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 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
S
1
قمح سواء الــ
0
208
VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 1788.
Mason, Pope, and Anderson represented the Senate, and Edmund Randolph, Henry Lee, Corbin, John Marshall, Johns- ton, Edward Carrington, Zane, and Wilson Cary Nicholas appeared on the part of the House of Delegates. 198 The discus- sion was doubtless animated and eloquent; but the conference could not agree, and the Senate resolutely adhered to their amendments by a majority of one-the vote being seven to six. Against this decision the minority of the Senate protested on the technical ground that the bill and amendments had not been returned from the House of Delegates, were presumed to be under the consideration of the House, and were not open to a vote by the Senate.
On the 5th of December the House of Delegates again went into committee on the subject of the amendments proposed by Congress to the Federal Constitution; and, when the Speaker resumed the chair, two resolutions were reported, the first of which set forth "that the General Assembly, in obedience to the will of the people, as expressed by the Convention by which certain alterations in the Constitution of the United States were recommended, ought to urge to Congress the reconsideration of such as are not included in the amendments already adopted by this Commonwealth"; and the second, which declared that a representation ought to be made to Congress in pursuance of the foregoing resolution. As soon as the first resolution was read a motion was made to strike out from the word "resolved " to the end of the resolution, and insert in lieu thereof the follow- ing words: "That a communication from the Legislature of this State to the Congress of the United States ought to be made, expressing their ardent desire that such of the amendments of
188 Randolph and Mason, as the representatives of their respective houses, must have made a brilliant display. The reader is reminded of the famous committee of conference of the British Parliament on the resolution of 1788 declaring the throne vacant, in which Notting- ham on the part of the Lords, and Somers and Maynard on the part of the Commons, put forth their strength. Had the manuscript history of Virginia, written by Edmund Randolph (which was destroyed by fire in New Orleans some years ago), been in existence. we might have learned the details of the conference meeting. [This MS., the property of the Virginia Historical Society, has been committed by it to the well-known writer, Moncure D. Conway, for publication .- EDITOR. ]
209
ALEXANDER WHITE.
the Virginia Convention as have not been proposed by the Con- gress to the several States, to be established as a part of the Constitution of the United States, be reconsidered and complied with." The motion to strike out was lost by a tie vote, the Speaker declaring himself.with the noes. The members of the Convention who voted in the affirmative were John Trigg, Binns Jones, Benjamin Harrison, Strother, A. Robertson, Riddick, Richardson, Guerrant, Temple, Pawling, Hopkins, Carter, Briggs, Edmunds, and Edmiston. Those who voted in the nega- tive were Wilson Cary Nicholas, Johnston, King, Prunty, Van- meter, Corbin, McClerry, Tomlin, McKee, Allen, Henry Lee, Edmund Randolph, and John Marshall. The distinction between the reported resolution and the proposed amendment is apparently slight, the latter being somewhat more peremptory in its tone; but the majority of the House, hitherto easily tri- umphant, sustained a defeat.189 The second resolution prevailed without a division.
The legislation of the Assembly on domestic topics was judi- cious and extensive, and apparently unanimous. Many of the irregularities and deficiencies in the laws, which had been pointed out in the able report already described, were corrected by special acts. Among these were acts concerning the benefit of clergy; against fogery; repealing a part of an ordinance by which certain British statutes were allowed to be in force in Vir- ginia; concerning jeofails and certain proceedings in civil cases; to provide against an appropriation of money by a resolution of the two houses; concerning perjury; directing the mode of proceeding in impeachments; for the manumission of certain slaves for good conduct during the war, and to amend the act preventing the further importation of slaves. The act offering to Congress a territory for the seat of government passed with- out a division, as well as an act ceding to the United States the site of a light-house. The resolution instructing the senators in Congress to vote for admitting the people to hear the debates in
189 The vote was sixty-two to sixty-two, making a House of one hun- dred and twenty-four members, when the full number was about two hundred. In the absence of Patrick Henry the eloquence of Randolph and Marshall prevailed.
14
T
7
210
VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 1788.
their body was also unanimous.190 Kentucky, which had for several sessions received an act authorizing the formation of an independent State, was again empowered to carry that object into effect. Liberal appropriations were made for the comple- tion of the Capitol in Richmond.
