title: The Virginia convention of 1829-30. A discourse delivered before the Virginia historical society, at their annual meeting, held in ... Richmond, December 15th, 1853.
text: JK 3925 1829 .G7 oK * * ‘tiWJpjfl 0 4,0 ^ V V % W\*° '• V *’••- C' 4.0 • *^L% V T • O- ^ .>Va* ^ <? .'^Sfek*. ^ ^ .’A- *«, . 4^ ^ • ♦ a a? + '•. * • .G \ 2 _ *« TV** /V . * ' » * - ^ • >° •»* <^ °-4 vow; *° •’v •. ’ 0° *• .Tf*' q,. **.-•• A o° v**..<- ^ V ., % ■ ‘ JY ..«., % ' °o J* S^ATtL* ^ r oK •' a wt ^<s> *.;»* ^ ^ *»,i» a 0 Vk *» ■$r **^SKV* ^ ^ ^ <* * <$* \V 1 - * • * * V <?v - <A '• • » * .G* "o * 777 ** ?> <T '• • * ■. % t o* A ..'•*. \ ^ ^ JABS*:. *r- J? °* * > T <fe • - • v <» r .. „ °V^ T ‘/ 0 ...."%' ,T * v v ...'% * ^ -M % y *’j®i*. ♦* ^ .'/ r * tV\WV/A • >V ’ ,^lc? 31 ^ I V<v *»i V V ^ .f.?. .o^ V*”* a’ iC*. •*>/ ?£jk(&' ’’W ;4!l8fc . 4 ilfl * f u <*» * • • jy . .i^i'» *> .V B °<, 4 ° v • • • •- o. .0 > .'aW/V **„ A .' V< 1 4* .y«W °o ,.-^L*, 'V c 0 f ..JAT !»'. ^o< :4ti£ ’bv* .*^^** ^0* vSR* *.'*^1 ■• «*■ * V vv ^ */^Va’ c^- * v 4 ssmzW/A • <> * A v ^ • • • 9 9 4 ^ « 0 r ♦ VV 1 % ^ v % ^ »-ifMfNw - <L * * %{. v V^ ♦ J V 4 A>^ ;- « <V^ ♦ * • *». * *4 o » 9 V e A « /i • ¥ 1 2 • ## vv«*‘ v^v <r '•»*• .o v A ♦ o «f* «'**J>7?7’1~ * G •VsSnI* °0 A a • .0 -nf i * * • %■ & ’^Wa- *<*« <£* •’fifes'- -t- aV .* - *•** -■ iM“ vo^ •JaBi.: ,* & > ' P '*'a ‘'X/W^i ' * Wlsl> .* A c f > '% ' •••* V* .. 'V *•••* .< % <c> *»••• . 0 * Or «* ♦ ~o «& • *■»* * % ° .4* ♦VwTfc*, * ^ O'- * ^SStw* 4* -V * *S \ • Or o * * • + * %* « * «5 3* «*► ♦ ’~ > K£P r '* ^.h o *4 "' C 61V' J *S 0 ••* A* °*. *•«’* £° V ** * **# c> Sy , A, -r'. **&■ V * * aWa ' V A ' • vV^ a\v *5* * __ .* V * *. ,77 '' y> <v ' yi, .. 1UL*. ^ \r>v _ C° .* “- - ° *. «U. 0 < .* ; / :. 'V. *»^T** .<(!*■ °o ‘ *TTi • * a 0 • •• 4. ^ 4,r . . - «V * ^ «, * * iT ♦ ■< *■ «* * .vV* A. « ra. *-...• /v <? - ,-T ** < * ^ V *’\v c\ **v 4 a3 V Ca 4 A <L ■ At» • UftKV; • „o % *>^.' 4.K .o' ,*v % «> v s. • ^ J> '*£fr* ** ^ ♦* * >v *^C5fe» r v\ v * va, *.SmMS.' .«.a' * -J* Jc o 1 * ?A • « »■ » » # sLjmZ* + ♦ ♦x *• * ~**P» <4 o' »*••» c\ <* ; • _ / ^ v •* f ♦«•* A v^ v 4 1 Sr , i 1 * . *^ A O' , ' ’ T « ry j* SrtirhL; % (P vjtfsvl*. o c> V * Jh&sfm^ - ^ o” ® * O. kt ^ •-e^aav ^ * S^ctAr^S S) •••* 4* V •••’• ’ +° a 0 • •V''. > V’ •!**- cv A-. & ^ ^ \ 4 ? .y - c - : 'Av * c5 %r 't\ ' • tV-^. * " * a* 3 * tlSSFl , A v <> *«,■;« ,o ^ & *~*™tfj* * a v V * ^ 4 '**' *\> <U ” 0^ « * A.* « ^b . * fc » * « ^ 4^ ♦ VvT^. * w : v* * *t* *. A v ^ # • • A° ‘WK* ^ V ♦ <T < 4$SB&k\ ^ & /, % ° .^r v. 4 * C^'f'rs .* .4.^ ^ -A A 0 ’ *' ,0^ .*V.. 0 * O ^O 1 ?<?/ C[ie Virginia Conoention of 1829 - 30. A DISCOURSE DELIVERED BEFORE i- THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. AT THEIR ANNUAL MEETING, mv t (vc O^Dtfvervaeiuiv mv t(v& ^(oilij/ cltotcfunctuV, December 15th, 1853. BY HUGH B. GRIGSBY. PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. O > C I 0 9 > *> 1 ) ) V 3 > 5 5 3 3 > 3 > , 3 \ l > * *> 3 > -> .j i 4 ft O *> *> % » » * *> ’ >)))))> ) > > ^ 3 * . ■ ; - . 1 > > ■> * ’ * ” « , > 1) 0 > ’ 5 y y , y , > y i j a i ' >*, J J -i RICHMOND: MACFARIANE & EERGUSSON. 1854. 3 I 'oX « • ( c c t c c 1* « «  * i • • • I I < « « « « • • • * DISCURSE. Mr. President and. Gentlemen of the Virginia Historical Society : Could we point to some succinct and authentic record of the lives of those great men who laid the foundations of our institutions and reared upon them the structure, which it was the privilege of our fathers and ourselves for half a century to inhabit,—how delightful would be the office of pointing out their worth to the young men of the country, and of exhorting them to imitate their glorious example? Alas! no such record exists ; and the Virginian, old and young, knows less of George Mason and Edmund Pendle¬ ton, than he does of the statesmen of Greece or Rome; and when the patriotic parentis sensible of the importance of imbuing the youthful mind with a knowledge of our early benefactors, he finds the task difficult and almost im¬ possible. Much has been lost, but much may yet be done. I hold that every fact relating to those eminent men is of real value. It may seem at first immaterial to know that Pendleton was a cripple ; but, when it is known that, lame as he w~as, and unable to rise from his chair to put a ques¬ tion to the house, he was nevertheless unanimously chosen president of the Virginia Convention of 1788, and allowed to perform the duties of