stituents, which I sent him, you will see something
of the method he has taken to diffuse his poison.... It
grieves me to see such great natural talents abused to such
purposes."[372]

On Monday, the 2d of June, 1788, the long-expected convention
assembled at Richmond. So great was the public interest in the event
that a full delegation was present, even on the first day; and in
order to make room for the throngs of citizens from all parts of
Virginia and from other States, who had flocked thither to witness the
impending battle, it was decided that the convention should hold its
meetings in the New Academy, on Shockoe Hill, the largest
assembly-room in the city.

Eight States had already adopted the Constitution. The five States
which had yet to act upon the question were New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia. For every reason, the
course then to be taken by Virginia would have great consequences.
Moreover, since the days of the struggle over independence, no
question had so profoundly moved the people of Virginia; none had
aroused such hopes and such fears; none had so absorbed the thoughts,
or so embittered the relations of men. It is not strange, therefore,
that this convention, consisting of one hundred and seventy members,
should have been thought to represent, to an unusual degree, the
intelligence, the character, the experience, the reputation of the
State. Perhaps it would be true to say that, excepting Washington,
Jefferson, and Richard Henry Lee, no Virginian of eminence was absent
from it.

Furthermore, the line of division, which from the outset parted into
two hostile sections these one hundred and seventy Virginians, was
something quite unparalleled. In other States it had been noted that
the conservative classes, the men of education and of property, of
high office, of high social and professional standing, were nearly all
on the side of the new Constitution. Such was not the case in
Virginia. Of the conservative classes throughout that State, quite as
many were against the new Constitution as were in favor of it. Of the
four distinguished citizens who had been its governors, since Virginia
had assumed the right to elect governors,--Patrick Henry, Jefferson,
Nelson, and Harrison,--each in turn had denounced the measure as
unsatisfactory and dangerous; while Edmund Randolph, the governor then
in office, having attended the great convention at Philadelphia,