the citizens of the Commonwealth, and the Bill drafted by Mr. Jefferson, together with its preamble, was by the influence of his friend triumphantly carried against all opposition through the Legislature.

The principle that religious opinions are altogether beyond the sphere of legislative control, is but one modification of a more extensive axiom, which includes the unlimited freedom of the press, of speech, and of the communication of thought in all its forms. An authoritative provision by law for the support of teachers of the Christian Religion was prescribed by the third Article of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of this Commonwealth. An amendment recently adopted by the people has given their sanction to the opinions of Jefferson and Madison, and the substance of the Virginia Statute, for the establishment of Religious Freedom, now forms a part of the Constitution of Massachusetts. That the freedom and communication of thought is paramount to all legislative authority, is a sentiment becoming from day to day more prevalent throughout the civilized world, and which it is fervently to be hoped will henceforth remain inviolate by the legislative authorities not only of the Union but of all its confederated States.

At the Session of 1785, a general revisal was made of the Statute Laws of Virginia, and the great burden of the task devolved upon Mr. Madison as chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House. The general principle which pervaded this operation was the adaptation of the civil code of the Commonwealth, to

its republican and unfettered independence as a Sovereign State, and he carried it through with that same spirit of liberty and liberality which had dictated the Act for the establishment of Religious Freedom. The untiring industry, the searching and penetrating application, the imperturbable patience, the moderation and gentleness of disposition, which smoothed his way over the ruggedest and most thorny paths of life, accompanied him through this transaction as through all the rest. While a member of the Legislature of Virginia, he had contributed more than any other person to the adjustment of that vital interest of the Union, the disposal of the Public Lands. It was the collision of opinions and of interests relating to them which had delayed the conclusion of the Articles of Confederation; and the cession afterwards made of the North Western Territory was encumbered with conditions which further delayed its acceptance. By the influence of Mr. Madison, the terms of the cession were so modified, that in conformity with them the ordi nance for the government of the North Western Territory was finally adopted and established by Congress on the 13th of July, 1787, in the midst of the labors of the Convention at Philadelphia, which two months later presented to the People of the United States for their acceptance, that Constitution of Government, thenceforth the polar star of their Union.

The experience of four years in the Congress of the Confederation, had convinced Mr. Madison that the Union could not be preserved by means of that insti

tution. That its inherent infirmity was a deficiency of power in the federal head, and that an insurmountable objection to the grant of further powers to Congress, always arose from the adverse prejudices and jealousy with which the demand of them was urged by that body itself. The difficulty of obtaining such grant of power, was aggravated by the consideration that it was to be invested in those by whom it was solicited, and was at the same time, and in the same degree, to abridge the power of those by whom it was to be granted.

To avoid these obstacles it occurred to Mr. Madison that the agency of a distinct, delegated body, having no invidious interest of its own, or of its members, might be better adapted, deliberately to discuss the deficiencies of the federal compact, than the body itself by whom it was administered. The friends with whom he consulted in the Legislature of Virginia, concurred with him in these opinions, and the motion for the appointment of Commissioners to consider of the state of trade in the confederacy suggested by him, was made in the Legislature by his friend, Mr. Tyler, and carried by the weight of his opinions, and the exertion of his influence, without opposition.

This proposition was made and Commissioners were appointed by the Legislature of Virginia, on the 21st of January, 1786. The Governor of the Commonwealth, Edmund Randolph, was placed at the head of the delegation from the State. Mr. Madison and six others, men of the first character and influence in the

State, were the other Commissioners. The meeting was held at Annapolis in September, and two commissioners from New York, three from New Jersey, one from Pennsylvania, three from Delaware, and three from Virginia, constituted the whole number of this Convention. Five States only were represented, and among them, Pennsylvania by a single member. Four States, among whom was Maryland, the very State within which the Assembly was held, had not even appointed Commissioners, and the deputies from four others, among whom was our own beloved, native Commonwealth, suffering, even then, the awful calamity of a civil war, generated by the imbecility . of the federal compact of union, did not even think it worth while to give their attendance.

Yet even in that Convention of Annapolis, was the germ of a better order of things. The Commissioners elected John Dickinson, of Delaware, their chairman, and after a session of three days, agreed upon a report, doubtless drafted by Mr. Madison,-addressed to the Legislatures by which they had been appointed, and copies of which were transmitted to the other State Legislatures and to Congress.

In this report they availed themselves of a sugges tion derived from the powers which the Legislature of New Jersey had conferred upon their Commission ers, and which contemplated a more enlarged revision of the Articles of Confederation; and they urgently recommended that a second convention of delegates, to which all the States should be invited to appoint

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Commissioners, should be held at Philadelphia, on the second Monday of the next May, for a general revisal of the Constitution of the Federal Government, to render it adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to report to Congress an act, which, when agreed to by them and confirmed by all the State Legislatures, should effectually provide for the same. this report first occurred the use of the terms Constitution of the Federal Government as applied to the United States-and the sentiment was avowed that it should be made adequate to the exigencies of the Union. There was, however, yet no proposal for recurring to the great body of the people.

The recommendation of the report was repeated by Congress without direct reference to it, upon a resolution offered by the delegation of Massachusetts, founded upon a proviso in the Articles of Confederation and upon instructions from the State of New York to their delegates in Congress, and upon the suggestion of several States. The Convention assembled accordingly at Philadelphia, on the 9th of May, 1787.

In most of the inspirations of genius, there is a simplicity, which, when they are familiarized to the general understanding of men by their effects, detracts from the opinion of their greatness. That the people of the British Colonies, who, by their united counsels and energies had achieved their independence, should continue to be one people, and constitute a nation under the form of one or