The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-07-04
I~l'



knew that they mad at any rate won
the confidence of the people in their
patriotic purpose.
His mere presence would give them
power.
The VirqInians First TO Arrive.
Washington and the other Virginians
were prompt to be in Philadelphia on
the day appointed, but only the Penn
syivania delegates were there to meet
them.
They had to wait an anxious week
before 80 many as seven states were
represented. Meanwhile, those who
gathered from day to day we're nerv-
GUS and apprehensive, and there was
talk of compromise and halfway meas
ures. should the convention prove
weak or threaten to miscarry
WashInoton's Brave Words.
They remembered for many 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. IT. 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 ~ in the hand of God"
1t was an utterance, they knew, not
of craftsmanship merely, Tut 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.
He spoke, when led to the chair, ''of
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 stead1-
ness in business of such grave earn
estness In counsel as 1t 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.
Washlngton's Friends Lead.
II was the plan which Edmund Ran
nolph proposed, for his fellow Virgin
ians, which the convention accepted as
q model to work from; 1t 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.
the convention at last broke up; the
18th 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
thing in my life as he is for the adop-
ton of the new scheme of govern
ment,'' wrote visitor at Mount Yer
non to Jefferson; but he took no other
part than his correspondence afforded
him in the agitation for its 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 constitu-
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
self-possession, nevertheless, to dis
cuss questions of culture and tillage,
in the midst OF the struggle, with Ar
Il thur Young ovor sea and to write