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ld place you in; and wish that at least a door could be kept open for your acceptance hereafter, in case the gathering clouds should become so dark and menacing as to supersede every consideration but that of our national existence or safety. A suspense of your ultimate determination would be nowise inconvenient in a public view, as the executive are authorized to fill vacancies, and can fill them at any time; and in any event, three out of seven deputies are authorized to represent the state. How far it may be admissible in another view, will depend perhaps in some measure on the chance of your finally undertaking the service, but principally on the correspondence which is now passing on the subject, between yourself and the governor." The governor of Virginia,[34] who was himself also elected to the convention, transmitted to General Washington the act, and the vote of the assembly in the following letter. "By the enclosed act you will readily discover that the assembly are alarmed at the storms which threaten the United States. What our enemies have foretold seems to be hastening to its accomplishment, and can not be frustrated but by an instantaneous, zealous, and steady union among the friends of the federal government. To you I need not press our present dangers. The inefficiency of congress you have often felt in your official character; the increasing languor of our associated republics you hourly see; and a dissolution would be, I know, to you, a source of the deepest mortification. [Footnote 34: Mr. Randolph.] "I freely then entreat you to accept the unanimous appointment of the general assembly to the convention at Philadelphia. For the gloomy prospect still admits one ray of hope, that those who began, carried on, and consummated the revolution, can yet rescue America from the impending ruin." "Sensible as I am," said the general in reply, "of the honour conferred on me by the general assembly of this commonwealth, in appointing me one of the deputies to a convention proposed to be held in the city of Philadelphia in May next, for the purpose of revising the federal constitution; and desirous as I am on all occasions of testifying a ready obedience to the calls of my country--yet, sir, there exist at this moment, circumstances which I am persuaded will render this fresh instance of confidence incompatible with other measures which I had previously adopted, and from which seeing little prospect
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