FOOTNOTES:
[1216] "I am to acknowledge yours of the 19th of May, which reached me a few days since." (Gouverneur Morris from Richmond, June 13, 1788, to Hamilton in New York; Hamilton MSS., Lib. Cong.)
[1217] Robert Morris to Horatio Gates, Richmond, June 12, 1788; MS., N.Y. Pub. Lib. "James [Wilson] the Caladonian, Leut. Gen. of the myrmidons of power, under Robert [Morris] the cofferer, who with his aid-de-camp, Gouvero [Gouverneur] the cunning man, has taken the field in Virginia." (Centinel, no. 10, Jan. 12, 1788; reprinted in McMaster and Stone, 631.)
Robert Morris was in Richmond, March 21, 1788. (Morris to Independent Gazetteer on that date; ib., 787, denying the charge that paper had made against him. See supra, chap. X.) He was in Richmond in May and paid John Marshall four pounds, four shillings as a "retainer." (Account Book, May 2, 1788.) He had heavy business interests in Virginia; see Braxton vs. Willing, Morris & Co. (4 Call, 288). Marshall was his lawyer.
[1218] Morris to Gates, June 12, 1788, supra. Morris's remark about depredations on his purse may or may not refer to the work of the Convention. He was always talking in this vein about his expenses; he had lost money in his Virginia business ventures; and, having his family with him, may, for that reason, have found his Southern trip expensive. My own belief is that no money was used to get votes; for Henry, Mason, and Grayson surely would have heard of and, if so, denounced such an attempt.
[1219] Madison to Hamilton, June 9, 1788; Hamilton MSS., Lib. Cong.
[1220] Grayson to Lamb, June 9, 1788; quoted in Leake: Lamb, 311.
[1221] Grayson to Lamb, June 9, 1788; quoted in Leake: Lamb, 311.
[1222] Grigsby, i, 149-50.
[1223] The new tavern at Richmond—competitor of Formicola's inn.
[1224] Grigsby, i, 151.
[1225] Kentucky had fourteen members. On the final vote, the Constitution was ratified by a majority of only 10 out of 168 members present and voting. At the opening of the Convention, Grayson said that "the district of Kentucke is with us, and if we can get all of the four Counties, which lye on the Ohio between the Pennsylvy line and Big Sandy Creek, the day is our own." (Grayson to Dane, June 4, 1788; Dane MSS., Lib. Cong.) The Constitutionalists finally succeeded in getting four of these Kentucky votes.
[1226] The Jay-Gardoqui agreement.
[1227] Jefferson to Donald, Feb. 7, 1788; Jefferson's Writings: Washington, ii, 355; and see Monroe to Jefferson, July 12, 1788; Writings: Hamilton, i, 186-87.
[1228] Elliott, iii, 170-71. The reporter noted that "Mr. Henry in a very animated manner expatiated on the evil and pernicious tendency of keeping secret the common proceedings of government." (Ib., 170.)
[1229] Grigsby, i, footnote to 157.
[1230] Elliott, iii, 150-76.
[1231] Lee, while pretending to praise the militia, really condemned it severely; and cited the militia's panic and flight at Guilford Court-House, which lost the battle to the Americans. "Had the line been supported that day," said he, "Cornwallis, instead of surrendering at Yorktown, would have laid down his arms at Guilford." (Elliott, iii, 178.)
[1232] Randolph's letter explaining why he had refused to sign the Constitution.
[1233] This was the only quarrel of the Convention which threatened serious results. A duel was narrowly averted. Colonel William Cabell, as Henry's friend, called on Randolph that night; but matters were arranged and the tense situation relieved when it was learned, next morning, that no duel would take place. (Grigsby, i, 162-65.)
[1234] Elliott, iii, 187-207.
[1235] Grigsby, i, 167-68.
[1236] Elliott, iii, 207-22.
[1237] "When any other member spoke, the members of the audience would, in half an hour, be going out or moving from their seats." (Winston to Wirt, quoted in Henry, ii, 347.) Henry spoke every day of the twenty-two days' debate, except five; and often spoke several times a day. (Ib., 350.)
[1238] Grigsby, i, 176.
[1239] Marshall's Account Book. The entry is: "[June] 2 Paid for coat for self 1." Two months earlier Marshall paid "for Nankin for breeches for self 1.16." (Ib., April 1, 1788.) Yet about the same time he spent one pound, nine shillings at a "barbecue."
[1240] Grigsby, i, 176.
[1241] Marshall had provided for entertaining during the Convention. His Account Book shows the following entry on May 8, 1788: "Paid McDonald for wine 20" (pounds); and "bottles 9/" (shillings). This was the largest quantity of wine Marshall had purchased up to that time.
[1242] Marshall's reputation for "eloquence" grew, as we shall see, until his monumental work on the Supreme Bench overshadowed his fame as a public speaker.
[1243] Elliott, iii, 222.
[1244] Marshall's idea was that government should be honest and efficient; a government by the people, whether good or bad, as a method of popular self-development and progress did not appeal to him as much as excellence in government.
[1245] Marshall here referred to the case of Josiah Philips, and fell into the same error as had Randolph, Henry, and others. (See supra, 393, footnote 1.)
[1246] Humphrey Marshall, i, 254. Humphrey Marshall finally voted for the Constitution, against the wishes of his constituents. (Scott, 135-38.)
[1247] See vol. III of this work.
[1248] See entire speech in Elliott, iii, 223-36.
[1249] Some of the sentences used in this unprepared speech are similar to those found in the greatest of his opinions as Chief Justice. (See vol. III of this work.)
[1250] Grigsby, i, 183-85.
[1251] Elliott, iii, 236.
[1252] Ib., 236-47.
