August 6, 1787: A First Draft

William Richardson Davie by Charles Willson Peale

Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History, https://museum.unc.edu/items/show/1326

"The great outlines are now marked, and have been detailed by a committee: the residue of the work will rather be tedious than difficult."

--William Richardson Davie to James Iredell

Monday, August 6, 1787: The Convention Today

The Convention reconvened after a ten-day recess, Mercer (MD) took his seat for the first time, and Committee of Detail Chairman Rutledge (SC) delivered the first draft of the Constitution of the United States in the form of a report which was mostly written by Wilson (PA). Printed by Dunlap & Claypool, copies of the report were distributed to each member, and the Convention adjourned for the rest of the day to study it.

The draft presented this day consisted of a preamble and twenty-three articles covering seven large pages with a wide margin to the left of the text for the members to make notes on. Of the twenty-three articles, two were introductions, seven dealt with Congress and its powers, one covered the Executive, one the judiciary, three provided for interstate comity, and seven covered such miscellaneous topics as the admission of new states, amendment, ratification, and setting up the new government.

With this document, the provisions and phrases familiar to students of the completed Constitution begin to appear: a bicameral legislature composed of a House of Representatives and a Senate, an executive called the President, an independent judiciary with a Supreme Court, a list of powers granted the legislature, including the authority “to make all laws that shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers,” and ratification by conventions in the states.

There were other provisions which would be changed and deleted in the month ahead. But if much remained to be done, much had been accomplished.

Synopsis

• The Convention reconvened, the Committee of Detail presented the first draft of the Constitution, and the delegates adjourned to study it.

Delegates Today

• Johnson (CT) embarked at Burlington at 9:00 am in the rain, the boat ran aground on an island just north of Philadelphia, and he finally reached the city at 7:00 pm.
• Davie (NC) in his letter to James Iredell announced that he would leave the Convention in a week.
• The Maryland delegates, Carroll, Jenifer, McHenry, Luther Martin, and Mercer, met at Carroll's lodgings to form a state position on the committee report. McHenry, acting as chairman, suggested moving to postpone the report to consider again an amendment to the Articles of Confederation. Such a motion would have undone almost all the Convention’s work. Carroll, Jenifer, and Mercer, who agreed on very little else, agreed that the Articles couldn’t be amended to meet national necessities. Except for L. Martin, who was leaving for New York for a week, the delegation agreed to meet tomorrow, and McHenry prepared propositions for discussion.
• McHenry observed Mercer, who had just arrived that day at the Convention and was a deep skeptic of strong central government, making a list of the delegates and marking “for” or “against” beside their names. When McHenry asked him what these marks indicated, Mercer told him “laughing that it was no question but that those marked with a ‘for’ were for a king.” McHenry copied the list and showed it to L. Martin, who had similar views to Mercer and McHenry and copied it for himself.

Philadelphia Today

• Philadelphia artist and museum proprietor Charles Willson Peale invited “some Ladies and Gentlemen of Virginia” to a special showing. Among the invitees was his old friend Washington (VA).