151To James Madison from Edmund Pendleton, 7 April 1787 (Madison Papers)
Parke Goodall and Thomas Macon served Hanover County in the 1787–88 session of the Virginia House of Delegates (
152[May 1787] (Washington Papers)
William Jackson, who later served as one of GW’s secretaries, was not the only candidate for secretary of the convention. John Beckley, clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates, accompanied Governor Randolph to Philadelphia “in
153[Diary entry: 25 May 1787] (Washington Papers)
William Jackson, who later served as one of GW’s secretaries, was not the only candidate for secretary of the convention. John Beckley, clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates, accompanied Governor Randolph to Philadelphia “in
154From George Washington to James Madison, 22 October 1787 (Washington Papers)
Joseph Prentis (1754–1809) represented York County in the Virginia house of delegates from 1782 and was speaker from 1786 until January 1788, when he was elected a judge of the General Court.
155To George Washington from Gardoqui, 29 October 1787 (Washington Papers)
On 29 Nov. 1786, the Virginia house of delegates adopted a series of resolutions declaring that whereas “the right of navigating the Mississippi” was “the bountiful gift of nature to the United States” and any sacrifice of that right would be “a flagrant violation of justice,...
156To James Madison from Adam Stephen, 25 November 1787 (Madison Papers)
...the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and the Brandywine, but was dismissed on charges of drunkenness following Washington’s defeat at Germantown. Stephen nevertheless made a successful transition to civilian life, representing Berkeley County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1780 to 1785. As one of that county’s delegates to the convention of 1788 he supported the new Constitution (F....
157To James Madison from George Lee Turberville, 11 December 1787 (Madison Papers)
...at Philadelphia to consider amendments—& that the Speakers of the two houses shou’d form a Committee of Correspondence to communicate with our sister States on that Subject. You know the force of this wonderful mans oratory upon a Virginia house of Delegates—& I am sure will with me lament that that force shou’d be ever erroneously or injudiciously directed.
158To James Madison from Edmund Randolph, 29 February 1788 (Madison Papers)
confirmation of its title, but was again unsuccessful (ibid., pp. 225–65). Randolph was well acquainted with this matter, having advocated the company’s claim before the Virginia House of Delegates in 1779 (Randolph to Governor of Virginia [Henry Lee], 24 June 1793,
159From George Washington to John Jay, 8 June 1788 (Washington Papers)
...at the ratifying convention are almost certainly based on a missing letter from David Stuart of 4 June. In the past, Stuart had reported to GW regularly on developments in the Virginia house of delegates when it was in session, and he wrote to GW a number of times during the ratifying convention which he attended as a delegate for Fairfax County. None of these letters from...
160To James Madison from John Brown, 23 November 1788 (Madison Papers)
The Virginia House of Delegates unanimously passed a resolution on 1 Dec. 1788 reaffirming the “absolute right” of U.S. citizens “to the free navigation of the river Mississippi; that by the principles of the Federal compact, those States more immediately...
161To George Washington from John Lewis, 13 December 1788 (Washington Papers)
Willis Riddick (1757–1800) represented Nansemond County in the Virginia house of delegates from 1784 until his death.
162To George Washington from James Monroe, 15 February 1789 (Washington Papers)
James Monroe (1758–1831) was elected to the Virginia house of delegates in 1782, in 1783–86 served in the Continental Congress, and was again elected to the house of delegates for the 1787–88 session. At the Virginia Ratifying Convention in 1788 he joined the opponents of the Constitution....
163From George Washington to John Dawson, 5 March 1789 (Washington Papers)
to the Virginia house of delegates in 1786. As a member of Virginia’s Ratifying Convention in 1788 he voted against ratification of the Constitution. Dawson was elected to the Continental Congress in 1788 and at this time was representing Virginia in the Congress’s...
164To James Madison from John Beckley, 13 March 1789 (Madison Papers)
Beckley, then clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates, was elected clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives on 1 Apr. (
165To George Washington from John Hopkins, 10 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
...charged with the sale of loan certificates issued by the Continental Congress and the receipt and disbursement of public money. Hopkins’s early years as loan officer were stormy: in November 1781 the Virginia house of delegates accused him of illegally acquiring certificates in order “to defraud both the country and individuals” and briefly suspended him from office, but he was soon cleared...
166To George Washington from Carter Braxton, 15 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
...Elizabeth Corbin, daughter of Richard Corbin. “Sister Griffin” was Carter Braxton’s daughter, Betsy Braxton Griffin (born c.1760), who married Samuel Griffin (1746–1810), a member of the Virginia house of delegates 1787–88 and at this time representing Virginia in the House of Representatives. In a letter of 9 July to GW, in which he presented a list of persons for office, Griffin...
167To James Madison from Edmund Pendleton, 3 May 1789 (Madison Papers)
William Madison ran against French Strother in the Culpeper County elections for the Virginia House of Delegates. Though he lost in 1789, he was elected to the house in 1791 and served a total of ten terms, representing first Culpeper and then Madison County. Strother had vehemently opposed the adoption of the U.S....
