those amendments. The Federal party proper con- tended that the true mode of amending the Constitution should be in accordance with its fifth article; while the opponents of that paper urged that the most efficient and thorough means of attaining an end deemed desirable by all was the call of a new Convention of the States for the purpose. On the 30th the House of Delegates went into Committee of the Whole on the State of the Commonwealth, and, when the Speaker resumed the chair, reported the following preamble and resolutions:
" Whereas the Convention of delegates of the people of this Commonwealth did ratify a Constitution, or form of government, for the United States, referred to them for their consideration, and did also deciare that sundry amendments to exceptionable parts of
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the same ought to be adopted; and whereas the subject-matter of the amendments agreed to by the said Convention invokes all the great essential and unalienable rights, liberties, and privi- leges of freemen, many of which, if not cancelled, are rendered insecure under the said Constitution till the same shall be altered and amended --
" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that, for quieting the minds of the good citizens of this Commonwealth, and securing their rights and liberties, and preventing those dis- orders which must arise under a government not founded in the confidence of the people, application be made to the Congress of the United States, so soon as they shall assemble under the said Constitution, to call a convention for proposing amendments to the same, according to the mode therein directed.
"Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that a committee ought to be appointed to draw up and report to this House a proper instrument of writing expressing the sense of the General Assembly, and pointing out the reasons which induce them to urge their application thus early for the calling the afore- said Convention of the States.
"Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that the said committee should be instructed to prepare the draft of a letter in answer to one received from his Excellency George Clinton, Esq., president of the Convention of New York, and a circular-letter on the aforesaid subject of the other States in the Union, expressive of the wish of the General Assembly of this Commonwealth that they may join in the application to the new Congress to appoint a Convention of the States as soon as the Congress shall assemble under the new Constitution."
When the resolutions were read a motion was made to amend the same by striking out from the word "whereas" in the first line to the end, and inserting the following words: .
"Whereas the delegates appointed to represent the good people of this Commonwealth in the late Convention held in the month of June last, did, by their act of the 25th of the said month, assent to and ratify the Constitution recommended on the 17th day of September, 1787, by the Federal Convention for the government of the United States, declaring themselves, with a solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts for the purity of their intentions, under the conviction 'that whatsoever imperfec-
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tions might exist in the Constitution ought rather to be examined in the mode prescribed therein than to bring the Union into dan- ger by a delay, with a hope of obtaining amendments previous to the ratification'; and whereas, in pursuance of the said declaration, the same Convention did, by their subsequent act of the 27th of June aforesaid, agree to such amendments to the said Constitu- tion of government for the United States as were by them deemed necessary to be recommended to the consideration of the Congress which shall first assemble under the said Constitu- tion, to be acted upon according to the mode prescribed in the fifth article thereof, at the same time enjoining it upon their representatives in Congress to exert all their influence and use all legal and reasonable methods to obtain a ratification of the foregoing alterations and provisions in the manner provided by the fifth article of the said Constitution, and in all congressional laws to be passed in the mean time to conform to the spirit of those amendments as far as the said Constitution would admit:
" Resolved, therefore, That it is the opinion of this committee that an application ought to be made in the name and on the behalf of the Legislature of this Commonwealth to the Congress of the United States, so soon as they shall assemble under the said Constitution, to pass an act recommending to the Legisla- tures of the several States the ratification of a bill of rights, and of certain articles of amendment proposed by the Conven- tion of this State for the adoption of the United States, and that, until the said act shall be ratified in pursuance of the fifth article of the said Constitution of government for the United States, Congress do conform their ordinances to the true spirit of the said bill of rights and articles of amendment."
A second resolution instructed the Executive to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolution to the Congress and to the Legislatures and Executives of the States.
By these resolutions the issue was fairly made up between the two great parties, and they were probably debated with unusual warmth and ability on the floor; but we can know nothing cer- tain on the subject. The question on the amendment was taken at once, and it was lost by a vote of thirty nine to eighty-five; showing a majority in favor of the opponents of the Constitu- tion of more than two to one. The members of the House who had been members of the Convention, and who voted for
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striking out, were Johnston, McFerran, David Stuart, Wood- cock, Thomas Smith, Clendenin, Fisher, Thornton, Powell, Callis, Corbin, Wormeley, and Allen; and those who voted with the majority against striking out were Custis, William Cabell, S. J. Cabell, John Trigg, Henry Lee (of Bourbon), Conn, Binns Jones, Harrison, Strother, John Early, Joel Early, Guerrant, Cooper, Roane, Clay (of Madison, Ky.), A. Robert- son, Kennon, Patrick Henry, Bland, Bullitt, Grayson, McKee, Carter, Monroe, Dawson, Briggs, Edmunds, and Edmiston.
The main question was then put of agreeing to the preamble and resolutions as reported by the committee, and was agreed to without a division. Briggs, Henry, Harrison, Grayson, Bullitt, William Cabell, Monroe, Bland, Dawson, Strother, and Roane, all of whom were members of the Convention, were appointed a committee to prepare the instrument called for by the report.
On the 14th of November the House again went into Com- mittee on Federal Affairs, and, when the Speaker resumed the chair, Bullitt reported a resolution, which, as a deliberate reflec- tion of the purposes of the majority of that day, should be read by the student of history. Here it is:
" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that an application ought to be made in the name and on behalf of the Legislature of this Commonwealth, to the Congress of the United States in the words following-to-wit:
"The good people of this Commonwealth, in Convention assembled, having ratified the Constitution submitted to their consideration, this Legislature has, in conformity to that act and the resolutions of the United States, in Congress assembled, to them transmitted, thought proper to make the arrangements that were necessary for carrying it into effect. Having thus shown themselves obedient to the voice of their constituents, all America will find that, so far as it depends on them, the plan of government will be carried into immediate operation.
"But the sense of the people of Virginia would be but in part complied with, and but little regarded, if we went no further. In the very moment of adoption, and coeval with the ratification of the new plan of government, the general voice of the Conven- tion of this State pointed to objects no less interesting to the people we represent, and equally entitled to your attention. At the same time that, from motives of affection for our sister States,
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the Convention yielded their consent to the ratification, they gave the most unequivocal proofs that they dreaded its operation under the present form.
" In acceding to a government under this impression, painful must have been the prospect had they not derived consolation from a full expectation of its imperfections being speedily amended. In this resource, therefore, they placed their confi- dence-a confidence that will continue to support them, whilst they have reason to believe they have not calculated upon it in vain.
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