September 12, 1787: No Bill of Rights

George Mason

George Mason University, https://facilities.gmu.edu/ngg_tag/george-mason-statue/nggallery/image/200320500

"It would give great quiet to the people; and with aid of the State declarations, a bill might be prepared in a few hours.”

--George Mason on a Bill of Rights

Wednesday, September 12, 1787: The Convention Today
Johnson (CT) from the Committee of Style presented the committee’s second draft of the Constitution, printed copies of which were ordered to be furnished to the members. A letter of transmittal to Congress was also reported.

Williamson (NJ) moved to require a two-thirds vote to override a veto instead of three-quarters vote. He admitted to having been the originator of the three-quarters proposal, but he’d been persuaded that it “puts too much in the power of the president.”

Sherman (CT), Gerry (MA), Mason (VA), and Charles Pinckney (SC) agreed. Gouverneur Morris (PA) didn’t. “The excess, rather than the deficiency, of laws was to be dreaded.” He said the experience of New York (where he’d started his political career) had shown that a two-thirds override of vetoes resulted in too many bad laws getting passed. Hamilton, the only remaining delegate from New York, agreed with that assessment.

Williamson “was less afraid of too few than of too many laws” and especially worried about making it too difficult for Congress to repeal bad laws that the President supported.

G. Morris responded that “instability of laws” was the greatest danger. Plus, “Many good laws are not tried long enough to prove their merit.” Most importantly, if a President used his veto too much, he’d lose reelection. Madison (VA) took a similar stance.

The motion to lower the veto override to two-thirds from three-quarters passed:

• Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland (McHenry, no,) North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia—6, yes
• Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia (Washington, Blair, and Madison, no; Mason and Randolph, yes)—4, no
• New Hampshire divided (perhaps Langdon, yes, and Gilman, no, although Madison’s notes don’t specify)

Williamson and Gerry both lamented that the Constitution didn’t guarantee jury trials in civil cases, which led Mason to say that the Constitution needed a Bill of Rights, and he would be willing to second a motion to that purpose.

Gerry provided the motion and Mason seconded.

Sherman thought the motion was unnecessary. The states’ constitutions had bills of rights, and the US Constitution had no authority to overturn those. Mason was not pacified by this, rightly noting, “The laws of the United States are to be paramount to State Bills of Rights.”

The motion for a Bill of Rights was unanimously rejected.

Synopsis

• The Committee of Style presented their second draft of the Constitution, as well as a letter of transmittal to the Confederation Congress.
• The threshold to override a Presidential veto was lowered from three-fourths to two-thirds of each House of Congress.
• Gerry (MA) and Mason (VA) tried to add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution and were unanimously rejected.

Delegates Today

• Johnson (CT) dined with Convention Secretary William Jackson and then called on his compatriot Noah Webster.
• Washington (VA), Baldwin (GA), and perhaps other delegates dined at Franklin’s (PA). Washington had tea with artist Robert Edge Pine.
• John Sevier, governor of the unrecognized State of Franklin [in what is now Tennessee], wrote Benjamin Franklin to thank him for his letter of June 30 and the kind advice contained therein.

Philadelphia Today

• Today was oppressively hot.
• The Pennsylvania Gazette carried an advertisement: “A young woman, with a Good Breast of Milk, having buried her first child is desirous of taking in one. Any person, by applying at the printing office, or at the house of Stephen Blunt, shoemaker, in Chestnut-Street, will receive information.”