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Important LS as governor of Virginia, signed “Edm: Randolph,” one page, 7.25 x 9, December 6, 1786. Addressed from Richmond, a letter sent to an unidentified recipient who has been revealed as Connecticut Governor Samuel Huntington. The brevity of Randolph's text belies its importance, although he underscores the significance of his topic by reporting that this message essentially duplicates an earlier one from December 1st. In full: “My anxiety for the well being of the federal Government will not suffer me to risque so important a consideration upon the safety of a single letter. Your excellency will therefore excuse me for again intruding on you with the inclosed text of our Legislature, and repeating the request urged in my Letter of the 1st. instant, that you would give a zealous Attention to the present American crisis. The gentleman, appointed by Virginia for the Convention at Philadelphia, are General Washington, Mr. Patrick Henry, the late Governor, Mr. George Wythe & Mr. John Blair, two of the Judges of the high court of chancery, Mr. James Madison jun. a member of Congress, Mr. George Mason, a Member of the legislature & myself.” In fine condition.
Huntington has docketed the reverse of the second integral page in his own hand. Below the word “Connecticut,” he writes: “Gov’r Randolph letter, Decem’r 6th–1786, receiv’d Jany. 5–87, answer’d Jan’y 8th–87.” Research shows that a reply letter sent by Huntington to Randolph on December 23, 1786, further confirms the former as the recipient of this offered letter. The reply reads: ‘I am honored with your Excellency’s letter of the first instant, enclosing the Act of your legislature appointing Commissioners to assemble in Convention at Philadelphia in May next, for the purposes therein mentioned, & shall embrace the earliest opportunity to lay those papers before the legislature of this state.’ This terminology indicated Huntington’s approval of the call; he would later be a great supporter of the Convention and the new Constitution it produced.
In September 1786, the Annapolis Convention called for a larger convention to meet in Philadelphia the following May to amend the Articles of Confederation. The Convention of 1787 quickly adopted a larger brief, however, and eventually produced an entirely new charter of government: the Constitution of the United States. Of the 12 states that sent delegates to the Constitutional Convention, which was boycotted by Rhode Island, the Virginia contingent was perhaps the most illustrious. In addition to the Convention's presiding officer, George Washington, and de facto recording secretary, James Madison, the Old Dominion also sent such able participants as George Mason, George Wythe, and Randolph himself. The ‘Virginia Plan of Government,’ which these delegates submitted for the consideration of the whole body on May 29th, began the principal debates of the Convention.
Ultimately, most of the Virginia delegates refused to endorse the Constitution when it was adopted on September 17, 1787, believing that the document was insufficiently republican. Washington, Madison, and John Blair were the only Virginia signatories; Mason and Randolph remained at the Convention until it was adjourned, but refused to sign; and Wythe and Henry had previously retired from Philadelphia. After a lengthy struggle, the Virginia ratifying convention approved the Constitution on June 26, 1788, by a vote of 89 to 79. Randolph attended Virginia’s ratifying convention in June 1788 and voted with Madison and John Marshall for adoption.
Provenance: Sotheby's, New York, December 13, 1995, Lot 314.
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