Sep 29, 2026 · 30 min · 8 segments
On May 29th, 1787, Edmund Randolph — 33 years old, governor of Virginia, owner of the finest voice in the room — rose to open the main business of the Federal Convention, and 3 notebooks took him…
Then he began to speak, and the speech ran through the afternoon, and three notebooks in the room took him down.
He observed that the Confederation fulfilled none of the objectives for which it was framed.
Madison recorded the stakes.
The governor dwelt on the difficulty of the crisis and the necessities of preventing the fulfillment of the prophecies of the American downfall.
Then he gave the room a method.
Four questions taken in order.
What properties must an American government possess? What are the defects of the Confederation? What is the danger of the present situation? And what is the remedy? The properties came first, five of them.
A government must secure the country against foreign invasion.
It must secure the union against quarrels between the states and against seditions inside of them.
It must be able to procure for the states the blessing that no state could procure alone.
It must be able to defend itself against encroachment.
And fifth, it must be paramount to the state constitutions.
Then the defects, one by one, and this was the heart of the afternoon.
On the first, foreign invasion, Madison's notes carry the argument.
Congress not being permitted to prevent a war nor to support it by their own authority.
Particular states might by the conduct provoke a war without control and neither militia nor droughts being fit for defense on such occasions.
Enlistments only could be successful and these could not be executed without money.
In Dr. McHenry's notes carry the epitaph the governor pronounced over Congress's conduct in the war.
imbecility of the Confederation, equally conspicuous when called upon to support a war.
The journals of Congress, a history of expedience.
If the rights of an ambassador be invaded by any citizen, it is only in a few states that any laws exist to punish the offender.
Then he began to speak, and the speech ran through the afternoon, and three notebooks in the room took him down.
He observed that the Confederation fulfilled none of the objectives for which it was framed.
Madison recorded the stakes.
The governor dwelt on the difficulty of the crisis and the necessities of preventing the fulfillment of the prophecies of the American downfall.
Then he gave the room a method.
Four questions taken in order.
What properties must an American government possess? What are the defects of the Confederation? What is the danger of the present situation? And what is the remedy? The properties came first, five of them.
A government must secure the country against foreign invasion.
It must secure the union against quarrels between the states and against seditions inside of them.
It must be able to procure for the states the blessing that no state could procure alone.
It must be able to defend itself against encroachment.
And fifth, it must be paramount to the state constitutions.
Then the defects, one by one, and this was the heart of the afternoon.
On the first, foreign invasion, Madison's notes carry the argument.
Congress not being permitted to prevent a war nor to support it by their own authority.
Particular states might by the conduct provoke a war without control and neither militia nor droughts being fit for defense on such occasions.
Enlistments only could be successful and these could not be executed without money.
In Dr. McHenry's notes carry the epitaph the governor pronounced over Congress's conduct in the war.
imbecility of the Confederation, equally conspicuous when called upon to support a war.
The journals of Congress, a history of expedience.
If the rights of an ambassador be invaded by any citizen, it is only in a few states that any laws exist to punish the offender.
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