Politically Incorrect Guide To The Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides) by Kevin R. C. Gutzman Read Free Book Online Page B

the Constitution's executive branch had been drafted with him in mind, as the one chief executive
the states would trust. Such was Washington's prestige that it was
assumed that once he had set the standard for proper republican presidential behavior, it would bind all his successors.
It all comes down to Virginia
    The stakes in Virginia's summer 1788 Richmond Ratification Convention
approached the stratosphere. A Republican victory would mean the
defeat of the Constitution, as North Carolina and Rhode Island already
had gone on record in opposition and New York stood poised to follow
the Old Dominion's example.
    Unlike those of other states, Virginia's political elite split right down
the middle on ratification. George Mason, former congressional president
Richard Henry Lee, future U.S. president James Monroe, and the domi nant figure in the General Assembly, Patrick Henry, led the opponents;
George Washington, James Madison, and veteran lawyer, judge, and
politician Edmund Pendleton, along with Madison's lieutenant George
Nicholas, favored ratification.

    The Republicans, led by Mason, argued that the Constitution's grants
of power to the new federal Congress and judiciary were too ill defined
(and thus that the new institutions were apt to claim more authority than
the people intended) and that any new constitution required a bill of
rights. The Federalists argued the reverse.
    Governor Edmund Randolph-who had supported the Virginia Plan
and then opposed the Convention draft-announced early in the Richmond debates that while he considered the Constitution imperfect, and
that it needed to be amended before it was approved, he no longer
believed that option to be available. Eight of the nine states whose assent
was needed to put the Constitution into effect had already ratified. The
issue now, he insisted, was whether Virginia would be part of the Union.
He, for one, said yes.
    Patrick Henry mocked Randolph's newfound support of ratification
and implied at one point that Randolph's motives were impure (and it
seems that Randolph sent a second to Henry's camp to sound him out
regarding a duel).
    What a Patriot Said

    "We have laid our new Government upon a broad Foundation, and have endeavoured to provide the most effectual Securities for the essential Rights of human
nature."
    George Mason on the Virginia Constitution and Declaration of Rights of 1776, in a
personal letter, October 2, 1778

    Surprisingly, Randolph (whom George
Mason now called "Young Arnold" after
Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold)
became the chief spokesman for ratification.
He was chosen for the same reason he had
been selected to present the Virginia Plan in
Philadelphia: he was tall, handsome, and
articulate, the very picture of a Virginia blue
blood. The Randolphs were Virginia's leading family, including in their numbers
Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall, while
the brains behind the ratification operation,
James Madison, was short, sickly, and-in
debate-often inaudible. Randolph's explication of the text carried great weight.
    The other delegates listened intently, then, when Governor Randolph
explained that the new federal government need not be feared so much
as Henry wanted it to be. No powers were being granted to the new Congress by implication, Randolph held. The new government would have
only the powers it was "expressly delegated."
    Federalists realized, however, that they had not persuaded a clear
majority of delegates. Like their fellows in the Massachusetts Convention,
they sought to persuade the unpersuaded with expedients they would not
otherwise have adopted. They suggested, for instance, that Virginia could
expressly state that it was approving the Constitution with the understanding that the rights of conscience and of the press were reserved free
of federal interference. Moreover, they said, Virginia could reserve a right
to reclaim its delegated authority if the federal government