On his return from France, Mr. Jefferson had reached the city of Richmond. Both houses passed a resolution congratulating him on his return and expressive of their high sense of the ser- vices which he had rendered to his country, and appointed a committee to wait upon him. He received the deputation most graciously, and made a handsome acknowledgment, which was reported to the House. 191
A memorial from the Baptist associations was presented to the House, praying that a law might pass to authorize the free use of the Episcopal churches by all denominations; but, after the subject had been fully discussed, it was determined on the 9th of December, by a vote of sixty-nine to fifty-eight, to post- pone the further consideration of the memorial to the 31st of March next. 192
A remarkable resolution on the subject of a call of a Conven- tion to revise the Constitution of the State was presented by a member to the House. 193 It was offered by a friend of the Fede- ral Constitution. The recent action of the Assembly on Federal affairs was attributed by the minority to the basis of representa- tion on which that body rested; and the conduct of the Senate,
190 The Assembly had received the Journals of Congress, and ordered five hundred copies to be printed for distribution in the State. Among the elections made during the session were that of James Mercer to the Court of Appeals, in place of John Blair, who had been appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States; Beverley Randolph was re-elected Governor, and Jaquelin Ambler, Treasurer; and Cyrus Griffin, John Howell Briggs, Thomas Madison, and Charles Carter as members of the Council.
191 House and Senate Journals, December 8 and 9, 1789.
192 Consult the House Journal of November 27, 1789, where an argu- ment, in the shape of an amendment to the report of the Committee of the Whole, in defence of the right of the Episcopal Church to its houses of worship, will be seen.
193 House Journal, December 8, 1789.
211
ALEXANDER WHITE.
which had postponed the adoption of several of the amendments to the Federal Constitution that had been adopted by the House, excited the wrath of some of the prominent upholders of that instrument. The resolution was elaborated with uncommon skill; it analyzed the departments of the government, as estab- lished by the Constitution of the State, with stern severity; and concluded with a recommendation that the people take the sub- ject into consideration, and instruct their delegates to act upon it at a subsequent session. When the resolution was read, a motion was made to strike out all after the word "resolved " and insert the words "that the foregoing statement contains state- ments repugnant to republican government and dangerous to the freedom of this country, and therefore ought not to meet with the approbation of this House, or be recommended to the consideration of the people." While this amendment was pend- ing a motion was made to postpone the subject to the 31st of March next, and was carried without a division. 194
A glance at the proceedings of the General Assembly which met on the 18th day of October, 1790, will show the gradual development of parties in the Commonwealth, not so much in respect of the true nature of the Federal Constitution as of the legislative measures adopted by the new government. The Senate again chose John Pride as their Speaker. Beside Pride and Humphrey Brooke (the Clerk of the House), the members of the Senate who had been members of the Convention were Stevens Thomson Mason, Burwell Bassett, and Thomas Gaskins. The House of Delegates re-elected General Matthews Speaker ` without opposition; and Norvell, Harrison (of Charles City), Henry Lee (of the Legion), 195 John Marshall, and Richard Lee
194 This resolution presents an analysis of the Constitution, which fills more than two of the quarto pages of the Journal, and is done in a masterly manner. Its obnoxious feature, as denounced in the amend- ment, was probably its protest against annual elections of members of the Assembly, which it enforces by the same arguments that brought about our present biennial sessions. From the views expressed respecting the clashing of the Declaration of Rights and the Consti- tution, as well as from internal evidence, it is evidently the production of Edmund Randolph.
195 As there were two Henry Lees in the Convention, and as few readers would identify them by the names of the counties from which
·
-
212
VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 1788.
were placed at the heads of the standing committees. Some of the members of the last House, who had been members of the Convention, had withdrawn from the scene. Edmund Randolph had been appointed the first Attorney-General of the United States (as he had been the first Attorney-General of the Com- monwealth); but, beside Matthews, Harrison, Henry Lee, and John Marshall, already named, were Patrick Henry, Johnston, McFerran, Westwood, Prunty, Logan, McClerry, Ronald, Tom- lin, McKee, Carter, John Trigg, Conn, Binns Jones, John Jones, Bell, Strother, John Early, Thomas Smith, Jackson, Cooper, Roane, Kennon, Walton, Edmunds, and Andrews.