the station sitting, and afterwards presided for so many years in our highest courts, the fact contains a moral which posterity will delight to learn and to apply. Let us hope that the glory of performing such •4 DIOCOURSE. an office awaits some member of our association, and, if he should execute it with the skill and grace with which the character and services of Hampden have been recorded by an eminent Virginian, he will accomplish a work wffiich the present age will hail with applause, and which poster¬ ity, if I may use the words of Milton just quoted by the chair, will not willingly let die. I come to lay my own humble but grateful tribute at.the shrine of the past, and, while I sincerely wish that the task of recalling to the recollection of the present generation the lives and services of the members of the Virginia Con¬ vention of 1829-30 had been assigned to worthier hands than mine, I trust the readiness with which I have under¬ taken it, deeply sensible as I am of its difficulty and deli¬ cacy, will afford no uncertain measure of the regard with which I cherish the purposes of our society, and of my thorough conviction of its importance to the historical liter¬ ature of our native State. Premising that I shall mainly speak of those members who are no longer living, with a becoming respect to their memory indeed, but with all the freedom of history, I proceed at once to my office. When the General Assembly of Virginia, during the winter of 1828-9, passed the act calling a Convention, to be composed of four delegates from each senatorial dis¬ trict, and required it to assemble in the city of Richmond on the fifth of October following, the attention of the people was soon directed to the choice of delegates to so important a body. Federal politics w r ere laid aside ; and public worth and eminent abilities were the only standards in the selection of its members. Actual residence was overlooked, and the unusual sight was presented of one district selecting its representatives from another and a dis¬ tant one. hat was rarer still, the opinions of many of persons voted for were unknown, and in a comparatively DISCOURSE. 5 few instances did anj^ candidate address the people from the hustings. A body of men, selected under such circumstances, might well attract attention at home and abroad ; and the period of its assembling drew towards Richmond a large concourse of intelligent persons from various parts of the Union. Young men came on horseback from Kentucky, Tennessee, and other Southern States. Statesmen, men of mature years, who had already earned for themselves a title to the public regard, ministers of foreign powers, who wished to see men whose names had become historical, educated men of every profession and class, came, many of them with their families, to behold the gathering, and listen to the discussions of the body. The citizens of Virginia, who came to Richmond from within her own borders and from abroad, would alone have formed an auditory, which any speaker would have been proud to address. It was about ten o’clock of the fifth of October, 1829, a morning as lovely and as auspicious as could have been cho¬ sen, that hundreds of persons, of all ages, were seen throng¬ ing the public square, and walking through the apartments of the Capitol, now halting about the statue of Washing¬ ton, which was soon to look down on some of the patriots and sages who had upheld the living original in the field and in the cabinet, then moving towards the library, then recently established, which was thrown open to public in¬ spection. As the hour of twelve drew near, and the mem¬ bers elect began to assemble in the hall of the House of Delegates, and exchange salutations, the crowd gravitated toward the gallery and the lobby, and filled every place from which it was possible to see or hear. At twelve, the house was called to order by James Madison, who nomi¬ nated James Monroe as President of the Convention, and was seconded by John Marshall. That the nomination 6 DISCOURSE. of such a man, made by such men, was unanimously con¬ firmed, is known to all. Here let us pause, and contemplate the members who then filled the seats in that hall. To behold those venera¬ ble men—to listen to their names as they fell distinctly and deliberately from the lips of the accomplished clerk, was to feel the whole history of Virginia from the memorable session of 1765 to that moment flash full