The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-03-29
Recollections OF tho Old Domlnion.-
A Glimpse at tho Virginia C0nven.
tiOn OF l040.

Few persons at the N orth are living who
witnessed the celebrated Virginia Oonstitu-
tional Convention of 1929. Among that
number is Edwin Croswell, at that time
editor Of the Albany argus, who was at
Richmond as the guest of Father Ritchie,
and in company with Martin Van Buren,.
In answer to some inquiries, Mr.. Croswell,
in private letter to Mr.. Bryan, Of Batavia,
New York, gives the following brief but
graphic picture of that noble body of men,
whose like, indeed, we may not be permitted
to look upon again: ,le
The Virginia Convention sat in 1929, the
first year of General Jacksons Administra.
ton. 1t was worth while to have lived
then, to have seen that remarkable body Of
men. Except, in qualified sense, our own
State Convention of 1921, the present cen.
fury had not witnessed anything that could
approach it in character and interest, nor
can it look upon its like again. Monroe,
the last of the Presidential race of the an
cient Dominion, was its presiding officer;
and Madison, Governor Giles, John Ran~
dolph, Watkins Leigh, Chapman johnson,
and other remarkable men, were leading
participants in its deliberations. That was
a scene not to be forgotten, in which q
President of the revolutionary stock, occu.
plying the ancient Chair of the House of
Delegates, relic OF the earlier herioc days,
saw before him, in earnest debate, another
of the revolutionary Presidents, at whose
feet, outstretched on the carpet, was the
reporter Stansbury, resorting to this posture
to catch each word as it fell from the lips of
venerated wisdom, that in the Fsdsralist, in
the Convention of 1857, in numerous State
papers and in many forms of craftsmanship
had become oracular. The Daguerreotype,
then unfortunately not in vogue, could
not have presented more striking
group. The Convention was full
Of talent and renown of other
days. Monroe, though attenuated and
showing signs of age and fatigue, was, in
his three cornered hat, venerable and inn
pressive type of his school. Madison, his
senior, was more elastic in manner, but
feeble in voice. Both wore shorts, and
buckles at the knee and in the shoe. RAM
dolph was in good health, and becoming in
his appearance, and freer than usual from
characteristic singularities sharp, clear
and peculiar in debate. l am quite sure
that Henry A. Wise, then young man, at
the beginning of his public career, was
member of the Convention, and that it was
of him that Mr.. Richie said, "That, sir, is
at this moment the most rising young man
ir the Commonwealth" The great ques-
ton of the day was the basis OF representa-
tion-a question mooted with all the power
and talent of the antagonistic division
which threatened at one time the dissolution
of the body-and the adjustment of which,
at last, as the slavery topic has ever been,
was the result of compromise. 1t was my
fortune to hear Mr.. Randolph on that SUBJ
Ject, and Mr.. Madison, Governor Giles, Mr..
Leigh, Mr.. johnson, Mr.. Stennard, &C., on
less important discussions. .l.j. ,....
You were too young to recollect this as
semblage of sages and great men but you,
who are we'll read in the history of the
States, and the political annals of the coun
try, know that it was her last public body,
in which statesmen of the revolution partic-
ipated, and that, in the scope and ability of
its discussions, the dignity of its delibera-
tions, and the parliamentary decorum of its
proceedings, it was an illustration Of the
best features of our institutions, and as an
example, not lost upon the action of its own
times, in the process of notwithstanding.
One thing it did not do, nor think of doing,
that of creating an elective judiciary.