Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/245

JAMES MONROE 199 convention at Philadelphia in 1787, which prepared and proposed the constitution of the United States. Whoever contributed to that event is justly entitled to the gratitude of the present age as a public bene factor, and among them the name of Monroe should be conspicuously enrolled." According to the principle of rotation then in force, Monroe s congressional service expired in 1786, at the end of a three years term. He then intended to make his home in Fredericksburg, and to practise law, though he said he should be happy to keep clear of the bar if possible. But it was not long before he was again called into public life. He was chosen at once a delegate to the assembly, and soon afterward became a member of the Virgin ia convention to consider the ratification of the pro posed constitution of the United States, which as sembled at Richmond in 1788. In this convention the friends of the new constitution were led by James Madison, John Marshall, and Edmund Randolph. Patrick Henry was their opponent, and James Monroe was by his side in company with William Grayson and George Mason. In one of his speeches, Monroe made an elaborate historical argument, based on the experience of Greece, Germany, Switzerland, and New England, against too firm consolidations, and he predicted conflict between the state and national authorities, and the possibility that a president once elected