July 26, 1787: A Last Debate before Adjourning

Benjamin Franklin by David Martin, 1767

Independence National Historical Park

"In free governments the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns."

--Benjamin Franklin

Thursday, July 26, 1787: The Convention Today

The Convention continued to consider the election of the executive. Mason (VA) summarized the possible methods and the objections to each and favored election by the national legislature. He moved for a seven-year term and ineligibility for re-election. Davie (NC) seconded, Franklin (PA) supported, and the motion passed, 7 “yes,” Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware no, Massachusetts absent.

Gouverneur Morris (PA) attacked the just-passed motion, saying that it ruined the whole resolution for the national executive. That resolution now stated that the national executive:

• was one person
• would be chosen by the national legislature
• had a seven-year term
• could not run for reelection
• carried into execution national laws
• appointed government officers “not otherwise provided for”
• could be impeached and removed from office for “mal-practice or neglect of duty”
• and received a salary

This resolution passed 6–3–1–1 with Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland opposed, Massachusetts absent, and Virginia divided thus: Blair and Mason “yes,” Washington and Madison “no,” and Randolph absent.

Mason moved that members of the national legislature be required to be property owning US citizens and carry no unsettled accounts or debts with the national government.

He reasoned that debtors elected to state legislatures had promoted laws “that might shelter their deliquencies.” (Charles Pinckney (SC) seconded the motion. C. Pinckney and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (SC) later motioned to amend Mason’s proposal to cover all three branches of the national government. Their motion passed unanimously, while debate on Mason’s underlying motion continued.)

The Convention passed, 8–3 (Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware opposed), the part of Mason’s motion requiring government officers to be property-owning citizens.

Carroll (MD) motioned, and Gorham (MA) seconded, that disqualification of people with unsettled accounts be struck from Mason’s proposal.

Carroll’s motion, allowing people with unsettled accounts to hold office, passed 9–2, with New Jersey and Georgia opposed.

Now all that was left to discuss of Mason’s motion was whether debtors should be disqualified. Ellsworth (CT) and C. Pinckney argued that excluding people who owed a small amount of money in taxes, or who had recently purchased western land, was absurd.

Mason’s disqualification of debtors failed 2–9, with only North Carolina and Georgia in support.

Mason now motioned that the national capital should not be in any of the states’ capitals. He worried that there would be jurisdictional conflicts and that proximity would result in a state having undue influence over the national government. Alexander Martin (NC) seconded.

G. Morris liked the idea but worried it “might make enemies of Philadelphia and New York.”

Gerry said it was “the general sense of America, that neither the seat of a State Government, nor any large commercial city should be the seat of the General Government.”

Mason, not wanting to “excite any hostile passions,” said he “was content to withdraw the motion for the present.”

The Convention then unanimously decided to adjourn until August 6 in order to give the Committee of Detail time to draft the Constitution. The delegates unanimously voted to deliver to the committee all the resolutions passed in the Convention in the past two months, as well as the plans for government which had been offered by C. Pinckney and Paterson (NJ).

Synopsis

• The Convention passed a resolution where the President was elected by the national legislature, had a seven-year term, and was ineligible for reelection.
• The delegates debated a motion requiring government officers to be US citizens who owned landed property and disqualifying people who had unsettled accounts or debts with the national government.
• After much debate and many votes, the motion was shrunk. The disqualifications were removed, and the motion now only required officers to be US citizens who owned property (not necessarily landed property).
• The Convention adjourned until August 6 to give the Committee of Detail time to draft the Constitution.

Delegates Today

• Sherman (CT) was a pallbearer at the funeral of Rev. Chauncey Whittlesey, pastor, First Society Church of New Haven.
• Hamilton (NY) successfully helped to avert an impending duel. Acting as a second to Pierce (GA) in his dispute with John Auldjo, Hamilton wrote Auldjo to announce that Pierce had agreed to drop his challenge and the affair between them was at an end.
• Baldwin (GA) wrote from Independence Hall to his brother-in-law Joel Barlow. He had hoped to travel to Connecticut with Sherman (CT) and Johnson (CT) but dared not leave Georgia unrepresented in the Convention. He resolved to stay in Philadelphia as long as his money or credit lasted or until the work was finished.

Philadelphia Today

• The weather was rainy and cool.
• Charles Willson Peale in a letter thanked Ebenezer Hazard for sundry articles Hazard had donated to Peale’s museum. Peale wrote, “I found that all small articles especially those that are delicate must be kept under glass to prevent the abuse of fingering, and I am getting made some Glass cases with sloping shelves for that purpose, which will be opened for the curious when desired.”