mon country, and
the best interests of humanity, I beg leave to subscribe
myself, with great respect and regard,

Sir, your obedient, humble servant,
P. HENRY.[398]

On the 27th of June, within a few hours, very likely, after the final
adjournment of the convention, Madison hastened to report to
Washington the great and exhilarating result, but with this anxious
and really unjust surmise respecting the course then to be pursued by
Patrick Henry:--

"Mr. H----y declared, previous to the final question, that
although he should submit as a quiet citizen, he should
seize the first moment that offered for shaking off the yoke
in a constitutional way. I suspect the plan will be to
encourage two thirds of the legislatures in the task of
undoing the work; or to get a Congress appointed in the
first instance that will commit suicide on their own
authority."[399]

At the same sitting, probably, Madison sent off to Hamilton, at New
York, another report, in which his conjecture as to Patrick Henry's
intended policy is thus stated:--

"I am so uncharitable as to suspect that the ill-will to the
Constitution will produce every peaceable effort to disgrace
and destroy it. Mr. Henry declared ... that he should wait
with impatience for the favorable moment of regaining, in a
constitutional way, the lost liberties of his country."[400]

Two days afterward, by which time, doubtless, Madison's letter had
reached Mount Vernon, Washington wrote to Benjamin Lincoln of
Massachusetts, respecting the result of the convention:--

"Our accounts from Richmond are that ... the final decision
exhibited a solemn scene, and that there is every reason to
expect a perfect acquiescence therein by the minority. Mr.
Henry, the great leader of it, has signified that, though he
can never be reconciled to the Constitution in its present
form, and shall give it every constitutional opposition in
his power, yet he will submit to it peaceably."[401]

Thus, about the end of June, 1788, there came down upon the fierce
political strife in Virginia a lull, which lasted until the 20th of
October, at which time the legislature assembled for its autumnal
session. Meantime, however, the convention of New York had adopted the
Constitution, but after a most bitter fight, and by a majori