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 19
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The year 1789 has not only a peculiar significancy in our own history, but relatively in that of the world. The Government under the new Federal Constitution had been organized in the city of New York in the spring of that year, the President had been duly inaugurated, and the Congress had held its first and . most important session. That session began nominally on the 4th of March, and ended on the 12th of August; and during its continuance laws were enacted which materially changed the domestic legislation of the States. The subject of the customs, which was the theme of innumerable State laws, and formed one of the most perplexing topics of the period intervening between the Declaration of Independence and the establishment of the new Government, was no longer within their reach. The sub- ject of foreign affairs was also transferred beyond the direct
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action of the States; and our relations with the Indian tribes, then a subject of a hundredfold greater interest than at present, had been assigned by the Constitution to the Congress. Here- tofore the members of Congress had been elected annually by the General Assembly, but henceforth they were to be elected by the people; and the only remnant of the plenary power wielded by the Assembly over Congress was in the election of two senators at the interval of six years.
In this altered aspect of affairs the General Assembly began its session on the 19th day of October, 1789. The Senate obtained a quorum the second day, and John Pride, a member of the present Convention, was nominated for Speaker by Stevens Thomson Mason, a member of the present Convention, and was elected by a majority of five votes over Charles Carter, who was nominated by Burwell Bassett, a member of the Con- vention. The majority was large, when the numbers of the body are remembered, for the vote of Pride was nine and that of Carter was four. Humphrey Brooke, a member of the Con- vention, was appointed Clerk. The member of the Senate who had been a member of the Convention-beside Mason, Pride, and Bassett-was Joseph Jones.
The House of Delegates had a quorum the first day, when George Hay-then a young man, whose name during the third of a century following was connected with Federal affairs as district attorney and judge of the Federal Court-was appointed Clerk, and General Thomas Matthews, a member of the Conven- tion, was re-elected Speaker without opposition; Richard Lee presenting his name to the House, and Francis Corbin, a mem- ber of the Convention, seconding the nomination. 178
Norvell was made chairman of the Committee of Religion; Benjamin Harrison, of Privileges and Elections; Edmund Ran- dolph, of Propositions and Grievances; Patrick Henry, of Courts of Justice; and Richard Lee, of the Committee of Claims. One eloquent change was apparent: The Committee of Commerce, which had for thirteen years guarded with zealous care an
178 So many members of the Convention were still members of the Assembly that, in order to avoid repeating in the memoir of each the same facts and votes, I shall continue to present them in one view as they appeared in the Assembly.
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interesting department of our affairs, was no longer called into existence.
The members of the House who had been members of the Convention-beside Matthews, Corbin, Harrison, Randolph, and Henry-were Miles King, Tomlin, McKee, Jackson, Robertson, Edmiston, Carter, John Marshall, Wilson Cary Nicholas, Briggs, Henry Lee (Legion Harry), Hopkins, Allen, Samuel Jordan Cabell, Temple. Riddick, Wormeley, Thomas Smith, Kennon, Crockett, Edmunds, Guerrant, Conn, Binns Jones, Logan, Woods, Richardson, Gaskins, McClerry, Bell, Green Clay, Prunty, Stro- ther, Stringer, Custis, John Trigg, Cooper, John Roane, A. Robertson, Walton, and Vanmeter.
Formal messages from the Governor to both houses had not yet come into fashion; but that officer usually transmitted a let- ter to the Speaker of the House of Delegates, informing him of any circumstance which might be deemed worthy of public atten- tion. When the House was organized the Speaker announced that he had received a letter from the Governor, stating various matters for the consideration of the houses; and another letter from that officer, enclosing one from Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson, senators from the Commonwealth in Congress; and it was ordered that they lie on the table. On the following day the letters were referred to a Committee of the Whole on the State of the Commonwealth.
