inions of our countrymen since I left them, as that three
fourths of them should be contented to live under a system
which leaves to their governors the power of taking from
them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion,
freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus
laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. That is a
degeneracy in the principles of liberty, to which I had
given four centuries, instead of four years."[384]

Holding such objections to the proposed Constitution, what were
Patrick Henry and his associates in the Virginia convention to do?
Were they to reject the measure outright? Admitting that it had some
good features, they yet thought that the best course to be taken by
Virginia would be to remit the whole subject to a new convention of
the States,--a convention which, being summoned after a year or more
of intense and universal discussion, would thus represent the later,
the more definite, and the more enlightened desires of the American
people. But despairing of this, Patrick Henry and his friends
concentrated all their forces upon this single and clear line of
policy: so to press their objections to the Constitution as to induce
the convention, not to reject it, but to postpone its adoption until
they could refer to the other States in the American confederacy the
following momentous proposition, namely, "a declaration of rights,
asserting, and securing from encroachment, the great principles of
civil and religious liberty, and the undeniable rights of the people,
together with amendments to the most exceptionable parts of the said
constitution of government."[385]

Such, then, was the real question over which in that assemblage, from
the first day to the last, the battle raged. The result of the battle
was reached on Wednesday, the 25th of June; and that result was a
victory for immediate adoption, but by a majority of only ten votes,
instead of the fifty votes that were claimed for it at the beginning
of the session. Moreover, even that small majority for immediate
adoption was obtained only by the help, first, of a preamble solemnly
affirming it to be the understanding of Virginia in this act that it
retained every power not expressly granted to the general government;
and, secondly, of a subsidiary resolution promising to recommend to
Congress "whatsoever amendments may be deemed necessary."

Just before the decisive question w