son, Stephen Pankey, Jr., Joseph Michaux, French Strother, Joseph Jones, Miles King, Joseph Haden, John Early, Thomas Arthurs, John Guerrant, William Sampson, Isaac Coles, George Carrington, Parke Goodall, John Carter Littlepage, Thomas Cooper, William Fleet, Thomas Roane, Holt Richeson, Benjamin Temple, James Gordon (of Lancaster), Stephens Thompson Mason, William White, Jonathan Patteson, John Logan, Henry Pawling, John Miller, Green Clay, Samuel Hopkins, Richard Kennon, Thomas Allen, Alexander Robertson, Walter Crockett, Abraham Trigg, Solomon Shepherd, William Clayton, Burwell Bassett, Mathew Walton, John Steele, Robert Williams, John Wilson, Thomas Turpin, Patrick Henry, Edmund Ruffin, Theoderick Bland, William Grayson, Cuthbert Bullitt, Walker Tomlin, William McKee, Thomas Carter, Henry Dickenson, James Monroe, John Dawson, George Mason, Andrew Buchanan, John Hartwell Cocke, John Howell Briggs, Thomas Edmunds, The Honorable Richard Cary, Samuel Edmison and James Montgomery-85. And then the main question being put, that this Convention doth concur with the committee in the said amendments, It was resolved in the affirmative. On motion, Ordered, That the foregoing amendments be fairly engrossed upon parchment, signed by the President of this Convention, and by him transmitted, together with the ratification. of the Federal Constitution, to the United States in Congress assembled. On motion, Ordered, That a fair engrossed copy of the ratification of the Federal Constitution, with the subsequent amendments this day agreed to, signed by the President, and attested by the Secretary of this Convention, be transmitted by the President in the name of this Convention to the Executive or Legislature of each State in the Union. Ordered, That the Secretary do cause the Journal of the proceedings of this Convention to be fairly entered in a well bound book, and after being signed by the President, and attested by the Secretary, that he deposit the same in the archives of the Privy Council or Council of State. On motion, Ordered, That the Printer to this Convention do strike, forthwith, fifty copies of the ratification and subsequent amendments of the Federal Constitution, for the use of each county in the Commonwealth. APPENDIX IV. Extracts from Speeches of Governor Randolph and Patrick Henry. On the 4th June, 1788, the Preamble and Art. I. sect. 1 and 2, being under consideration, Governor RANDOLPH said (Elliot's Debates, vol. iii. pp. 48, 49): "Mr. Chairman, had the most enlightened statesman, whom America has yet seen, foretold but a year ago, the crisis which has now called us together, he would have been confronted by the universal testimony of history; for never was it yet known, that in so short a space, by the peaceable working of events, without a war or even the menace of the smallest force, a nation has been brought to agitate a question, an error in the issue of which, may blast their happiness. It is, therefore, to be feared, lest to this trying exigency, the best wisdom should be unequal, and here, (if it were allowable to lament any ordinance of nature) might it be deplored, that in proportion to the magnitude of a subject, is the mind intemperate. Religion, the dearest of all interests, has too often sought proselytes by fire rather than by reason; and politics, the next in rank, is too often nourished by passion, at the expense of the understanding. Pardon me, however, for expecting one exception to this tendency of mankind-from the dignity of this convention, a mutual toleration, and a persuasion that no man has a right to impose his opinion on others. Pardon me too, Sir, if I am particularly sanguine in my expectations from the chair-it well knows what is order, how to command obedience, and that political opinions may be as honest on one side as on the other. Before I press into the body of the argument, I must take the liberty of mentioning the part I have already borne in this great question: but let me not here be misunderstood. I come not to apologize to any individual within these walls, to the convention as a body, or even to my fellow-citizens at large. Having obeyed the impulse of duty, having satisfied my conscience, and I trust, my God, I shall appeal to no other tribunal; no do I come a candidate for popularity: my manner of life has never yet betrayed such a desire. The highest honors and emoluments of this commonwealth, are a poor compensation for the surrender of personal independence. The history of England, from the revolution, and that of Virginia, for more than twenty years past, shew the vanity of a hope, that general favor should ever follow the man, who without partiality or prejudice, praises or disapproves the opinions of friends or of foes: nay, I might enlarge the field, and declare from the great volume of human nature itself, that to be moderate in politics, forbids an ascent to the summit of political fame. But, I come hither regardless of allurements, to continue as I have begun, to repeat my earnest endeavors for a firm energetic government, to enforce my objections to the constitution, and to concur in any practical scheme of amendments; but I never will assent to any scheme that will operate a dissolution of the union, or any measure which may lead to it. This conduct may possibly be upbraided as injurious to my own views; if it be so, it is, at least, the natural offspring of my judgment. I refused to sign, and if the same were to return, again would I refuse. Wholly to adopt or wholly to reject, as proposed by the convention, seemed too hard an alternative to the citizens of America, whose servants we were, and whose pretensions amply to discuss the means of their happiness were undeniable. Even if adopted under the terror of impending anarchy, the government must have been without that safest bulwark, the hearts of the people-and if rejected because the chance for amendments was cut off, the union. would have been irredeemably lost. This seems to have been verified by the event in Massachusetts; but our Assembly have removed these inconveniences, by propounding the constitution to our full and free enquiry. When I withheld my subscription, I had not even the glimpse of the genius of America, relative to the principles of the new constitution. Who, arguing from the preceding history of Virginia, could have divined that she was prepared for the important change? In former times indeed, she transcended every colony in professions and practices of loyalty; but she opened a perilous war, under a democracy almost as pure as representation would admit: she supported it under a constitution which subjects all rule, authority and power, to the legislature: every attempt to alter it had been baffled: the increase of congressional power, had always excited an alarm. I therefore would not bind myself to uphold the new constitution, before I had tried it by the true touchstone; especially too, when I foresaw, that even the members of the General Convention, might be instructed by the comments of those who were without doors. But, I had moreover objections to the constitution, the most material of which, too lengthy in detail, I have as yet barely stated to the public, but shall explain when we arrive at the proper points. Amendments were consequently my wish; these were the grounds of my repugnance to subscribe, and were perfectly reconcileable with my unalterable resolution, to be regulated by the spirit of America, if after our best efforts for amendments, they could not be removed. I freely indulge those who may think this declaration too candid, in believing, that I hereby depart from the concealment belonging to the character of a statesman. Their censure would be more reasonable, were it not for an unquestionable fact, that the spirit of America depends upon a combination of circumstances, which no individual can control, and arises not from the prospect of advantages which may be gained by the arts of negotiation, but from deeper and more honest causes. As with me the only question has ever been, between pre |