A graceful act marked the session of the second day in the House. A resolution was unanimously adopted appointing a committee to prepare an address to the President of the United States, "declaring our high sense of his eminent merits, con- gratulating him on his exaltation to the first office among free- men, assuring him of our unceasing attachment, and supplicating the Divine benediction on his person and administration." Henry Lee, Turberville, Harrison, Edmund Randolph, Corbin, Edward Carrington, Dawson, and Nicholas were appointed by the Chair to prepare the address on the part of the House. The Senate promptly approved the resolution, and appointed Carter, Bassett, Hugh Nelson, and Southall to unite with the committee of the House. The address was reported by Henry Lee on the 27th, was recommitted, and reported on the following day without amendment, and was unanimously adopted. It is short; its topics are judicious and well-timed; but the last clause is not
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wholly free from objection. Old men do not care to be told that they are soon to die, and still less do they like to be told that the people are already laying in a stock of consolation for the event when it occurs. 119
On the 21st the House went into committee on the letters from the Governor; and, when the Speaker resumed the chair, Miles King reported progress, and asked leave to sit again. The fol- lowing day the House again resolved itself into committee; and, when the Speaker resumed the chair, Tui berville reported several resolutions, which were twice read and agreed to. One of them recommended that an address be prepared to the President of the United States, expressing the confidence of the House in the measures taken by him for the defence of the Western frontiers · of this State, and containing the information given by the repre- sentatives of those frontiers on the subject of Indian hostility; and, to demonstrate the anxiety of the Assembly to co-operate with the Federal Government in the most vigorous exertions against the savages, declaring their readiness to share in those expenses which may be incurred in prosecuting the same. And a committee was appointed, consisting of Turberville, Patrick Henry, McClerry, Edmund Randolph, Corbin, Scott, Briggs, Jackson, Robert Randolph, Larkin Smith, Dawson, and Worme- ley. The tenor of this resolution will strike those acquainted with the present mode of transacting Federal affairs. It is addressed to the President, and not to our senators in Congress; it proposes to furnish the President with information on Indian matters, and it pledges the co-operation of Virginia in the efforts to repress Indian incursions, and her readiness to bear a part of the expense. The address was duly reported and adopted by both houses. Other resolutions were reported with the above mentioned by the Committee of the Whole; but, with the excep- tion of one requiring a bill to be brought in conformity to a reso- lution of Congress for the safe-keeping of the prisoners of the United States in the jails of the Commonwealth, are not within the range of this review.180
179 House Journal, October 27, 1789.
180 Committees were appointed to draft the bills called for by the resolutions, and Turberville was placed at the head of them all. When we recall the fact that Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, John Mar-
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The first question which involved a very decided difference of opinion in the House was the propriety of furnishing the Chicka- saw Indians with two thousand pounds of powder, and lead in proportion, to enable them to repel the attacks of the Creeks. It seems that a warm friendship existed between the Chickasaws and the Virginians; that the former had been wantonly attacked by the Creeks, who menaced them with further hostilities; and that, as the distance to the seat of the Federal Government was too great for them to travel at that advanced season, they applied to Virginia for assistance. The vote was taken on the resolution by ayes and noes, and carried-eighty-one to thirty- four. Those who had been members of the Convention and who voted in the affirmative were Patrick Henry, Edmund Ran- dolph, Custis, John Trigg, Conn, Binns Jones, Bell, Strother, King, Richardson, Guerrant, Cooper, Roane, Green Clay, Hop- -kins, Kennon, A. Robertson, Wormeley, Walton, Gaskins, Woods, Tomlin, Carter, Dawson, Edmunds, and Henry Lee; and those who voted in the negative were Samuel J. Cabell, Harrison, Prunty, Jackson, Corbin, McClerry, Stringer, and Allen. A second resolution was adopted, instructing the com- mittee appointed to address the President on Indian affairs to represent to him that the Assembly had interposed under the circumstances with a full conviction that their course would be acceptable to the Federal Government, and that the Federal Government would not be averse to make restitution for the advances on the occasion. Patrick Henry, who probably advo- cated the resolution on the floor, was ordered to carry it to the Senate and request its concurrence, which was duly granted.
