_ and _The Virginia
Independent Chronicle_, as well as in pamphlet form at the time, and
recently in Ford's _Pamphlets on the Constitution_. Randolph had declined
to give his assent to the Constitution in the Convention, but had so far
altered his views in the intervening period as to make his letter on the
whole an argument in favor of rather than against its adoption. Uncertain
in exactly what light to regard his utterances, it was one of the few
writings of the time which did not receive replies from one party or the
other.

The essay of "A Plain Dealer" is the only notice I have found of this
letter, and deals rather more with the inconsistencies of Randolph's
views, than with the arguments advanced in the letter. Of the author,
Randolph himself gives us a clue in his letter to Madison, of February 29,
1788, where he writes:

A writer calling himself Plain Dealer, who is bitter in principle
_vs._ the Constitution, has attacked me in the paper. I suspect
the author to be Mr. Spencer Roane; and the importunities of some
to me in public and private are designed to throw me unequivocally
and without condition into the opposition.

A Plain Dealer.

The Virginia Independent Chronicle, (Number 82)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1788.

_Mans parturiens et ecce nascitur mus._

After a long and general expectancy of some dissertation on the subject of
the proposed Federal Constitution, worthy the first magistrate of the
respectable state of Virginia, a letter of his Excellency Governor
Randolph, of Oct. 10, 1787, is at length presented to the public. Previous
to the appearance of this letter, various opinions were prevailing in
different parts of this country respecting that gentleman's _real_ opinion
on the subject of the said Constitution; and it became difficult for many
to conjecture how his Excellency would devise a middle course, so as to
catch the spirit of all his countrymen, and to reconcile himself to all
parties. It was not known to me, at least, that his Excellency felt an
"unwillingness to disturb the harmony of the legislature" on this
important subject; nor could I conceive that the sentiments of even the
ablest man among us could "excite a contest unfavorable" to the fairest
discussion of the question. On the other hand, I thought it right that the
adversaries of the Constitution, as well as its framers, should candidly
avow their real sentiments as early and decidedly as possib