[1253] Ib., 247-62.
[1254] Ib., 254.
[1255] This caustic reference was to the members of the Convention who had been Tories. (Grigsby, i, 193; Elliott, iii, 269; also Rowland, ii, 240.) As we have seen most of the Tories and Revolutionary soldiers were united for the Constitution. These former enemies were brought together by a common desire for a strong National Government.
[1256] Elliott, iii, 262-72.
[1257] Ib., 272-73.
[1258] Grigsby, i, 194-205. William Grayson was one of the strongest men in Virginia. He became Virginia's first Senator under the Constitution. (See infra, vol. II, chap. II.) He filled and satisfied the public eye of his day as a soldier, scholar, and statesman. And yet he has dropped out of history almost completely. He is one of those rare personalities whom the whims of time and events have so obscured that they are to be seen but dimly through the mists. His character and mind can be measured but vaguely by fragments buried in neglected pages. William Grayson's talents, work, and vanished fame remind one of the fine ability, and all but forgotten career of Sir James Mackintosh.
[1259] Elliott, iii, 279.
[1260] Elliott, iii, 273-93 (especial passage, 280).
[1261] Elliott, iii, 293-305.
[1262] Elliott, iii, 319-22; and see chap. II, vol. II, of this work. Although this, like other economic phases of the contest, was of immediate, practical and serious concern to the people, Henry touched upon it only twice thereafter and each time but briefly; and Mason mentioned it only once. This fact is another proof of the small place which this grave part of the economic problem occupied in the minds of the foes of the Constitution, in comparison with that of "liberty" as endangered by a strong National Government.
[1263] Elliott, iii, 325. At this time the fears of the Anti-Constitutionalists were principally that the powers given the National Government would "swallow up" the State Governments; and it was not until long afterward that objection was made to the right and power of the National Supreme Court to declare a law of Congress unconstitutional. (See vol. III of this work.)
[1264] Ib., 313-28.
[1265] Ib., 328-32.
[1266] Ib., 332-33.
[1267] Elliott, iii, 333-51.
[1268] Grigsby, i, 230 and 243.
[1269] Ib., 245; Elliott, iii, 251-56. This, the real vote-getting part of Henry's speech, is not reported by Robertson.
[1270] Grigsby, i, 245.
[1271] Elliott, iii, 356.
[1272] Ib., 361-65.
[1273] Grigsby, i, 248.
[1274] Elliott, iii, 366-410.
[1275] Gouverneur Morris from Richmond to Hamilton in New York, June 13, 1788; Hamilton MSS., Lib. Cong.
[1276] Madison to Hamilton, June 16, 1788; Hamilton MSS., Lib. Cong.
[1277] Lee to Hamilton; Hamilton MSS., Lib. Cong. The first paragraph of Lee's letter to Hamilton shows that the latter was helping his friend financially; for Lee wrote, "God bless you & your efforts to save me from the manifold purse misfortunes which have & continue to oppress me, whenever I attempt to aid human nature. You will do what you think best, & whatever you do I will confirm—Hazard has acted the part of a decided rascal, & if I fail in my right, I may not in personal revenge." (Ib.)
[1278] Madison to Washington, June 13, 1788; Writings: Hunt, v, 179 and footnote.
[1279] Elliott, iii, 410-12.
[1280] Ib., 412-15.
[1281] Ib., 415-18.
[1282] Elliott, iii, 419-20.
[1283] Elliott, iii, 419-21.
[1284] Ib., 421-22.
[1285] Ib., 422-24.
[1286] Henry turned the tide in Marshall's favor in the latter's hard fight for Congress in 1798. (Infra, vol. II, chap. X.)
[1287] Elliott, iii, 434.
[1288] Elliott, iii, 431. Throughout the entire debate Henry often sounded his loudest alarms on the supreme power of Congress over the ten miles square where the National Capital was to be located; and, indeed, this seems to have been one of the chief sources of popular apprehension. The fact that the people at large looked upon the proposed National Government as something foreign, something akin to the British rule which had been overthrown, stares the student in the face wherever he turns among the records of the Constitutional period. It is so important that it cannot too often be repeated.
Patrick Henry, of course, who was the supreme popular orator of our history and who drew his strength from his perfect knowledge of the public mind and heart, might have been expected to make appeals based on this general fear. But when such men as George Mason and William Grayson, who belonged to Virginia's highest classes and who were carefully educated men of conservative temper, did the same thing, we see how deep and strong was the general feeling against any central National power.
[1289] Elliott, iii, 447-49.
[1290] Ib., 452-57.
[1291] Elliott, iii, 473.
[1292] It is exceedingly strange that in the debates on the Constitution in the various State Conventions, so little, comparatively, was made of the debt and the speculations in it. The preciousness of "liberty" and the danger of "monarchy," the security of the former through State sovereignty and the peril of the latter through National Government, received far more attention than did the economic problem.
[1293] Elliott, 472-74. And see vol. II, chap. II, of this work.
[1294] "The recovery of the British debts can no longer be postponed and there now seems to be a moral certainty that your patrimony will all go to satisfy the unjust debt from your papa to the Hanburys." (Tucker to his stepsons, June 29, 1788, quoted in Conway, 106; and see comment, ib.)
[1295] Elliott, iii, 484.
[1296] Ib., 491.
[1297] Grayson to Dane, June 18, 1788; Dane MSS., Lib. Cong. This shows the loose management of the Anti-Constitutionalist politicians: for Kentucky had fourteen votes in the Convention, instead of thirteen, as Grayson declared; and so uncertain was the outcome that to omit a single vote in calculating the strength of the contending forces was unpardonable in one who was, and was accounted to be, a leader.