Convention: A Daily Journal

By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/20/2020 - 4 minute read

The Convention appears to be making progress. Small State delegates are more secure since achieving equality of representation in the Senate. Relieved, they have become more engaged in deliberations on other subjects. Disagreement is no stranger to the East Room of the State House, but the intensity of distrust and suspicion has dissipated noticeably. Additionally, secrecy and reconsideration of issues already decided are proving to be useful rules, making it easier for delegates to modify or even change their positions, as necessary.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/19/2020 - 4 minute read

Today’s edition of The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser reported that “so great is the unanimity, we hear, that prevails in the Convention, upon all great federal subjects, that it has been proposed to call the room in which they assemble – Unanimity Hall.”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/18/2020 - 5 minute read

Yesterday and today the Convention has considered additional propositions in the Report of the Committee of the Whole. After refusing to reconsider its vote for equality of States in the Senate, the Convention readily agreed the executive should consist of a single person but debated on the manner of his selection. The Report proposes “selection by the national legislature.” Gouverneur Morris objected immediately. “He will be a mere creature of the legislature if appointed and impeachable by that body,” he asserted. He prefers they “be elected by the people at large…If the legislature elect, it will be the work of intrigue, of cabal, and of faction. It will be like the election of a pope by a conclave of cardinals.”  He moved that the people elect the executive.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/17/2020 - 4 minute read

This morning, shaken by yesterday’s vote, “before the hour of the Convention, a number of the members from the larger States met for the purpose of consulting on the proper steps to be taken in consequence of the vote in favor of an equal representation in the 2nd branch, and the apparent inflexibility of the smaller States on that point. Several members from the latter States also attended.”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/16/2020 - 4 minute read

The heat has finally broken.  Over the weekend a northeastern breeze flowed through Philadelphia, cooling the small lodging rooms housing delegates at the Indian Queen, Mrs. House’s boarding house, and the other inns between 2nd and 4th Streets near the State House. Meetings with Manasseh Cutler and various small gatherings over the weekend have anticipated today’s session, which could end in dissolution of the Convention.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/15/2020 - 4 minute read

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution to the Continental Congress “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” Lee has been visiting Philadelphia and last night wrote to his brother, Francis Lighthorse Lee, that he “found the Convention at Philadelphia very busy and very secret. It would seem, however, from a variety of circumstances that we shall hear of a government not unlike the British Constitution, that is, an executive with two branches composing a federal legislature and possessing adequate tone.”

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/14/2020 - 4 minute read

Today, the Convention met again, with no visible results. Luther Martin had exhausted the delegates with a lengthy harangue on June 20 and now took the floor to call the question on the entire report issued nearly two weeks ago by the Grand Committee. Of course, some delegates wanted to debate particular provisions rather than the report as a whole. Charles Pinckney even tried something new, proposing that the Senate be apportioned on a scale of his own creation. Several States would receive one representative, others more. But it did not meet the small States uncompromising demand for equality in the Senate and was rejected. At the end of the day, nothing was decided.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/13/2020 - 4 minute read

It has been said that “money is the root of all evil.” However, the original saying was quite different, and often overlooked. The original version is found in the book of Timothy in the New Testament of the Bible and reads, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” It is an important distinction. One is about greed, the other is about a medium of exchange and a common measure of value. Simply put, money buys things. It buys food, clothes, animals, land, services of carpenters and coopers, and a myriad of necessities and luxuries of life. It is used by government to build armies, equip navies, and pay tax collectors, judges, and others in government service. Money is important, even if the love of money can be ruinous.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/12/2020 - 5 minute read

Today’s session of the Constitutional Convention was similar to that of yesterday and the day before, and the day before that – a series of motions refining various elements of propositions put forth by committees of eleven or five and exhaustive debates too often focused on parochial concerns. Compromise remains elusive. The gap between the interests of small States and those of large States is wide. Few seem willing to bridge it. There is little agreement about what might arise from the west or how new States should be treated. The issue of slavery simmers below the surface, ready to boil over.

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By Center for Civics Education
Posted on 7/11/2020 - 5 minute read

New Hampshire did not vote to participate in the Convention and select its delegates until June 27, more than a month after the Convention held its first session. None of its four delegates have arrived.  With Rhode Island’s refusal to join and yesterday’s departure of New York’s Robert Yates and John Lansing, only ten States are left to continue the work.

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