upon you. It is true, that no member of the House of Burgesses of 1765 was present, nor any one, who, like the youthful Jef¬ ferson, had heard the eloquence of Henry in defence of his resolutions. Peyton Randolph had departed before the clouds had begun to break away from the sky of the Revo¬ lution. The waters of the Potomac and the Staunton had been flowing beside the graves of Washington and Henry for more than a quarter of a century; and before Wash¬ ington and Henry had departed, Richard Henry Lee had been gathered to his fathers amid the shades of Chantilly. It was the fortune of George Wythe and Edmund Pendle¬ ton to survive to the present century, and to behold the federal government in the full tide of successful experi¬ ment, their ancient friend, Thomas Jefferson, at the helm. Paul Carrington, who had moved the appointment of Pey¬ ton Randolph as President of the Convention of 1775, and of Edmund Pendleton as President of the Convention of 1788, and was the last survivor of the House of Burgesses of 1765, had died eleven years before. The author of the Declaration of Independence, who, as a spectator in the lobby, had drank in the inspiration of Henry’s eloquence in the debate on the resolutions against the stamp act, and has given us the most interesting reminiscences of the scene, had died in less than four years before the meeting of the body. These distinguished patriots were not indeed present in the Convention of 1829-30, yet were so con- DISCOURSE. 7 nected in their lives with those who were, that our whole history seemed reflected in the panorama that was moving before us. If Jefferson were not present, there was Madi¬ son, who carried out in the Assembly the great measures which his absence during his mission to the Court of France rendered it impracticable for him to do in person, and to whom he had recently said: “ To myself you have been a pillar of support through life ; take care of me when dead.” If Pendleton and Wythe did not appear, there were Madison and Marshall, who had struggled with them in the Convention of 1788 against the eloquence of Henry, and who brought them into view; and if Grayson and George Mason were absent, there was Monroe, who united with them in opposing the adoption of the federal constitution by the people of Virginia. Marshall and Mon¬ roe had been with Washington in some of the hard con¬ tested fields of the Revolution, while Madison in the coun¬ cils of Virginia, and in the Congress of the Confederation, had sustained by his eloquence and patriotism the plans of our Great Leader. If George Mason, who drafted the constitution which the Convention w T as assembled to re¬ vise, was no more, there was Madison who aided him in sustaining that instrument in the Convention of 1776, and who could speak in his behalf. Perhaps the most important act in our history was the adoption of the federal constitution,—an act, the full pur¬ port of which was not known at the time of its adoption, if indeed it is fully known at present; and the history of that instrument and of the measures of those who carried it into execution, was wrapped up in the lives of the men who then sat in that hall. If to any one individual more than another the paternity of the federal constitution ma} r be ascribed, James Madison was that man. It may be that the present form of that paper is from the pen of Gouver- 8 DISCOURSE. neur Morris, but Madison was the inspiring genius of the new system. He it was, who, while a member of the old Congress, drew the celebrated appeal to the people at the close of the war to adopt some efficient mode of paying the debts of the confederation ; who procured in 1786 the passage of the resolution of this commonwealth inviting the meeting at Annapolis, which resulted in the assembling of the Convention in Philadelphia; who attended the ses¬ sions of that body, and as much as any one man, if not more, guided its deliberations. He, too, was the author of the letter accompanying the constitution, signed by Wash¬ ington, and addressed to the President of Congress. He it was, who with Jay and Hamilton sustained the consti¬ tution by those essays which, under the name of the Fe¬ deralist, have attained the dignity of a text-book and a clas¬ sic. He it w r as who, more than any one man, braced the nerves of the Virginia Convention of 1788, while Henry, George Mason, Grayson and Monroe were breathing awful imprecations on the head of the