Note 73 — SEVENTH CONGRESS.—SECOND SESSION.

This speech, delivered in the Virginia Convention which ratified the Federal constitution, is the only full and perfect account of the transaction to which it refers that has ever been published. It refers to the design in the Congress of the confederation to give up the navigation of the Mississippi for 25 or 30 years in return for some commercial privileges from Spain—a design which Mr. Monroe was mainly instrumental in defeating, and for which he deserved still higher rewards than honor and gratitude. His reluctance to give the history of this transaction arose from its secret nature, the Congress of the confederation sitting upon it with closed doors, and the members being under injunctions not to disclose what was done. Its essentiality to a knowledge of the political history of the times must be apparent to all who read it.