Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/77

 '/'/..- r;/,,/;,-,,/;,,,, ./// N,,,////.

While bearing her part in maintaining the cause of the colonies in their nrc.it simple with the mother country, she commissioned and equipped the expedition which, under the leadership of her son, George Rogers Clarke, conquered the empire of the northwest; and then, in the plenitude of her patriotism, she donated this great ter- ritory to the Union.

A CLOSE UNION.

When the Revolution had finally triumphed in the great battle fought out on her soil, her statesmen were the first to realize the ne- cessities of a closer union, and under her leadership the Constitu- tional Convention was called. George Washington presided over its deliberations; Edmund Randolph proposed a plan which was the basis of the new Constitution, and James Madison was at once the foremost architect in its construction, as he was the ablest advocate in favor of its subsequent adoption by the States. For thirty-six years save four Virginia furnished the Presidents who shaped the destinies of the infant republic. John Marshall, first among the fore- most jurists of the English-speaking world, for thirty-five years filled the high place of Chief Justice, and by his great decisions performed a work of incomparable importance in the making of the Union. Under the leadership of Jefferson, the empire stretching from the mouth of the Mississippi to Canada and the Pacific was acquired from France, while Monroe secured from Spain the cession of Florida.

Her Taylor and Scott led the triumphant forces of the Union in the war with Mexico, while a brilliant of younger sons, Lee, Jack- son, Johnston and others, shed new lustre upon American arms by their personal heroism in that war.

Wherever the genius and prowess of leadership had added strength and glory to the Union and her institutions, whether, in the cabinet, in the council, or on the field, Virginia had been foremost in her contributions of wisdom and of heroism. Thus was the Union so indis- solubly linked with her own interests and glory that she was pres- ently to be called upon to declare whether she would aid and abet it in the policy of what she regarded as unconstitutional coercion, or stand forth herself to brook its power.

TO PRESERVE THE UNION.

The foregoing constitutes but an imperfect recital of the part borne by Virginia in the making of the Union, and so whenever the clouds of civil dissention arose, and peace between the States or between a