It was Fredericksburg that gave to the country the head of the armies of the United States in the great war for independence, in the person of the peerless Washington, and also furnished the greatest naval commander of that war in the person of the dauntless John Paul Jones. In addition to Washington, the small town of Fredericksburg sent to the field during the great Revolution five other generals--Gen. Hugh Mercer, Gen. George Weedon, Gen. Wm. Woodford, Gen. Thomas Posey and Gen. Gustavus B. Wallace, besides many officers of the line of high rank. MADISON THE FATHER OF THE CONSTITUTION. It was James Madison, of Orange county, a Virginian, born a few miles below Fredericksburg, at Port Conway, in King George county, who gave that wonderful instrument, the Constitution of the United States, to the country, that has been described as the "grand palladium of our liberty, the golden chain of our union, the broad banner of freemen, a terror to tyrants and a shining light to patriots." Hon. James D. Richardson, of Tennessee, in his great work of compiling the messages and papers of the Presidents, with short biographical sketches of each, after recounting the labors, works and achievements of Mr. Madison, says: "It was not for these things or any of them his fame is to endure. His act and policy in the framing of the marvellous instrument, the constitution of our country, his matchless advocacy of it with his voice and pen, and his adherence to its provisions at all times and in all exigencies, obtained for him the proudest title ever bestowed upon a man, the title of the 'Father of the Constitution.' It is for this 'act and policy' he will be remembered by posterity." JUDGE WALLACE ON THE CONSTITUTION. Hon. A. Wellington Wallace, at one time Judge of the Corporation Court of Fredericksburg, contributes for this work the following paper on the Constitution of the United States: "No historical sketch of Fredericksburg and its locality would be complete without at least an epitome of the constitutional form of government of the United States; for within a radius of seventy-five miles from Fredericksburg were reared the leading men who inspired the Federal Constitution. There are few, if any, similar areas in magnitude that can furnish, in one epoch of time, such a splendid galaxy of names. George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, James Madison, Patrick Henry, John Blair, George Wythe, Edmund Randolph, and George Mason, the deputies appointed by Virginia to frame the Federal Constitution, were natives of this territory.