To John Adams from Arthur Lee, 4 July 1788
From Arthur Lee
New York July 4th. 1788
My dear Sir,
Give me leave to congratulate you on your happy arrival in your native Country; & on the respectable reception that has attended it. I beg the favor of you to present my congratulations in the same account to Mrs. Adams.
Tho’ I am not an Admirer of the new Constitution, yet as you approve of it & as a great many wise & good men expect much honor & advantage to our Country from the adoption of it, I congratulate you also on the accession of Virginia, to its adoption.
Our latest Accounts from the Convention of this State inform us that notwithstanding the ratification of Virginia a great majority continues firm against adoptn.1 The Packet from England, arrivd yesterday, but I do not hear She brought any thing new.2
I have the honor / to be, with very great esteem, / dear Sir, Yr. most / Obedt. Servt
Arthur Lee
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Hon. A. Lee. July 4. / ansd. 18. 1788.”
1. The Virginia ratification convention met on 2 June in Richmond. The 170 delegates assembled as a committee of the whole and planned to discuss the U.S. Constitution, clause by clause. However, for ten days of the convention, Patrick Henry hijacked the debates in a series of long speeches attacking the document and demanding a bill of rights. On 25 June the Virginia delegates voted 89 to 79 for ratification. Two days later, the convention also approved a bill of rights, which was essentially a revised version of the 1776 Virginia Bill of Rights, and twenty amendments to be sent to Congress (, p. 255, 259, 267, 284–285, 300, 305, 307–309). See also Samuel Allyne Otis’ 7 July 1788 letter, and note 1, below.
2. The packet Roebuck, Capt. Britton, sailed from Falmouth, England, to New York City on a 64-day voyage (Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 9 July).