168To George Washington from Arthur Lee, 21 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
After his return to America in 1780 from his post as one of the American commissioners in France, Arthur Lee (1740–1792) served in the Virginia house of delegates in 1781–83 and 1785 and in the Continental Congress from 1781 to 1784. In 1785 he became a member of the Board of Treasury and held that post until the establishment of the new government. In the late...
169To George Washington from Josiah Parker, 1 July 1789 (Washington Papers)
...(1751–1810) served in the Continental army from 1776 until he resigned in 1778 holding the rank of colonel. In that year Parker was elected to represent Isle of Wight County in the Virginia house of delegates but was declared ineligible. He was reelected in 1779, 1782, and 1783 and was appointed naval officer at Portsmouth, Va., in 1786. Parker represented Virginia in Congress from 1789 to...
170To George Washington from Cyrus Griffin, 10 July 1789 (Washington Papers)
Virginia House of Delegates Journal,
171To George Washington from Thomas Howells, 14 July 1789 (Washington Papers)
On 9 Dec. 1789 Randolph sent GW’s letter to the Virginia house of delegates, where it was identified only as a “letter from the President of the United States, on the subject of certain proposals made by a foreigner, for the establishment of a woollen manufactory within this State” (Virginia House of Delegates Journal,
172To George Washington from George William Smith, 20 July 1789 (Washington Papers)
). The elder Smith also served in the Virginia house of delegates intermittently between 1776 and 1788 and was a member of the Virginia Ratifying Convention. His son briefly held the post of searcher for the customs office at Tappahannock, a state post to which he had been appointed in May...
173From James Madison to Henry Lee, 4 October 1789 (Madison Papers)
JM’s letter may have prompted Lee, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, to draft a bill ceding a district of ten miles square to the U.S. in case Congress selected a Potomac location for the permanent capital. The bill, enacted on 3 Dec., was carefully designed to make...
174To George Washington from James Madison, 20 November 1789 (Washington Papers)
For Patrick Henry’s unsuccessful attempt in the Virginia house of delegates to make hemp and tobacco commutable for the payment of 1789 taxes, in addition to payments in specie, see
175To George Washington from Edmund Randolph, 22 November 1789 (Washington Papers)
The letter from senators Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson to the Virginia house of delegates is printed in
176To George Washington from Edmund Randolph, 26 November 1789 (Washington Papers)
For the Virginia house of delegates’ action on the amendments to the Constitution, see ...the nature and extent of the judiciary, the estimated expences of the government, and the means so far adopted for defraying the latter.” In the broadside both letters are printed in italics. The letters were presented to the Virginia house of delegates on 19 Oct. (
177Jefferson’s Reply to the Address of Welcome of the Virginia House of Delegates, [7–9 December 1789] (Jefferson Papers)
Jefferson’s Reply to the Address of Welcome of the Virginia House of Delegates
178To George Washington from James Madison, 4 January 1790 (Washington Papers)
For the action of the Virginia house of delegates on the amendments to the Constitution, see
179To George Washington from Beverley Randolph, 11 January 1790 (Washington Papers)
The enclosure, a copy of a resolution of the Virginia house of delegates dated 17 Dec. 1789, reads: “Mr Edmund Randolph reported from the Committee, to whom was referred a letter from the Governor, with its inclosures, respecting the Establishment of a woollen Manufactory, that the Committee had according...Virginia House of Delegates Journal,
180February 1790 (Washington Papers)
...him supervisor of the revenue for Maryland. Josiah Parker (1751–1810) was a member of the 1775 Virginia Convention and served as colonel in the 5th Virginia Regiment during the Revolution. In 1780–81 he was in the Virginia
House of Delegates, and he served as naval officer for Portsmouth, Va., in 1786. Andrew Moore (1752–1821) was born near Fairfield, Rockbridge County, Va., studied at...
181To George Washington from Harrison County, Va., Field Officers, 2 February 1790 (Washington Papers)
This address, drawn up in the Virginia house of delegates in October 1789, reads: “It has been a great relief to our apprehensions, for the safety of our brethren on the frontiers, to learn from the communications of the Secretary at War, that their protection against the...
182[Diary entry: 11 February 1790] (Washington Papers)
...him supervisor of the revenue for Maryland. Josiah Parker (1751–1810) was a member of the 1775 Virginia Convention and served as colonel in the 5th Virginia Regiment during the Revolution. In 1780–81 he was in the Virginia
House of Delegates, and he served as naval officer for Portsmouth, Va., in 1786. Andrew Moore (1752–1821) was born near Fairfield, Rockbridge County, Va., studied at...
183To Alexander Hamilton from Josiah Parker, 5 March 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Parker, who had served as a colonel during the Revolution, had been a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1780 and 1781, and was elected to the House of Representatives from Virginia on March 4, 1789.