new system ; and who drafted the form of ratification of that instrument by the body ;—a form destined to be known better hereafter than it is at present. He it was, who repaired to New York, and assisted in the deliberations of the first Congress. He it was, whose influence was felt in the federal councils, either by his personal presence as a member of the House of Representatives, Secretary of State, and President, or by his writings from 1786, when Virginia adopted his reso¬ lution inviting the meeting at Annapolis, to the moment of the assembling of the bod}" of which he was then a member. The history of that one man was the history of his country. There, to the extreme left of the chair, as it then stood, dressed in black, with an olive colored over¬ coat, now and then raising his hand to his powdered hair, DISCOURSE. 9 and studiously attentive to every speaker, he was sitting before vou. When Mr. Madison took his seat in the Convention, he was in the seventy-ninth year of his age; yet, though so far advanced in life, and entitled alike by age and position to ease, he attended the meetings of the body during a ses¬ sion of three months and a half without the loss, so far as I now remember, of more than a single day. That he was entitled to the chair, and that the universal expectation was that he should receive that honor, none knew better, or could have acknowledged more gracefully, than did Mr. Monroe. He spoke but two or three times, when he as¬ certained that his voice was too low to be heard ; possibly, too, he might have been ave.rse from mingling too closely in the bitter strifes of a new generation. When he rose to speak, the members, old as well as young, left their seats, and, like children about to receive the words of wis- *V dom from the lips of an aged father, gathered around him. That he still retained the vigor of his intellect, and that un¬ approachable grace in his written compositions, his two short speeches written out by himself, and his letters to Mr. Cabell, Mr. Everett, and Mr. Ingersoll on the Tariff, Bank and Nullification controversies, show clearly enough. As a speaker, Mr. Madison was more distinguished by intellectual than physical qualities. His voice at no period of his life was strong enough to be heard distinctly in a large assembly. In the House of Delegates of which he was a member at intervals from 1776 to 1788, andin 1799, his influence in debate was more by the impression which he made upon prominent men than upon the house itself. The Continental Congress and the Philadelphia federal convention, in which he gained so much renown, were small bodies, rarely exceeding forty, and sometimes not half that number, and were within the range of his voice. 10 DISCOURSE. The first Congress under the federal constitution was com¬ posed of less than sixty members, Rhode Island and North Carolina not having then adopted that instrument, and its whole complement was but sixty-five. Butin the Virginia federal convention and in the House of Delegates, the num¬ bers of which exceeded those of the two bodies first named four times, and of the last named nearly three times, he was rarely heard throughout the hall. Several of the finest passages in his speeches in the Virginia federal conven¬ tion are lost to posterity from the weakness of his voice. His style of debate was in unison with his general cha¬ racter, and partook more of the essay than the speech. He adhered closely to his subject, and, avoiding all personali¬ ties towards others, was prompt, however, to repel them when aimed at himself. When Grayson, in the conven¬ tion of ’88, made some allusions to him of a personal na¬ ture, he instantly rose and demanded an unequivocal re¬ traction. This was the only instance of a personal kind that he encountered during the session, and, perhaps, throughout his whole career, while Patrick Henrv and Ed- mund Randolph, who had been friends, became, in the course of the session, bitter enemies; and it is probable that the amicable relations of George Nicholas and Henry were seriously impaired by the collisions of debate. It would be difficult to estimate too highly his services in the Virginia federal convention. As he had studied the Constitution as a whole, which no other member except George Mason had done, and discussed it minutely in the numbers of the Federalist; moreover, as he had been one of the most active members of the body which formed it, he stood by its side throughout the session of twenty-five days, and explained its probable working as readily as if he had seen it in full operation for a quarter of a century. It required his ready tact, his range of historical iilustra- Discourse. 