JAMES MONROE CONVENED VIRGINIA'S FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION on a tellingly dour note. "All other republics have failed," he remarked. The landscapes of the once mighty Roman and Grecian republics were now dominated by the "ruins of ancient buildings," and the present inhabitants of those lands languished in "a state of decrepitude and wretchedness." These lamentations of decay in 1829 stood in stark contrast to his characterization of the United States made only twelve years earlier in his inaugural address. There he considered the American form of republican government as "near ... perfection." Change seemed to occur rapidly, however, and his language of declension ...