The change effected in our institutions by the establishment of the Federal Constitution rendered many acts of Assembly of no avail; and the opportunity was embraced of including all our laws in a general revision. On the 24th of October the subject was discussed in Committee of the Whole; and, when the Speaker resumed the chair, Edward Carrington reported a resolution which set forth that many penal as well as other statutes of the
shall, Corbin, Wormeley, and such men were on the committees, it is a striking proof of the wealth of our early councils in able men that Turberville was placed in such a position ; and yet, of those who read this paragraph, such is the oblivion into which the names of our early statesmen have fallen, how few has ever heard of the name of George Lee Turberville.
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English Parliament, though in force in the Commonwealth, have never been published in any collection of the laws thereof; and some of them, having been improved by other statutes subse- quent to the fourth year of James the First, remain, with respect to Virginia, as they stood before that era; that the acts of the General Assembly contained in the revisal of 1768 are difficult to be procured, and a large majority of those acts do not exist at all, or have been partially repealed, or are of a private and local nature; that a considerable proportion of the ordinances and acts in the revisal of the year 1783, and of those acts which have been passed since, either do not exist at all, or have been partially repealed, or are of a private and local nature; that the bills of the Revised Code having been drawn without special repealing clauses, from an expectation that a general repealing law would be passed, and a part only of those bills been adopted, there was great danger of misconstruction; that many entire laws are, from the present circumstances of the Commonwealth, unfit to be continued; that the rolls and printed copies of those laws which were private, local, temporary, or occasional have been lost or destroyed by the accidents of war, or other causes; and that a great variety of laws upon the same subject, which ought to be reduced to one, are dispersed in different books; that the rule which prescribes that the repeal of one law which repeals another, revives that other without express words, may revive obsolete laws not in the meaning of the Legislature; that laws passed during the same session are often found to clash; that resolutions of a public nature have been seldom published with the laws, &c. This preamble ended with a resolution to appoint a committee to make special inquiry on the subjects mentioned, and to report the same to the House. The labor enjoined by such a resolution was enormous, and might well employ the time of many men for many days. It was referred to Edward Carrington, Edmund Randolph, Henry Lee, Turber- ville, Hopkins, Dawson, Wormeley, Stringer, Riddick, John Marshall, Burnley, Ludwell Lee, Page, Buchanan, Preston, Briggs, and Thruston.181
On the 31st Carrington made an elaborate report, of which
181 As a proof of the fact that the history of the members of the Con- vention may be best traced in the Assembly, it will be seen that nine members of this grand committee were members of the Convention.
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our limits will only afford room for a very general review. The committee say that they have attentively examined the British statutes, which are either penal in their nature or relate to penal proceedings, and are in force in the Commonwealth; and they furnish a catalogue of fifty-one acts of Parliament anterior to the fourth year of James the First, and running back to the times of the Richards, the Henrys, and the Edwards-under the operation of which the citizens of this Commonwealth are in danger of capital executions, attainders, corruption of blood, escheats and forfeitures of estates, imprisonment, pecuniary mulcts, and other punishments, without scarcely a possibility of access to those immense folios, in which their fate is concealed from the eyes of all but professional men. The committee then consider the different heads of the subjects entrusted to them at great length and with extraordinary research, and conclude by recommending the appointment of a committee to take the sub- ject in hand, and report to a subsequent Assembly.
The report and resolutions were referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the 2d of November; and, when the com- mittee rose, Booker reported that no amendment had been made to them, and they were adopted without a division. Those parts of the report which were recommended to be carried into effect immediately were referred to Booker, Edmund Randolph, Briggs, Henry Lee, Johnston, Lawson, Hopkins, Preston, Walker, Breckenridge, Philip Pendleton, Turberville, Buchanan, Brent, Holmes, and Bassett; and during the session bills were accord- ingly reported and became laws. 182
The authorship of the report, reflecting as it does abilities of a high order and a fullness of research which, if not made at second- hand, must have consumed many days of severe toil, may be fairly attributed to the brilliant and accomplished Edmund Ran- dolph. Carrington, who was more of a soldier than a civilian, was placed, from courtesy, at the head of the select committee ; 183
182 House Journal, October 31 and November 2, 1789, where the report and resolutions may be seen in full. It was stated in the report that certain gentlemen were willing to arrange and revise the laws free of expense to the State, but the House seemed to have thought it inex- pedient at that time to refer the subject to them.
