The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-07-11
weak or threaten to miscarry.
Washington's Brave Words.


They remembered for many a long
year afterwards how nobly Washing.
ton. standing self-collected in the
midst of Them" had uttered brave
counsels of wisdom in their rebuke.
1T is too probable" he said, that no
plan we propose will be adopted. Per.
haps another dreadful conflict is to be
sustained. If, to please the people, we
offer what we ourselves disapprove,
how can we afterwards defend our
work? Let us raise a standard to
which the wise and honest can repair.
The event is in the hand of God"
1t was an utterance, they knew, not
of craftsmanship merely, but of char
acter; and it was that character, if
anything could, that would win the
people to their support.
President of the Convention.
When at last seven states were rep
resented-a quorum of the thirteen
an organization was effected, and
Washington was unanimously chosen
president of the convention.
the novelty of the scene of business
in which he was to act, lamented his
want of better qualifications, and
claimed the indulgence of the house
towards the involuntary errors which
his inexperience might OCCASION" but
no mere parliamentarian could have
given that anxious body such steadi-
ness in business of such grave earn
estness in counsel as it got from his
presence and influence in the chair.
Five more states were in attendance
before deliberation was very far ad-
vanced; but he had the satisfaction to
see his own friends lead upon the
floor.
Washington's Friends Lead.
1t was the plan which Edmund Ran.
dolph proposed, for his fellow Virgin
ians, which the convention accepted as
a model to work. from; it was James
Madison, that young master of coun-
sci, who guided the deliberations from
day to day. little as he showed his
hand in the work or seemed to put
himself forward in debate.
No speeches came from the presi-
dent; only once or twice did he break
the decorum of his Office to temper
some difference of opinion or facilitate
some measure of accommodation.
1t was the 18th of September when
the convention at last broke up; the
10Th when the Constitution it had
wrought out was published to the
country.
All the slow summer through
Washington had kept counsel with
the rest as to the anxious work that
was going forward behind the closed
doors of the long conference; it was
grateful relief to be rid of the pain
full strain. and he returned to Mount
Vernon like one whose part in the
work was done.
Keen for New Government.
Il never saw him so keen for any.
ton Of the new scheme of govern
ment," wrote a visitor at Mount Yer
non to Jefferson; but he took no other
part than his correspondence afforded
him in the agitation for it's acceptance.
Throughout all those long four
months in Philadelphia he had given
his whole mind and energy to every
process of difficult counsel by which it
had been wrought to completion; but
he was no politician. Earnestly as he
commended the plan to his friends, he
took no public part either in defense
or in advocacy of it.
He read not only the Federalist pa.
pers, in which Hamilton and Madi.
son and Jay made their mastery plea
for the adoption of the Constitution,
but also every performance which has
been printed on the one side and the
other on the great question" he said.
so far as he was able to obtain them;
and he felt as poignantly as any man
the deep excitement of the moment
Gus contest.
1t disturbed him keenly to find
George Mason opposing the sconstitu.
tion-the dear friend from whom he
had always accepted counsel hitherto
in public affairs-and Richard Henry
Lee and Patrick Henry, too, In their
passionate attachment to what they
deemed the just sovereignty of Vir-
GINA
He could turn away with all his old
possession, nevertheless, to dis
cuss questions of culture and tillage,
in the midst of the struggle, with Ar.
thur Young over sea, and to write
very gallant compliments to the Mar.
quis de Chastellux on his marriage.
Compliments the Marquis.
so your day has at length come"
he laughed. Il am glad of it with all
my heart and soul. 1t is quite good
enough for you. Now you are well
served for coming to fight in favor of
the American rebels all the way across
the Atlantic ocean, by catching that
terrible contagion-domestic felicity
which, like the smallpox, or the
plague. a man can have only once in