184To James Madison from Edmund Randolph, 23 March 1790 (Madison Papers)
This was Randolph’s motion of 8 Dec. 1789 in the Virginia House of Delegates calling for a revision of the state constitution (
185To George Washington from George Augustine Washington, 26 March 1790 (Washington Papers)
John Fairfax remained in GW’s employ until December 1790, when he moved to Monongalia County, where in 1794 he became a justice of the peace and in 1809–10 and 1814–15 represented the county in the Virginia house of delegates. As late as November 1799 Fairfax visited GW at Mount Vernon (
186To George Washington from Lund Washington, 28 April 1790 (Washington Papers)
Roger West (c.1755–1801) was a justice of the peace for Fairfax County c.1787–99 and represented Fairfax County in the Virginia house of delegates, 1788–89, 1791–92, and 1797–99.
187To James Madison from George Thompson, 1 June 1790 (Madison Papers)
John May had represented Jefferson County in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1782 (
188To George Washington from John Hoomes, 16 August 1790 (Washington Papers)
...County’s eighteenth-century reputation as the cradle of Virginia horse racing. Although he briefly considered moving to greener pastures in Kentucky in 1789, Hoomes remained postmaster at Bowling Green from June 1790 to 1796 and served in the Virginia house of delegates from 1791 to 1795 and in the state senate from 1796 to 1803 (
189To George Washington from Samuel G. Dorr, 23 August 1790 (Washington Papers)
..., represented Prince William County in the Virginia House of Burgesses and was a militia officer in the Revolution. His friend Cuthbert Bullitt was a state court judge and repesented the county in the Virginia house of delegates as well as in the convention that ratified the federal Constitution. Richard Graham also served as a militia officer in the Revolution. All three were members...
190To John Jay from Alexander Hamilton, 13 November 1790 (Jay Papers)
’s plan for the assumption of the state debts that was included in the Funding Act of 1790, passed 4 Aug. 1790. See Virginia House of Delegates resolution, 3 Nov. 1790: “That so much of the act of Congress, entitled ‘an act making provision for the debt of the United States,’ as assumes the payment of the State debts, is repugnant to...
191Jefferson’s Opinion on Proposal for Manufacture of Woolen Textiles in Virginia, [3 December 1790] (Jefferson Papers)
The matter was all the more trouble-some for Washington because the resolution of the Virginia House of Delegates declared that the proposed woolen manufactory was of such importance as to warrant “conclusive measures on the part of the General Assembly” and directed the governor to open correspondence with the President so as to bring the negotiations with...
192To George Washington from David Stuart, 10 December 1790 (Washington Papers)
Thomas West, the eldest son of John West, Jr., represented Fairfax County in the Virginia house of delegates in 1784–85 (
193To George Washington from Beverley Randolph, 4 January 1791 (Washington Papers)
. He also enclosed with the 4 Jan. letter a copy of a resolution of the Virginia house of delegates of 20 Dec. 1790 authorizing the governor to take steps for the
194To George Washington from Henry Knox, 15 January 1791 (Washington Papers)
...journal of the executive council of Virginia, dated 29 Dec. 1790, directing measures for the defense of the Virginia frontier. Enclosure number 3 was a copy of the resolutions of the Virginia house of delegates, dated 20 Dec. 1790, authorizing the governor to take measures for the defense of the frontier. Enclosure number 4 was a copy of the memorial of the delegates from the western...
195To James Madison from Charles Yancey, 27 January 1791 (Madison Papers)
Charles Yancey (1741–1814), a Louisa County justice of the peace, served in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1794 (
196To James Madison from James Madison, Sr., 11 May 1791 (Madison Papers)
Thomas Barbour, the Madisons’ neighbor, and Isaac Davis, Jr., represented Orange County in the October 1791 session of the Virginia House of Delegates (
197To James Madison from John Stadler, 22 October 1791 (Madison Papers)
Stadler may have referred to William Mayo, Jr., of Powhatan County, or John Mayo, Jr., of Henrico County, members of the Virginia House of Delegates and speculators in Kentucky land (...“He has quitted the Service, not very much pleased with the Manner in which things are conducted.” As JM later recommended, Stadler petitioned the Virginia House of Delegates for reimbursement of his expenses,...
198To George Washington from John Stadler, 25 October 1791 (Washington Papers)
...directed him to present his grievances to Madison to be laid before Congress. Madison refused to submit Stadler’s accounts to Congress, however (ibid., 83). Madison advised Stadler to petition the Virginia house of delegates for reimbursement for his expenses, but the committee of claims rejected Stadler’s request on 8 Nov. 1793 (Stadler to Madison, 22 Oct. 1791, n.8, Madison to Stadler...
199From George Washington to Henry Lee, 7 December 1791 (Washington Papers)
59, Miscellaneous Letters). It covered a copy of two resolutions of the Virginia house of delegates, of 8 Nov. 1791, approved by the Virginia senate on 14 November: “Resolved, that the violation of the seventh Article of the treaty of peace on the part of his Britanic Majesty, has been highly injurious...
200Enclosure: Statement of Conflict between Pennsylvania and Virginia, 20 December 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
in the Virginia House of Delegates. The statement itself is an incomplete and sometimes inaccurate account of a highly complex dispute that was a significant episode in the history of the young American republic because it provided the impetus for the passage of the first...