11 tion. and Ins philosophical caste of mind which kept him free from the personalities of debate, to reassure the friends of the constitution, who were daily shaken by the vatici¬ nations of Henry and Mason, and to reconcile them to its adoption. As it was, in a house of one hundred and sixty- eight members, it was carried by a majority of ten votes only. When it is remembered that the favorable vote of Virginia was alone wanting to save the constitution, eight States having already ratified it, and that North Carolina and Rhode Island afterwards refused to adopt it, it is more than probable that its rejection by the largest State in the confederation, as Virginia then was, would have settled its fate, and the federal constitution would have sunk to rise no more. If the adoption of that system were wise and proper ;—if it has shed boundless blessings on our own people, and lifted its cheering light to the eyes of the op¬ pressed of every clime; and if such a glorious result can be traced to the action of anyone State and any one man, Virginia is the State, and James Madison is the man, to whom honor is due. I have said that Mr. Madison rarely took part in the pro¬ ceedings of the Convention then sitting. It was in con- versation that he made the strongest impression on the hearts of all who sought him. A severe student in early life, he never forsook his first love, and the accuracy and freshness of his literary and political reminiscences aston¬ ished the admiring listener. In the midst of his retire¬ ment he had watched the general current of history, and was prompt to correct any material error. Ilis graceful refutation of a theory of the historian Robertson, which he presented in the course of an agricultural address in 1819, is well known ; and when Dr. Ramsay, in his account of the Revolution, alluded to the instructions of Virginia to her delegates in the Continental Congress, on the subject 12 DISCOURSE. of a surrender of the navigation of the Mississippi, in such a way as to conflict with the consistency of the State, he stepped forth and put the whole subject in its proper light. Whatever he did, was thoroughly done. The memorial on religious freedom prepared by him in 1780, in which he demonstrated, perhaps for the first time, the cardinal doc¬ trines which ought to control governments in matters of religion, was mainly efficient in putting an end to that un¬ natural connexion between church and state to which some of the ablest statesmen of the Revolution, guided by early prejudice, too closely adhered, and will henceforth appear, as well from the beauty of its style as from the weight of its philosophy, among the most conspicuous religious land¬ marks in the history of our race. He was the delight of the social circle, and seemed incapable of imputing a harsh motive to any human being; and to a young friend, fresh from a New England College, he spoke of Quincy, Otis, Daggett, Dexter, and the younger Sherman,—men who had opposed his administration with a zeal that brought them to the verge of disunion—with as deliberate an apprecia¬ tion of their merits as if they had held a far different course. But he preferred to dwell on incidents of an ear¬ lier period, and recalled to his young friends in his charm¬ ing way the memory of Witherspoon who blended so inti¬ mately the duties of the scholar and the statesman, and who was the guide of his youth,—of Franklin, and of the elder Sherman, with both of whom he had been intimate in early life. His wife, whose elegance diffused a lustre over his public career, and who was the light of his rural home, accompanied him to Richmond, and, as you left their presence, it was impossible not to rejoice that Provi¬ dence had allotted to such a couple an old age so lovely. But, prominent as was Mr. Madison in that Convention, none would allow sooner than he that he was among equals. DISCOURSE. 