The assumption of the debts of the States by the Federal Government was the first act of legislation which called forth a distinct expression of political opinion from the people of Vir- ginia. The senators of the State in Congress had transmitted a copy of the assumption act to the Governor, who enclosed it in a letter to the Assembly. It was immediately referred to the Committee of the Whole, and on the 3d of November, 1790, the House of Delegates took it into consideration. When the com- mittee rose, Selden reported a resolution declaring "that so much of the act of Congress, entitled 'an act making provision for the debt of the United States,' as assumes the payment of the State debts, is repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, as it goes to the exercise of a power not expressly granted to the Federal Government."
As soon as the resolution from the committee was read, a motion was made to strike it out and insert in its stead an amend- ment which contained an ingenious and elaborate exposition of the injustice and impolicy of the assumption act, but which adroitly avoided the constitutional question. This amendment was rejected by a vote of eighty-eight to forty-seven-ascertained by ayes and noes. The members of the House, who had been members of the Convention, voted on the question to strike out and insert as follows:
AYES-John Marshall, Johnston, McFerran, Westwood, Prunty, Logan, McClerry, Ronald, Tomlin, and McKee.
NOES-Thomas Matthews (Speaker), Patrick Henry, John
they came, I have thought it best to give Henry Lee (of Westmore- land) his Revolutionary cognomen.
0
213
ALEXANDER WHITE.
Trigg, Conn, Binns Jones, John Jones, Bell, Strother, John Early, Thomas Smith, Jackson, Cooper, Roane, Kennon, Corbin, Wal- ton, Edmunds, and Andrews.
The main question was then put, and was decided in the affirmative by a vote of seventy-five to fifty-two-ascertained by ayes and noes. As the vote to strike out merely tested the sense of the House on the constitutional question, and might have been given on parliamentary grounds by some who approved the policy of assumption, I annex the result of the call of the roll:
AYES-Mr. Speaker (Matthews), Patrick Henry, John Trigg, Conn, Binns Jones, John Jones, Bell, Strother, John Early, Jackson, Cooper, John Roane, Kennon, Corbin, Walton, Edmunds, and Henry Lee.
NOES-John Marshall, Johnston, McFerran, Westwood,, Thomas Smith, Prunty, Logan, McClerry, Ronald, Tomlin, McKee, Carter, and Andrews.
The resolution was carried to the Senate, and was in due time adopted by that body; but, as the roll was not called, the ayes and noes cannot be given.196
196 As this was the most memorable party vote in our early annals, and was frequently referred to in party contests, I annex some of the names of the members that were afterwards prominent :
AYES-John Cropper, James Upshaw (of Caroline), Peterson Good- wyn, Robert Bolling, Jr., George Booker, Pickett, Cooke, Henry E. Coleman, Miles Selden, Joseph Martin, Francis Boykin, John Camp- bell, John Taliaferro, Sr., George William Smith (afterwards Governor, and burned in the theatre), John Clopton, Richard Evers Lee, Travers Daniel, Jr., Richard Lee, Charles Scott, John Craig, and Robert Shield.
NOES-Francis Walker, William Boyer, C. H. Clark, James Brecken- ridge, 'John Clark, Mathew Page, WV. Norvell, John Miller, A. Crockett, John Jouett, Benjamin Johnson (of Orange),* William Patton, Matthew Clay, John Macon, Richard S. Blackburn, George Baxter, Benjamin Blunt, Francis Thornton, Jr., William Digges, William Nelson, and David Talbot.
For the memorial to Congress, drawn in pursuance to the resolution (which was from the pen of Corbin, and presented by him), see House Journal, December 16, 1790. It is well done, and has a peculiar flavor as coming from Corbin, who was a trenchant friend of the Federal Constitution.
* Subsequently represented by his accomplished grandson, Benjamin Johnson Barbour, of Orange.
214
VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 1788.
