Virginia Ratifying Convention Essay

Virginia Ratifying Convention

The Virginia Ratifying Convention, also known as the Virginia Federal Convention, consisted of 168 Virginia’s delegates who gathered in order to discuss the issues concerning the ratification of the United States Constitution that had been introduced at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, and its implications for the citizens of the United States. The Convention held the meetings at the Richmond Theatre from June 2 to June 27 in 1788 under control of Judge Edmund Pendleton who was the Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Virginia endorsed the United States Constitution in two steps. The declaration of ratification was the first step. The following step was connected with the proposal of a bill

James Madison addressed other delegates by saying: “But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks--no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.” Among other prominent Federalists were John Marshall, William Overton Callis and George Wythe who also served in the Rules Committee at the Constitutional Convention. Delegates of the Virginia Ratifying Convention also relied on the opinions of George Washington who kept the conversation going through the letters as he was not at the

Randolph expressed his concerns that the Constitution was implementing a one-man executive. He also admitted that the old Articles of Confederation were insufficient, but the new proposal of the Constitution presented a threat to the republican heritage. A republic was characterized by Thomas Jefferson as: “a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and personally, according to rules established by the majority; and that every other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it has in its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct action of the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to very narrow limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be practicable beyond the extent of a New England township. The first shade from this pure element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot sustain life of itself, would be where the powers of the government, being divided, should be exercised each by representatives chosen...for such short terms as should render secure the duty of expressing the will of their constituents.” Therefore, Rudolph as a proponent of the process of amendment was afraid that the ratification of the Constitution would not present a possibility for the states to enhance it if needed. However, by the time of the Virginia Ratifying