13 No individual could vie with him in his peculiar career in federal politics, nor in that happy combination of faculties, which, comprehending all classes of political subjects, had adorned them all. In general learning he was not only ahead of his contemporaries in that body, but may be said to have stood alone. Not even the raciness and research of Mr. Jefferson could surpass him ; and if he had devoted his time to jurisprudence, the student would not have been compelled, if he did not recognise them in Story, to look abroad for the blended strength and elegance of a Stowell. But there were men now before him, whose career was contemporaneous with his own, as well as others who had grown into eminence since the beginning of the century, who had shared or might well have shared divided empire with him. In surveying a body of men, the representatives of two generations, the observer, with a view of arranging them in their respective classes, would insensibly call to mind the leading epochs in the two great parties of the country, since the adoption of the federal constitution This period, at least for the present purpose, readily re¬ solves itself into four great epochs ; the first extending from the organization of the government in 1789 to the close of the administration of the elder Adams ; the second, from 1801 to the year 1806, when the restrictive policy of the administration made a breach in the ranks of the re¬ publican party; the third from 1806 to the close of the war in 1815 ; and the fourth from 1815 to the assembling of the Convention. Now of these important epochs the most influential personages were assembled in that hall. Of the first epoch—from 1789 to 1801, there were Mad¬ ison, Monroe, Marshall, Giles, Randolph, Taliaferro and Tazewell. The history of these names is the history of the period. Madison and Giles in the House of Repre¬ sentatives, and Monroe in the Senate, guided the counsels 2 / 14 DISCOURSE. N. of one great party, until the two first in 1798, retired with a view of entering the General Assembly, and the last was sent as envoy to the French republic. Their influ¬ ence in their new spheres is known to all. Randolph did not enter the House of Representatives till 1799, and Taze- well, who had voted with Madison and Giles in the memo¬ rable session of the Assembly in 1799, and was elected to fill the vacancy made by the appointment of Judge Mar¬ shall to the War Department, did not take his seat till 1809. Here we approach one of those monumental names which make the era in which they appear their own. What Ed¬ mund Randolph said of himself is quite as applicable to John Marshall,—that he was a child of the Revolution. He had seen the first flash of the war at the Great Bridge, had been at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and had gone forth under Steuben. In 1782 began his legal and political career; and from that time till 1796, he was at intervals a member of the House of Delegates. Here he won some of his greenest laurels. In the Virginia con¬ vention of 1788, he made a speech which called forth the praise of Madison. It was near the close of this epoch he entered the House of Representatives, and, although he remained but one session, and made but one regular speech, he gained great distinction, and was regarded as the leader of the administration of Adams in the Southern States. He had fought the battles of his party with such success in the House of Delegates, and had inspired such confi¬ dence in his patriotism and purity of purpose, that the lof¬ tiest honors of the Washington and Adams’ administrations were within his reach. Washington solicited him to accept the office of Attorney General and the mission to France; but he declined both; and it was only at the urgent solici¬ tation of the greatest names that he consented at a later period to accept the French mission. From the War he DISCOURSE. 15 passed to the State Department, and thence, in 1800, to the office of Chief Justice, which he filled until his de¬ cease in 183 5 , a space of more than thirty five years, dur¬ ing which he was the judicial arbiter of his country. This is not the place to review his judicial career; but it may •be said, that it was his singular glory that, though called from the fiercest political contests to decide questions which have been and are the themes of party discord, and con¬ cerning which there has been and will ever he a difference of opinion, he has not only escaped any serious suspicion of improper bias, but, by the supremacy of his genius and the simple majesty of his deportment, won the general ad¬ miration and regard. The personal appearance of Judge Marshall, and his manner of speaking, will be known to posterity from