August 30, 1787: Self-governance

James Wilson by Jean Pierre Henri Elouis, 1792

Smithsonian American Art Museum, https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/james-wilson-8019

"Nothing... would give greater or juster alarm than the doctrine, that a political society is to be torn asunder without its own consent."

--James Wilson

Thursday, August 30, 1787: The Convention Today
Debate resumed over how new states would be admitted to the union.

Carroll (MD) moved to not require the consent of a state’s legislature if the US Congress decide to divide a state. Luther Martin (MD) seconded.

Rutledge (SC) was opposed, as was Williamson (NC), who claimed that “North Carolina was well disposed to give up her western lands [modern day Tennessee]; but attempts at compulsion were not the policy of the United States.”

Carroll’s motion failed 3-8 with support from New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.

There was a desire to carve out a provision allowing Vermont (currently claimed by New York, but effectively self-governing) to enter the union if New York refused to adopt the Constitution. There were multiple motions that wrangled over the wording of this idea, but it did pass.

L. Martin was still concerned about other people who would want self-governance. Many in Maine (currently part of Massachusetts) and the western territories of the southern states wanted to form separate states, and it was wrong to deny them statehood in circumstances where their state legislatures refused it. Remembering how Gouverneur Morris (PA) had threatened yesterday that the large states would abandon the Constitution if threatened with dismemberment, L. Martin made his own threat: the small states would abandon the Constitution if it forced them to guarantee the territorial integrity of large states which refused to give their territories a desired autonomy.

L. Martin’s subsequent motion failed, carrying only as much support as Carroll’s.

After much wrestling over the language regarding western territories ceded by Britain in the Treaty of Paris, the Convention moved on to other issues besides statehood.

The draft Constitution only allowed the federal government to suppress insurrections against a state government if the state’s legislature asked for assistance. Some thought this was ill-advised—what if the legislature itself was rebellious or if the insurrection hindered it from meeting?—but the only substantive change ultimately made was to give the states’ executives the same power as the legislatures to petition for federal assistance.

Article XX of the draft Constitution stated, “The members of the Legislatures, and the Executive and Judicial officers of the United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by oath to support this Constitution.” The Convention added “or affirmation” after “oath.” This allowed religious minorities who refused to make vows to participate in government.

Charles Pinckney (SC) moved to add this language: “but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the authority of the United States.” The motion carried unanimously, and the states approved the whole of Article XX with opposition only from North Carolina and a divided Maryland.

Article XXI stated that the Constitution would go into effect after “the ratifications of the Conventions of — States.” Wilson proposed to fill in the blank with “seven,” a bare majority. Sherman (CT) and Randolph (VA) favored ten and nine, respectively, which moved Wilson up to eight. G. Morris favored a convoluted scheme where the number would fluctuate depending on how fast the ratifications happened.

Dickinson (DE) got to the meatier questions: Would the consent of the Confederation Congress be required? Could that Congress consent to a Constitution that abolished it? What would happen to states that refused to ratify?

Madison worried about scenarios where enough states ratified but the large states didn’t, resulting in a majority of Americans being bound to a government they hadn’t consented to. Wilson didn’t think this was possible: only states which ratified would be bound by the Constitution. Regardless, the situation was dire: “The house on fire must be extinguished, without a scrupulous regard to ordinary rights.”

Butler loathed the idea of one or two states refusing to ratify and ruining the system for the rest, but Carroll argued for thirteen states needing to ratify, “unanimity being necessary to dissolve the existing Confederacy, which had been unanimously established.”

No resolution was reached prior to adjournment.

Synopsis

• Continuing a debate from yesterday, the Convention affirmed that states could only be divided with the consent of their legislatures.
• Language was added to the Constitution guaranteeing that religious minorities and the irreligious could hold federal office.
• The delegates could not agree on how many states should be required to ratify the Constitution in order to make it go into effect.

Delegates Today

• Johnson (CT) dined at Wilson’s (PA) and posed again for Robert Edge Pine, who was painting his portrait.
• For the third day in a row, Washington (VA) dined and spent the evening with his hosts, Mary and Robert Morris (PA).
• At 54, the staid and proper Dickinson (DE) was still writing love letters to his wife of 17 years, Mary Norris Dickinson. “It is one of the [illegible] Joys of my Soul to be loved by You, and I love you with the tenderest Affection.”
• Gerry (MA) also wrote his wife. He had not heard from her by the last post and would be uneasy until the next one. He was well but concerned about her fainting spell and “determined to leave no Stone unturned to prevent measures which if adopted will probably produce the most fatal consequences [the ratification of the constitution].”
• Reverend John Lathrop, minister of Second Church, Boston, wrote Franklin (PA) to enclose a discourse delivered before the Humane Society.

Philadelphia Today

• Today was very pleasant and cool after a morning rain. Late in the day heavy gusts with thunder and lightning held sway until 8 pm.
• The Independent Gazette reported that a mixed-race boy named James ran away from Robert Shewell in Water Street on Sunday, August 26. James, a 13-year-old house servant, was wearing a light olive fusain coatee, a waistcoat and trousers, a wool hat, and a white shirt. A three-dollar reward was offered to whomever sent James home.