The death of the lamented William Grayson made a vacancy in the Senate of the United States, which was to afford another test of the State strength of parties, and which the Assembly, on the 9th of November, proceeded to fill. James Monroe and John Walker were the only candidates, and, upon counting the ballots, Monroe was declared to be duly elected to fill the unex- pired term of Grayson in the Senate of the United States. He was afterwards elected for the full term. 197
I now conclude my review of the members of the Convention as they appeared in a group in the legislative councils imme- diately subsequent to the adjournment of that body, and will proceed to treat in detail the life and services of a statesman, who, in war and in peace, achieved a reputation which during his life was the pride of Virginia, but which, sharing the fatality that has befallen the memory of nearly all his contemporaries, has been allowed to fade almost insensibly away. Descending the Blue Ridge eastwardly, and almost in its shadow, we approach the home which he inherited from his father, in which he spent most of his days, and from which he went forth at the call of his country. 198
197 Some of my readers, who have numbered their three-score years and ten (and I hope I may have many such), may recall the ballad which was written on the occasion of the election of Monroe over Walker. I remember the chorus, but it is rather too pungent for modern ears. As I now close my review of the sessions of the Assem- bly, I state the fact, lest I might lead astray, that Kentucky was still represented at the present session when several acts were passed respecting her, and George Nicholas was elected her attorney-general in place of Harry Innes, declined. But I must leave this matter to others.
198 Near Leesburg.
THOMSON MASON.
Stevens Thomson Mason was the senior representative of Loudoun in the Convention. His ancestor, George Mason, the first of the name, had held a seat in the British Parliament; had commanded a troop of horse in the army of Charles at the battle of Worcester, which sealed the fate of the Stuart dynasty during the life of Cromwell; had emigrated with a younger brother to * Virginia, and landed, in 1651, in Norfolk, then even a flourishing town, which had been honored not long before with a royal charter, and which, with its domestic and foreign shipping, pre- sented a cheering appearance to the eyes of an industrious and enterprising emigrant. In the vicinity of the town his younger brother, William, selected a home, and lived and died and was buried on the banks of a creek, which still bears his name. 199 George, however, removed to Accohick creek, which flows into the Potomac near Pasbitaney, where, with the remains of his once ample estate in Staffordshire,200 he purchased a farm, settled it, and, with his family that shortly came over to Virginia, spent the remainder of his life upon it. In 1676, the year of Bacon's Rebellion, he commanded a volunteer force against the Indians, and held a seat in the House of Burgesses. 201 It is to him that
199 He intermarried with the Thoroughgoods, a respectable family for more than a hundred years in Norfolk and Princess Anne counties, though the name is now almost extinct. A son of his removed to Boston, where, or in other parts of New England, some of his descend- ants are still living.
200 The family was originally from Worcestershire, not Warwick- shire, as the Old Churches, G'c., have it. So say the Mason manu- scripts. [There is a grant of land, of record in the State Land Registry, of 1,250 acres, in Elizabeth City county, to Francis Mason, dated August 31, 1642. Captain George Mason was granted 900 acres in Northum- berland county March 25, 1656 .- EDITOR.]
201 See the account of "T. M." in the Virginia Historical Register, Vol. III, 61; Rice's Magazine, Vol. III, 128. I first saw this valuable tract in the Richmond Enquirer of 1804, September 1, 5, 8. It is also published in Force's Tracts, Vol. I.
1
.
216
VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 1788.
Stafford county owes its name. He had a son called George, who married Mary, a daughter of Gerard Fowke, of "Gunston Hall" in Staffordshire, England. The eldest son of this mar- riage was also called George, the third of the name, and lived and died, and, with his grandfather and father, was buried on Accohick creek. He had a son called George, who married a daughter 202 of Stevens Thomson, of the Middle Temple, Attor- ney-General of the Colony of Virginia in the reign of Queen Anne. He was drowned in the Potomac by the upsetting of a boat, but his body was found and buried at Doeg's Neck. He left two sons and a daughter-George Mason, the author of the Declaration of Rights and of the first Constitution of Virginia (of whom I have already spoken, and shall speak at length here- after), and Thomson Mason, the father of Stevens Thomson Mason of the present Convention.
