CHAPTER XXXI.

Committee of Compromise make their Report-Proceedings of Convention on Report of Committee Apportionment among the States of Representatives in First Branch of Legislature - Mr. Williamson, of North Carolina, proposes to include Three-fifths of the Slaves in the Rule of Apportionment — Debate between Mr. Gouverneur Morris and Mr. Madison - Mr. Williamson's Motion rejected -Indignant Feeling of the Delegates of the Southern States Convention reconsider and change their Decision Struggle for Geographical Ascendency - Mr. Gouverneur Morris declares it to be the Policy of the Middle States to join the Eastern States in this Struggle for Power - Answered by Mr. Wilson- Early Jealousy of the Northern States with regard to the Rising States of the WestEqual Representation in the Second Branch of the Legislature — Discussion upon it renewed with Great Warmth - Mr. Wilson, Mr. Luther Martin, Mr. Charles Pinckney, Mr. Dayton, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Gerry, Mr. King, Mr. Strong Speeches of Mr. Madison and Mr. Wilson - Report of Committee of Compromise, as amended, finally agreed to by Vote of Five States to Four, and One dividedConvention resume their Deliberations on Propositions reported by Committee of the Whole- Proposed Negative of Congress on State Laws superseded by Provision for Judiciary Control - Proposed Appointment of Executive by National Legislature strongly objected to, but maintained - Proposition to refer Election directly to People receives Vote of only One State Sentiments of Colonel Mason upon it - Ineligibility a Second Time, hitherto an inseparable Part of the Provision for electing Executive by National Legislature, stricken out by Vote of Convention-Dr. M'Clurg, of Virginia, moves, as the only Means left of Guarding the Mutual Independence of the two Departments, that the Executive should hold during Good Behavior-Course of Virginia Delegation, and of Mr. Madison parVOL. II.

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ticularly, on this Motion - The Motion has the Intended Effect of Re-instating Ineligibility a Second Time as an Incident to Legislative Appointment of the Executive - Various other Modes of electing the Executive proposed and discussed - Choice by Lot suggested — Convention, without being able to reach any Satisfactory Conclusion on the Subject, acquiesce, for the present, in the Proposed Appointment by the National Legislature — All the Remaining Propositions, reported by Committee of the Whole, adopted with little or no Alteration by the Convention, and with the other Resolutions of the Convention referred to a Committee of Detail, to report a Constitution conformably to them.

On the 5th of July, the day to which the convention had adjourned, the committee of compromise made their report, recommending two propositions, to be simultaneously agreed to as mutual conditions: first, that, in the popular branch of the legislature, each of the States be allowed one representative for every forty thousand inhabitants of the description mentioned in the seventh resolution of the committee of the whole (that is, counting all the white inhabitants and threefifths of the black); that each State, not having a number of inhabitants equal to the proposed ratio, should have one representative; and that all money bills originate in the representative branch, and be not altered or amended in the other branch: secondly, that, in the senatorial branch, each State have an equal vote.

On the presentation of the report, a free expression of opinion took place in the convention with regard to the general merits of the compromise proposed. Mr. Madison thought the exclusive

privilege of originating money bills in the first branch was a concession of no value to the larger States; and that the only alternative left to the convention was to adhere to the principles of justice at the risk of displeasing the smaller States, or to yield to the demands of those States at the certain sacrifice of justice. For himself, he could not hesitate as to the option he ought to make.

Mr. Gouverneur Morris disapproved of both the form and the substance of the report. He thought the whole aspect of it wrong. "It looked," he said, "as if we were assembled to truck and bargain for our particular States." Should the larger States determine upon a plan which is reasonable and right in itself, whatever opposition to it might be made, for a time, in the smaller States, he had no doubt that "the ties of interest, of kindred, and of common habits, which connect them with the other States, will be too strong to be easily broken. In New Jersey particularly, he was sure a great many would follow the sentiments of Pennsylvania and New York. This country must be united. If persuasion does not unite it, the sword will."

Mr. Gerry and Colonel Mason, both members of the committee, frankly admitted there were material objections to the compromise proposed; but thought it absolutely necessary that some accommodation should take place. "If there were no adjustment," Mr. Gerry said, "a secession would take place; for some gentlemen seemed decided on it. Two different plans will be proposed, and the

result no man could foresee. If we do not come to some agreement among ourselves, some foreign sword will probably do the work for us." Colonel Mason said, "However liable the report might be to objections, he thought it preferable to an appeal to the sword, which had been talked of by some gentlemen. It could not be more inconvenient to any gentleman to remain absent from his private affairs than it was for him; but he would bury his bones in this city, rather than expose his country to the consequences of a dissolution of the convention without any thing being done."

The first clause of the report, prescribing the rule of representation in the popular branch, according to the number of inhabitants in each State of the description mentioned in the seventh resolution of the committee of the whole," was then taken up; when Mr. Gouverneur Morris, objecting to numbers alone, without reference to property, as the measure of representation, moved to refer the clause to a special committee of five, with the view of fixing precisely the number of representatives for each State in the first instance, and leaving the legislature at liberty to provide for future changes in the relative importance of the States, and for the case of new States. The motion. was agreed to by a vote of seven States to three, with one divided; and Mr. Morris, Mr. Gorham, Mr. Randolph, Mr. Rutledge, and Mr. King were appointed to compose the committee.

In the interval of two days, which elapsed be

fore the committee made their report on the matter referred to them, the convention took up successively for consideration the remaining parts of the proposed compromise, relating to the origination of money bills by the first branch of the legislature, and the equal suffrage of the States in the second branch. Both of these principles were provisionally agreed to, subject to a final vote on the whole scheme, when the question referred to the select committee should have been disposed of.

On the 9th of July, the select committee made their report, recommending that the representative branch, in the first instance, should consist of fifty-six members, which they proceeded to allot specifically among the several States; and they farther recommended, that, as the situation of the States would undergo alterations both in point of wealth and in the number of their inhabitants, the legislature should be authorized, from time to time, to augment the number of representatives; and in case any of the existing States should be hereafter divided, or any two or more of them be united, or any new States be created within the limits of the United States, the legislature should also possess authority, in all such cases, to regulate and apportion the number of representatives upon the principles of their wealth and number of inhabitants. In the allotment recommended of the proposed fifty-six members among the States, New Hampshire was to have two, Massachusetts seven, Rhode-Island one,