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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

CCXX.: Edmund Randolph in the Virginia Convention. 2 - Max Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, vol. 3 [1911]

Edition used:

The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, ed. Max Farrand (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, 3 vols.

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CCXX.

Edmund Randolph in the Virginia Convention.2

Governor Randolph. — Mr. Chairman — One parting word I humbly supplicate.

The suffrage which I shall give in favor of the constitution, will be ascribed by malice to motives unknown to my breast, But although for every other act of my life, I shall seek refuge in the mercy of God — for this I request his justice only. Lest however some future annalist should in the spirit of party vengeance, deign to mention my name, let him recite these truths, — that I went to the federal convention with the strongest affection for the union; that I acted there in full conformity with this affection; that I refused to subscribe because I had, as I still have, objections to the constitution, and wished a free enquiry into its merits; and that the accession of eight states reduced our deliberations to the single question of union or no union.

[2 ]Robertson, Debates of the Convention of Virginia, 1788 (2d edit., 1805), pp. 465-466.