183 It was customary to make the chairman of the Committee of the Whole the chairman of the committee to draft bills called for by the report.
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and the name of Marshall, who was five years younger than Randolph, would have been prominent, had he been the author of the report, on the committee which was charged with the office of drawing the bills. It is evident that Randolph, in the spirit of true patriotism, and under the impulse of a generous ambition, had prepared his work long before the beginning of the session.
The circulating medium was the source of constantly concur- ring difficulties in our early legislation. Gold and silver were hardly to be seen, and, when offered in payment of the public taxes, were received by weight into the treasury. Certain certifi- cates of the public debt were also received in payment to the Commonwealth, but with the people at large taxes in kind were most heartily approved. On these last the annual loss to the State, from accidents and depreciation, was always large, and they afforded the means of most profitable speculation to the collectors of the revenue. During the war, when there was no outlet by sea, and when there was no specie in the Common- wealth, it was a matter of necessity that the taxes should be paid in the products of the labor of the people. Patrick Henry had the credit of being the author of a scheme, which was evidently the dictate of necessity rather than the result of invention; and he certainly was its foremost champion. At the expiration of the war, however, there was a small party which sought to bring about gradually the payment of taxes in specie, and which had increased in numbers with the development of the resources of the State. Now that a new Federal Government was established, the duties under which must be paid in coin or its equivalent, it was believed by the friends of a sound currency that Virginia should make a serious effort to require specie or its equivalent in payment of taxes. The subject was discussed in Committee of the Whole, and Briggs reported, as the opinion of the com- mittee, that the taxes of the present year ought to be paid in specie only, or in warrants equivalent thereto, and that the taxes on lands, slaves, and other property, and the taxes imposed by an act entitled "an act imposing new taxes," ought to be reduced in the proportion of one-fourth less than the last year. A motion was made to strike out the specie clause and insert that "hemp and tobacco ought to be made commutable in the pay- ment of the public taxes for the year 1789," and was lost by a decisive vote-the ayes being fifty-one and the noes eighty-eight.
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As this was a strict party question for many years, I annex the votes of the members of the House who had been members of the Convention :
AYES-Patrick Henry, Binns Jones, Bell, Strother, King, Richardson, Temple, Pawling, Green Clay, Wormeley, Gaskins, Briggs, Henry Lee (Legion Harry), and Dawson.
NOES-Edmund Randolph, John Marshall, Johnston, John . Trigg, Benjamin Harrison, Guerrant, Prunty, Jackson, Vanme- ter, Smith (of Gloucester), Hopkins, Kennon, Corbin, McClerry, Crockett, Riddick, Stringer, McKee, Carter, Allen, Edmunds, and Edmiston. 1St
The resolution was then adopted without a division. The vote deserves to be studied as showing that geographical con- siderations did not wholly control the members. The truth was that the State was in such a condition that she could not be relieved from it without the adoption of a measure which must necessarily press with greater or less severity upon all the people. The only question was a question of time; and we are bound to believe that a majority of both houses decided wisely. Still we hazard little in saying that the exaction of the taxes in specie gave an additional impulse to that fearful emigration of our peo- ple, which took place at this time, to Kentucky and other West- ern territories. What would be the effect of the exaction of taxes in specie in distant counties may be inferred from the fact that the rich counties of Cumberland and Buckingham presented
184 As many of the members of the House, though not members of the Convention, afterwards became distinguished, I will give the votes of some of them for future reference :
AVES-Peter Randolph, Sterling Edmunds, Robert Bolling, Jr., George Booker, Richard Banks, Robert Randolph, William Payne, Jr., Mordecai Cooke, Henry E. Coleman, William Terry, Miles Selden, Abner Field, William Roane, John Taliaferro, Sterling Niblett. Samuel Taylor, Bur- well Bassett, Jr., John Macon, George Lee Turberville, John W. Willis, and Robert Shield.
