A Native of Virginia, Note

INTENDED to have ſubjoined ſome obſervations upon Mr Lee's letter to Governor Randolph; but finding that •s manner of treating the ſubject has carried me farther than •xpected, and that anſwers to moſt of that gentleman's ob•tions have ariſen naturally out of the different articles of ••e Conſtitution, I have declined it, for fear leſt the length of ••e performance might become fatiguing. For however im••rtant ſuch a ſubject may be to mankind; few have the art 〈◊〉 treating political diſquiſitions in ſuch a manner as to inter• the majority of readers. I will h••ever, in this place, ob•••ve, that Mr. Lee, to whoſe mellifluous tongue, I have of••• liſtened with pleaſure, and who may be ſaid to have grown 〈◊〉 in politics, muſt have written that letter in the heat of his •l, before he had well conſidered the propoſed ſyſtem of •eral government; or he never could have talked of the •s and threads of repreſentation, or laid himſelf ſo open to •ck in every quarter. Mr. Lee, like moſt other enemies of 〈◊〉 Conſtitution, objects without pointing out the alterations that would improve it; aſſerts rather than argues 〈…〉 •••llible mark of a bad cauſe. Mr. Gerry's and Mr. Maſon's objections take up but a ſmall compaſs: But neither of theſe gentlemen has deigned to give us any thing like argument in ſupport of his objections. Mr. Randolph has ſaid much to point out the neceſſity of an energetic federal government; but nothing to prove that his propoſed amendments are founded in reaſon. And Mr. Lee would have the government wholly new modelled to pleaſe himſelf. I ſuſpect ſome of theſe gentlemen have upon this occaſion too much reſembled Dr. Franklin's French lady. I would aſk Mr. Lee what advantage would reſult from a numerous repreſentation in a federal Congreſs? If the numbers in America are not greatly exagerated, one member for every 30,000 will make the Houſe of Repreſentatives to conſiſt of an 100; which number will be increaſed every ten years. Has not Mr. Lee's experience in public affairs taught him that even that is a number too large to tranſact buſineſs with facility? But let the number of that Houſe be relatively great or ſmall, it can in no ſenſe be a rag or part of a repreſentation. That Houſe ſtands, as to federal purpoſes, in the place of the citizens of the thirteen States, and poſſeſſes all the powers conceded to it by the citizens of thoſe States, conſequently ten perſons would be as much a repreſentation as an hundred. Had Mr. Lee conſidered this government as intended for thirteen different States; had he conſidered that the powers veſted in the Congreſs are merely national, that is ſuch as reſpect America in its relative ſituation with foreign nations, or ſuch as reſpect the relative ſituation of the States in their individual capacities; and that the States ſtill retain the moſt important part of their rights, in as much as the right of Legiſlation in domeſtic caſes, is of much greater conſequence than in foreign, I think he never would have made the obſervation.

I CONFESS that for ſome time I viewed ſome parts of the Conſtitution in the light Mr. Lee and ſome others have done. • at firſt conceived that the Senators where liable to impeachment; and that ſome miſchief might ariſe from treaties of peace being made the law of the land. But after mature deliberation, I was convinced that I was miſtaken in the former, and •hat the Conſtitution is right in the latter.