the descriptions of Wirt, and the British Spy is in every hand. He spoke but seldom in the Convention, and always with deliberation. I would say that an intense earnestness was the leading trait of his manner. His first speech was made at a time when a spirit of compromise began fo shew itself. When he had demonstrated conclusively that the federal basis was the mean proportional between the two extremes of the bases which had engaged the public attention, he examined with critical care the schemes which had been offered, and exhibited by way of comparison some calcu¬ lations of his own. He bore his testimony in favor of the County Court system, and defended it briefly but ably. It was in the discussion of the judicial tenure, that he came forth in all his strength. The question was virtually the same as that presented in Congress in 1802 on the repeal of the judiciary act; and what enhanced the interest of the debate, was the presence of Mr. Randolph, who report¬ ed the bill to repeal the judiciary act of 1800, and of Mr. Giles who had advocated the repeal in the House of Rep- 16 DISCOURSE* resentatives, and both of whom engaged in the present de¬ bate. He spoke with deep feeling, and, though pressed by Tazewell, Giles, and Barbour of Orange, he maintained his ground with surpassing skill; and when in conclusion, and under the full excitement of debate, he declared : “ I have always thought from my earliest youth till now, that the greatest curse an angry heaven ever inflicted upon an un¬ grateful and a sinning people, was an ignorant, a corrupt, or a dependent judiciary. Will you call down this curse on Virginia ?” all felt the power of his eloquence. Let me observe that the debate on the tenure of the judicial office— a debate in which Marshall, Tazewell, Leigh, Scott, Jon- son, Giles, Randolph, and Barbour of Orange, engaged;— was one of the most brilliant exhibitions of the Conven¬ tion. In the domestic relations of life, which, as they ever af¬ ford the true test of intrinsic worth, become the crowning grace of an illustrious character, he was beyond all praise. Great in intellect he undoubtedly was, but he was as good as he was great; and those who knew him longest and best, found it hard to say whether they regarded him most with veneration or love. But, however eminent as a debater, a statesman, and a jurist, it is in the garb of an historian that he will appear most frequently before the generations to come, and it is the only garb that sets ungracefully upon him. The life of Washington, if I may so speak, was made to order. The federal party was fast melting away. The administration of Jefferson was in the full tide of success. The alien law had'expired by its own limitation. The sedition law had also expired, and its victims were set free. The judiciary act had been swept from the statute-book. The charter of the Bank of the United States and the assumption act were in bad odor, and would have been repealed, if it had DISCOURSE. 17 been practicable. The excise law was numbered with the slain. Every vestige of the past dynasty was disappear¬ ing. A new generation, which partook of the opinions around it, was stepping on the stage. Now was the time for a master spirit to appear, who might not only recover the lost ground, but gain fresh conquests. Politicians of both parties had long known the abilities of John Marshall. He had broken the force of many a democratic measure in the House of Delegates. In the convention of 1788, he seized with great tact the phantoms which the genius of Henry had raised, reduced them to substantial forms, and broke them on the wheel of his resistless logic. His cor¬ respondence with the French Directory, and especially the celebrated letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, almost a book in itself, which, though signed by Gerry and Cotes- worth Pinckney, was from his pen, and which was not only unanswered but unanswerable, had been published in all the papers, and was universally applauded. His speech in the case of Jonathan Robbins, which was his first great effort in the House of Representatives, into which he en tered soon after his return from France, raised his reputa¬ tion still higher in the estimation alike of friends and op¬ ponents. And it was hoped that a history from his hand of the federal party during the administration of Wash¬ ington, and under the wing of his great name, would make a deep impression