Convention: A Daily Journal

By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/10/2020 - 4 minute read

James Madison and James Wilson may have underestimated how deeply committed are the small States’ delegates to maintaining equality of representation in the national legislature.  The small States had no intention of bending to the will of the larger States. Roger Sherman and John Dickinson effectively presented the case for the small States, but the vehement attack on proportional representation by Gunning Bedford and William Paterson seemed to take them by surprise.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/9/2020 - 4 minute read

Yesterday, the Committee of the Whole was unable to decide on whether the national legislature should be authorized to veto acts of the State legislatures, but the debate widened the gulf between the large and small States. Calls for national unity were met with accusations that the large States were seeking to destroy the smaller ones. At times, the debate bordered on becoming personal. “It seems,” Gunning Bedford charged, “as if Pennsylvania and Virginia by the conduct of their deputies wished to provide a system in which they would have an enormous and monstrous influence.”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/8/2020 - 4 minute read

The Virginia Plan, introduced by Gov. Randolph on May 29, proposed that “the National Legislature ought to be empowered to negative all laws passed by the several States, contravening, in the opinion of the National Legislature, the articles of Union.” The next day, after agreeing to add language proposed by Benjamin Franklin, to wit, “or any treaty subsisting under the authority of the union,” the Committee of the Whole approved it “without debate or dissent”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/7/2020 - 5 minute read

Yesterday, the Committee of the Whole voted a second time that the first branch of the national government should be elected by the people. Now the Committee must consider how the second branch will be selected. Resolve No. 5 of the Virginia Plan proposes that “the members of the second branch of the National Legislature ought to be elected by those of the first.”  

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/6/2020 - 5 minute read

Yesterday, the Committee of the Whole quickly reviewed the remaining six resolves of the Virginia Plan. Resolve No. 10, “that provision ought to be made for the admission” of new States, passed unanimously. Resolve No. 11 guaranteeing a republican form of government for each State was postponed for further consideration. Without debate, Resolve No. 12 was agreed to.  It simply assures the continuation of the current Confederation Congress “until a given day after the reform of the articles of Union shall be adopted.” The Committee postponed Resolve No. 13 providing for a process to amend the future Constitution without the consent of Congress and Resolve No. 14 requiring State officials to take an oath “to support the articles of Union.”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/5/2020 - 4 minute read

Before resolving into the Committee of the Whole, the credentials of two new delegates were read, those of Abraham Clark and William Livingston of New Jersey. However, only Livingston took his seat. Clark is still in New York attending the Confederation Congress.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/4/2020 - 4 minute read

On Friday, James McHenry left the Convention due to his brother’s illness. The next day, the second of Maryland’s five delegates, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, arrived. Fortunately, instructions from Maryland require that only one must be present.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/3/2020 - 4 minute read

By the end of the first week of meetings of the Constitutional Convention, eleven States had enough delegates in attendance to be counted. New Hampshire is soon expected, but Rhode Island refuses to participate. 

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/2/2020 - 4 minute read

On July 4, 1776 only two delegates abstained from signing the Declaration of Independence. One was John Dickinson, among the most renown patriots throughout the colonies, primarily for his Letters from a Farmer from Pennsylvania. 

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 6/1/2020 - 4 minute read

James Wilson is one of three immigrants and eight signers of the Declaration of Independence who has been appointed to the Constitutional Convention.  Born in Scotland in 1742, he attended three universities, including the University of Edinburgh, before emigrating from his home in Fife to America in 1765.  His arrival coincided with the British imposition of the Stamp Act and the violent colonial reaction to it.  

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