Before we speak of the son, the patriotism and worth of the father, now almost forgotten, should not pass wholly unrecorded. Thomson Mason was born at Doeg's Neck, on the Potomac, in 1730, was taught at home by the rector of the parish or by a private tutor; entered the College of William and Mary, and thence passed to London, where he studied law at the Temple. His abode in England gave a decided impulse to his character, for his associates in the Temple, and the illustrious men then on the stage of active life, were well calculated to inspire a clever young man with a love of eloquence and learning. He probably heard the brilliant but fated Yorke in his first efforts at the bar. Lord Hardwicke was then on the woolsack, and was expounding daily, in the marble chair, that code of equity which has made his name immortal.203 The Earl of Mansfield and the Earl of Chatham-then plain William Murray and William Pitt-were waging their life-long struggle in the House of Commons; and Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden), Yorke, Thurlow, Wedderburne,
202 She was a niece of Sir William Temple.
203 It may have been through the influence of Mason that the Earl of Hardwicke was elected Chancellor of William and Mary College. Unfortunately the appointment did not reach England until after the death of the Earl. It is noticed by one of his biographers, but has escaped Lord Campbell. Before this period it was common to elect the Bishop of London the Chancellor of William and Mary, evidently from the influence of Commissary Blair.
T
217
THOMSON MASON.
and Dunning were leaders at the bar. He attended, beyond doubt, sedulously the courts and the Parliament; and, if we may judge from subsequent developments, he rather sided with Pitt, Pratt, and Dunning than with Murray, Wedderburne, and Thurlow.
Returning to Virginia, he began the practice of his profession, both in the county courts and at the bar of the General Court. In February, 1766, he signed the stringent and strenuous reso- lutions of the Westmoreland Association, and in the following May took his seat for the first time in the House of Burgesses, and was one of that majority which separated the office of Trea- surer from that of the Speaker. He rose gradually in reputa- tion and in position, and in 1769 he was placed on nearly all the standing committees of the House. During this session he voted for those four memorable resolutions 20% which embraced the great questions of the times, and which caused a dissolution of the Assembly by the Governor; and when the members adjourned to the Apollo and adopted the non-importation agreement, which had been drawn by his brother (George), and brought to Williamsburg by Colonel Washington. In 1774 he was again a member of the House of Burgesses; but he must have retired at the close of that session, as he was not a member of the Con- vention of 1775, or of that of 1776, which were but another name for the House of Burgesses, and which were illumined by the genius of his illustrious brother.
Before I proceed further, I ought not to omit a more distinct allusion to the services of Thomson Mason, in the year 1774, in opposition to the policy of taxing America. Allusion has already been made to the Westmoreland memorial,205 which was drawn by Richard Henry Lee, and signed by the most respectable
204 For a copy of the four resolves, see Burk, Vol. III, 343; and for a copy of the Articles of Association, which were signed by every mem- ber, and the names of the signers, see page 345.
205 It may be seen in the Virginia Historical Register, Vol. II, 15, and in Bishop Meade's Old Churches, &c. As Mason was a member of the House in 1769, and as we are told all the members of that House were returned at the following election, he must have been a member in 1770, and, it is probable, continuously until 1774, where we again begin to trace him. My set of the Journals of the House do not include the period from 1769 to 1774.
218
VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 1788.
citizens of the Northern Neck and of the neighboring country. There, in company with the names of William Grayson, Meri- wether Smith, the Washingtons, the Lees, the Monroes, the Carters, the Roanes, Parker, Turberville, Woodcock, and others, then and still respectable for the patriotism of those who bore them, stands the name of Thomson Mason. But Mason was determined to do something more than pledging his name to the sound doctrines contained in that paper, and he wrote a series of letters at a time when the issue was drawing near (1774), which defended the right and duty of resistance to Great Britain, upon principles of law as well as of right, and which denounced, with all the force of argument and with great vigor of expression, the injustice and the impolicy of taxing the Colonies by the legislation of the mother country. These articles were published under the 'signature of "A British American," and attracted great attention from their intrinsic value; but, willing to assume all the responsibility of their authorship at a time when England was placing her mark upon the froward men of the Colony, and to give to the letters the sanction of his name (which then stood in legal matters second to none other), he concludes the last number with this honorable avowal :
"And now, my friends, fellow-citizens, and countrymen, to convince you that I am in earnest in the advice I have given you-notwithstanding the personal danger I expose myself to in so doing; notwithstanding the threats thrown out by British aristocracy of punishing in England those who shall dare to oppose them in America; yet, because I do not wish to survive the liberty of my country one single moment; because I am. determined to risk my all in supporting that liberty, and because I think it in some measure dishonorable to skulk under a bor- rowed name upon such an occasion as this-I am neither afraid nor ashamed to avow that the letters signed by 'A British American' were written by the hand and flowed from the heart . of Thomson Mason.' 206
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.