The same economic antagonism that was manifested in the selection of delegates to the federal Convention was again manifested in the state convention called to ratify the Constitution. “The democratic leaders of the interior,” says Ambler, “declared that it [the Constitution] sacrificed the state’s sovereignty. Accordingly they made a desperate fight to secure the election of delegates pledged to vote against ratification. When the canvass was ended it was not known which side would be successful, so evenly were the friends and enemies of the new plan of federal government matched. From the Tidewater came a strong delegation favorable to ratification. It numbered among its members the most prominent characters of the Virginia bar, former sympathizers with Great Britain, and representatives of interests essentially commercial. The other delegates favorable to ratification came from the Valley and the northwestern part of the state. Most of them had seen service in the Revolutionary armies and were largely under the influence of Washington. The Kentucky country and the Piedmont sent delegates opposed to ratification.... The vote on the ratification was: ayes 89, nays 79 ... practically all the lower Tidewater [being] in favor of ratification. Only two delegates from Shenandoah valley and that part of the Trans-Alleghany north of the Great Kanawha voted nay. The democratic Piedmont and the Kentucky country was almost unanimous in opposition to the Constitution.”[[675]]
These conclusions reached by Ambler closely support Libby’s survey. In speaking of the distribution of the vote on the Constitution in Virginia, he says: “Four well-marked sections are to be noted.... The first, the eastern, comprised all the counties in tidewater Virginia. Its vote on the Constitution stood 80 per cent for and 20 per cent against ratification. This was the region of the large towns, and where commercial interests were predominant. The middle district, lying farther west to the Blue Ridge mountains, represented the interior farming interests of the state; the class of small farmers made up the principal part of its population. Its vote on the Constitution stood 26 per cent for and 74 per cent against adoption. The third, the West Virginia district is really double, composed of the Shenandoah Valley, in which lay the bulk of the population and the sparsely settled Trans-Alleghany region. This, also, was an agricultural section with a population chiefly Scotch-Irish and Germans from Pennsylvania. Its vote stood 97 per cent for and 3 per cent against the Constitution....[[676]] The fourth, or Kentucky district comprised all that territory west of the great Kanawha to the Cumberland River. Its vote stood 10 per cent for and 90 per cent against.... The question of the opening of the Mississippi river was the decisive one in determining the vote of this section.”[[677]]
That public securities also carried some weight in the Virginia counties which were strongly favorable to the Constitution is shown by the following table of the delegates (all, except Thomas Read, favorable to the Constitution) to the state convention from the towns and the seaboard or tidewater regions. Those italicised were holders of paper to some amount and appear on the Index to Virginia Funds in the Mss. of the Treasury Department. Those not italicised were not discovered on the books.
Fairfax County—David Stuart and Charles Simms.
King George—Burdet Ashton and William Thornton.
Westmoreland—Henry Lee and Bushrod Washington.
Northumberland—Walter Jones and Thomas Gaskins.
Richmond County—Walker Tomlin (as Executor) and William Peachy (as Executor).
Lancaster—James Gordon and Henry Towles.
Gloucester—Warner Lewis and Thomas Smith.