Word: virginians
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Reagan's pilgrimage to the feet of Jefferson was a bit of a sacrilege. Jefferson hated political speeches. He also thought it was unwise to hang around the swamps of Washington in the summer. Despite criticism, the Virginian paid long visits to Monticello, where both air and mind were clearer. Yet there is a resonance now between Jefferson's warnings and Reagan's present-day fears of a Government so big and costly that it ultimately breaks America's spirit...
...This Virginian view of a powerful national government was anathema to many of the delegates. The Articles of Confederation had promised that "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence." Indeed, when the delegates from tiny Delaware had presented their credentials on opening day, they announced that their state legislature had expressly forbidden them to accept any change in the system by which each state had one vote in Congress. Delegate George Read had asked the legislature to impose that restriction because, as he wrote to a colleague, "such is my jealousy of most of the larger States that...
...instructions and, quote, 'is hell-bent on tyranny.' " Remain calm, smile, take it in stride. "All citizens of our great state, of course, respect the views of Mr. Henry," Madison said slowly. "But sometimes Pat gets a little too fond of his own rhetoric. To paraphrase my esteemed fellow Virginian: Give me Constitution or give me chaos...
...Madison slipped off his boots and scanned the papers. Most alarming was a headline in the Pennsylvania Gazette: VIRGINIA PLAN TO BE SCUTTLED AS SMALL STATES BALK. Madison recalled seeing George Washington in deep conversation with two reporters at Robert Morris' party last night. Was Garrulous George the "influential Virginian" who was "privately pressing for compromise"? Madison turned to the editorial page. There George Shrill, his favorite neoroyalist columnist, was quoting Thucydides in the original Greek to argue that the 13 states needed the firm hand of a minor German princeling as monarch to quell "the unseemly clamor of mobocracy...
...timing of Powell's resignation appeared to be dictated primarily by the approach of his 80th birthday on Sept. 19. The slender, bespectacled Virginian, who underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1985, has continued his renowned six-day workweeks, with an occasional half day on Sunday, but apparently was afraid he would not be able to keep up the pace much longer. Said he, simply: "For me, age 80 suggests retirement...