Following the adoption of the foregoing resolution, Virginia commissioned a delegation of her foremost men to represent her at Philadelphia; among them, George Washington, James Madison, George Mason, George Wythe, and Edmund Randolph. Under such inspiring leadership, opposition was allayed, and in the convention which followed, representatives finally gathered from every state except Rhode Island.
Over this convention, George Washington was called to preside. Hesitancy and weakness were banished by his words:
"It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we are for what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God."[[351]]
To the convention, Edmund Randolph, then Governor of the commonwealth, presented the "Virginia Plan," which, though amended in many important particulars, was the basis of our present constitution. The scheme of government offered by Governor Randolph was the work of James Madison, and because of his authorship and his great labors in connection with its final preparation and adoption by the several states, he earned the high appellation of "Father of the Constitution."
"The great mind of Madison," says John Fiske, "was one of the first to entertain distinctly the noble conception of two kinds of government, operating at one and the same time, upon the same individuals, harmonious with each other, but each supreme in its own sphere. Such is the fundamental conception of our partly Federal, partly National Government, which appears throughout the Virginia Plan, as well as in the constitution which grew out of it."[[352]]
ACHIEVEMENTS UNDER VIRGINIANS
Upon the adoption of the constitution and the creation of the office of President, George Washington was called to the discharge of its novel and important duties, and under his leadership, the Republic successfully met the difficulties and dangers of its new career.
Only less important to the National life than the administration of Washington, was that of Jefferson who demonstrated by his rule that the ideals of liberty were not incompatible with the reign of law. Under his leadership the empire of Louisiana extending from the Gulf to the Canadian line was acquired, and the muniments of our title established by the explorations of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, two more of Virginia's sons.
Under President Madison, the second war with Great Britain was fought, which established the independence of America upon the seas. Under President Monroe, the territory of the Floridas was acquired, and the Doctrine promulgated under which two continents were dedicated to democratic development unawed by the governments of the Old World.
Virginia gave to the Union John Marshall, "second to none among the most illustrious jurists of the English race," according to John Fiske. For thirty-five years, the great Chief Justice presided over the Supreme Court, and by his decisions performed a work of incomparable importance in establishing the position and power of that tribunal, and in welding in more indissoluble bonds the Union itself.