on the popular mind. But to be effec¬ tual it must come forth at once. The most courteous re¬ publican was not bound to wait for it. A princely sum, then unknown in the annals of American authorship, awaited its completion. And in due time, and in five vol¬ umes, it made its appearance. Mr. Jefferson was in the second year of his second term. He had been re-elected almost wi thout opposition. There was hardly a show of fight at the polls. To put down the doctrines of the party 2 * 18 DISCOURSE. of which he was the head was the mission of the new book ; and, by a singular coincidence, simultaneously with the appearance of the book, occurred the schism in the republican party on the restrictive policy of the adminis¬ tration. Still it came too late. From the data already given, and with a knowledge of the fact that the author was engaged in performing official duties arduous enough to employ the time and all the fac¬ ulties of ordinary men, a literary geometer might have de_ scribed beforehand its essential form and character. Of all the kinds of writing that of history is most difficult. A great speech, a well-reasoned State paper, a fine poem, may be struck off from the impulse, or under the inspira¬ tion, of the moment; but to write history requires other and more complicated qualifications ; qualifications which cannot be conjured up for the nonce, and which are so rare, that, while the number of histories is legion, the names of the great historians, like those of the great epic poets, may be written in a nutshell. Probably, when Mar¬ shall undertook the composition of his work, he had-never contemplated with critical accuracy the distinctive merits of any great history. His early opportunities of acquiring knowledge were few ; and, instead of spending his youth and middle age in the closet with Hume and Gibbon, cull¬ ing phrases and recasting periods, he w T as engaged in the field contending for the liberties of his country, or in the busy strifes of the bar in pursuit of an honorable indepen¬ dence. But this explanation, while it accounts for the ab¬ sence of those qualities which make an excellent history, by no means supplies the defect. The result is, that the Life of Washington—I speak of the fifth and leading vol¬ ume of the first edition—is a strong off-hand argument in defence of the measures of the federal party during the administration of Washington, and, if it had been pronoun- DISCOURSE. 19 ced in the House of Delegates, or in the House of Repre¬ sentatives, it would have passed well enough, and only be¬ comes out of place when put into the mouth of the muse of history. As might fairly have been anticipated, a work from such a hand, though it was not to make a revolution in existing parties, produced a marked effect. Of its strictly literary merits, there was at home and abroad but one opinion; but, while the political friends of the author hailed its appearance with joy, and were quite willing to shelter themselves behind the massy bulwark which it reared in their defence, it was warmly condemned by the opposite party. Mr. Jefferson protested against it to the end of his life, and died in the full belief that Mr. Madison was pre¬ paring a counter-history, or at least a refutation of the fifth volume. Mr. Giles, at a late day, addressed a letter to the author, disclaiming certain expressions attributed to him, but not materially objecting, if I remember rightly, to their substantial meaning. It is proper to say that the second edition presents the work in a greatly amended form. The colonial history is separated from the body of the work, and has been revised with great care and respect for authorities then accessible. The style of the work is greatly improved in the new edition. Not only are the grammatical errors corrected, but the diction approaches to purity and sometimes to elegance. In a note to the second volume of the second edition, he examines at length the charges of Mr. Jefferson on the subject of the Mazzei let¬ ter, but does not allude to other objections urged by him against the work. From the blended influence of the names of Washington and Marshall, the history in its new form will always hold a place in our libraries, but it may be al¬ lowed the mere student of history as well as the states¬ man and the politician to regret that a history of the same I 20 DISCOURSE. epoch from the pen of Madison does not exist to take its station by its side. 