June 7, 1787: Electing the Senate

John Dickinson by Charles Willson Peale, 1783-1783.  Independence National Historical Park

"Mr. Dickinson thereupon moved, that the second branch of the national legislature be chosen by the legislatures of the individual states."

--Robert Yates, recorded in his notes on the Convention

Thursday, June 7, 1787: The Convention Today

The Committee of the Whole took up the matter of choosing the Senate's members today. Mr. Dickinson (DE) moved "that the members of the 2d. branch ought to be chosen by the individual 2 [State] legislatures'." Roger Sherman (CT) seconded.

James Wilson (PA), seconded by "Mr. Morris" [almost certainly Gouverneur, not Robert] moved that the people elect the Senate. A lively debate ensued, for certainly Madison, and probably most other delegates, realized that election of Senators by the States ensured more of a role for the States in the new government than the nationalists wanted them to have, and it tended to work against proportional representation in the Senate. After a lengthy debate, a motion to consider Wilson's motion lost ten states against, Pennsylvania for. Dickinson's motion was then approved, unanimously.

Synopsis

• Agreed (11 – 0) to a proposal by Dickinson and Sherman that the State Legislatures elect the second branch of the legislature

Delegates Today

• The New Jersey legislature resolved to appoint Jonathon Dayton to attend the Federal Convention. Dayton wrote New Jersey delegate David Brearly to announce his appointment. The youngest of the delegates by a year and a half, Dayton graduated from Princeton in 1776 and promptly joined the 3d New Jersey Regiment, commanded by his father. After the Revolutionary War, Dayton was admitted to the bar, and became active as a lawyer and business man. He was elected to the New Jersey Assembly in 1786 and was serving in that body when elected a delegate to the Convention. Within the convention he spoke fairly frequently for one so young and relatively inexperienced.
• General Washington dined with other Convention members at the Indian Queen tavern, and drank tea and spent the evening in his lodgings at the home of Robert and Mary Morris.

Philadelphia Today

• Bookbinder James Muir half-bound 100 spelling books for printer and bookseller Francis Barley. These may have been part of the 60,000,000 copies of Noah Webster's speller printed between 1783 and 1890.