1392. [further continued] .
I have heard with great
pleasure that the [Virginia] Assembly have
come to the resolution of giving the regulation
of their commerce to the federal head.
I will venture to assert, that there is not one
of its opposers who, placed on this ground
[Europe] would not see the wisdom of this
measure. The politics of Europe render it
indispensably necessary that with respect to
everything external, we be one nation only,
firmly hooped together. * * * If it were seen
in Europe that all our States could be brought
to concur in what the Virginia Assembly has
done, it would produce a total revolution in
their opinion of us, and respect for us.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. i, 531.
Ford ed., iv, 192.
(P.
Feb. 1786)