NOES-Hugh Caperton, Clement Carrington, Francis Walker, Wil- liam Cabell, Jr., Philip Pendleton, James Breckenridge, John Clarke, Robert White, Samuel Hairston, Isaac Miller, William Heath, Francis Boykin, Francis 'Preston, John Giles, Willis Wilson, John Hodges, Edward Carrington, Henry Washington, Alexander Henderson, Dennis Dawley, Thomas Lawson, John Bowyer, George Baxter, Andrew Cowan, George Brent, Thomas West, and William Tate.
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petitions setting forth that, in consequence of the great scarcity of specie, the low price of produce, and the unfortunate destruc- tion of the crops of tobacco and corn in the fall, they believe that it will be impossible for them to pay their present taxes. 185
It is not an unprofitable task to record the action of our fathers on religious questions, which, at intervals, are still discussed in , the South, and in the South only. Congress had requested the President of the United States "to issue a proclamation to the people to set apart a day of thanksgiving and prayer for the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness"-and the 26th day of November was specified for the purpose. The House acceded to the propo- sition without a division, and resolved that its chaplain be requested to perform divine service and to preach a sermon in the Capitol before the General Assembly, suitable to the impor- tance and solemnity of the occasion, on the appointed day. 186 The public and formal recognition of an over-ruling Providence was frequently made by our fathers during the Revolution; and if the measure (as we know it was in one instance at least) was proposed by politicians for effect, it plainly showed their convic- tion of the religious sensibilities of the people.
It was resolved at the last session to build a marine hospital at Norfolk, and certain funds accruing from the customs were set apart for that purpose.137 But the regulation of commerce had been committed to the new Government, and neither the antici- pated revenues for the construction of the building were forth- coming, nor had the State any further need for such a structure. A sum of five hundred pounds had already been appropriated
185 House Journal, November 16, 1789, pages 64, 65. The crops had been destroyed by a terrible gust in September.
186 This probably was the first instance of a religious meeting being held in the Capitol, and was a very proper inauguration of the new building. It afterwards became a regular place for preaching before churches were built in Richmond.
187 This hospital, beautifully situated at the head of the harbor of Norfolk, was forthwith constructed. During the period when my friend, Dr. E. O. Balfour, was its surgeon, it was greatly improved by his energy and taste-trees were set out, and the grounds were enriched and adorned.
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on the subject, and the senators from this State were requested to communicate the facts to Congress.
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The amendments of the Federal Constitution, which had been recommended by Congress to the adoption of the States, were discussed in Committee of the Whole on the 13th of November, when it was agreed to ratify the first twelve of them as being in accordance with those recommended by the Convention; and it was also resolved that the procceedings of the House upon them should be published and distributed throughout the Com- monwealth. The resolutions of the House were sent to the Senate. That body immediately read them the first time and referred them to the Committee of the Whole, in which they were discussed daily until the 8th of December, when the com -. mittee rose and reported an amendment, which was in substance that the third, eighth, eleventh, and twelfth amendments be post- poned till the next session of the Assembly for the consideration of the people. A warm debate had evidently been held in com- mittee on each vote striking out a specific amendment, and the votes were repeated in the House by ayes and noes. Those in favor of striking out the third amendment were John Pride, Turner Southall, John S. Wills, Mathew Anderson, Stevens Thomson Mason, Joseph Jones, William Russell, and John Pope, and those in the negative Alexander St. Clair, John P. Duval, Nicholas Cabell, John Kearnes, Levin Joynes, James Taylor, and Hugh Nelson. Five times in quick succession the roll was called; and when the questions were carried, the majority made a request which, as far as my researches have extended, stands alone in our records. The request was that they might be allowed to record in the Journal the reasons which induced them to postpone the amendments in question, and their opinion of those amendments. This request was granted by a majority of one-ascertained by a call of the roll; the ayes seven, the noes six. On the 12th the majority recorded their opinions at length upon the Journal, signed with their names. This step was immediately followed by a protest from the minority against the right and policy of the majority to put their opinions on record, which was signed by the members composing it. The House of Delegates refused to concur in the amendments of the Senate, and the Senate refused to recede; and a committee of both bodies met in the conference chamber.
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