Last week we covered the events leading up to the Constitutional Convention. This week, we will take a look at the start of the convention and how the delegates set up the procedures for the convention itself.
The Convention Begins
As I mentioned last week, the Convention was supposed to begin on Monday May 14, 1787. Only two state delegations showed up that day, so the delegates that did just had to sit around and wait. Many of them used that time to chat informally amongst themselves, hanging out in bars or in someone’s parlor to exchange ideas.
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| James Madison |
The delegates had to wait nearly two weeks until the New Jersey delegation finally showed up on Friday, May 25. They were the seventh state delegation to show up, enough to make a quorum and begin their business. There were at least partial delegations from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. There was also a single delegate from Massachusetts and one from Georgia. But the Convention decided that at least two delegates must be present from each state in order to represent that state.
The convention met in the east room of the Pennsylvania State House, what we call Independence Hall today. This was the same 40x40 foot room where the Continental Congress had met when it was in Philadelphia. By this time, of course, the Continental Congress had been meeting in New York city for several years.
The room was set up with tables so that each state delegation could sit together. The tables were covered with green table cloths that matched the window drapes, and surrounded by wooden Windsor chairs. The delegations were arranged by geography with the northern state delegations seated at tables at the northern end of the room, then the middle state delegations in the middle, and the southern delegations on the southern side of the room.
There were never more than eleven delegations there at any time. Rhode Island never sent a delegation. The New Hampshire delegation did not arrive until July. By the time New Hampshire arrived, the New York delegation had left. The states had selected a total of seventy-four men to serve as delegates. Only 55 of those actually attended the convention. Many of the conventions came and went, being absent sometimes for days or weeks at a time. On most days, there were probably no more than thirty or forty delegates present. Of those, maybe about twenty of them formed the hard core that were there for most of the Convention and did most of the work on the Constitution.
On that first day, the convention accepted the credentials of the 29 delegates from seven states that were present that day. Normally, this would be a rather boring and pro forma event. But when the Delaware delegation presented its credentials, it noted its instructions required that the delegation not accept any change that altered the one-state, one-vote power structure that existed in the Articles of Confederation. Since there were a great many delegates who thought that was one of the biggest problems that needed to be fixed, those limiting instructions which set a line in the sand before debate even began, created an immediate frustration. That said, this was not the time to argue over that. Such a time would come later.
With the state delegation credentials completed, the next thing for the Convention was to pick a president. That is, someone to preside over the Convention. There really was no debate over this. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania rose to nominate George Washington. The honor of nominating Washington was supposed to go to Benjamin Franklin, but he was too sick to attend that day. The 81 year old Franklin was becoming quite enfeebled by this time, frequently bedridden with gout or other ailments. Franklin had to be carried to the convention. The warden of the Walnut Street Prison had sent trustee-prisoners, four of them, to carry Franklin in a sedan chair from his home which was about a block and a half from the state house. Despite his condition, Franklin had made the trip several times, only to have to turn around and go home due to the lack of a quorum. It’s not clear why Franklin stayed home on the Friday when the convention finally reached a quorum. By some accounts, he was having a flare up of his kidney stones. It was also raining particularly hard that morning. For whatever reason, Franklin missed the first day, and requested that Robert Morris take up the honor of nominating Washington as president.
Typically a nomination might begin by singing the praises of the nominee. In this case, there was little need. Everyone knew Washington was the man. Morris only noted that he made the nomination on behalf of instructions by the Pennsylvania state delegation. John Rutledge of South Carolina was given the honor of seconding Washington’s nomination. He only added that he was confident that the choice would be unanimous. He was right. It was unanimous. No one else was even nominated.
Washington rose to thank the Convention for the honor, then fell into a short “aw shucks” response, much like when he was selected as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. He told the delegates he lamented his lack of better qualifications and asked for their indulgence in advance for any errors he might make.
When Morris and Rutledge escorted Washington to the chair, Madison took a seat right in front of Washington so that he could take notes. Madison had appointed himself to take notes. No one asked him to do this.
In fact, Congress selected William Jackson to serve as the Convention’s secretary on that first day as well. Jackson was responsible for taking notes during the Convention. Jackson had been an aide-de-camp to General Benjamin Lincoln during the war. After the war, he became an attorney and acted as a business agent for Robert Morris. This appears to have been the most contentious vote of the day. James Wilson of Pennsylvania nominated Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, Temple Franklin to serve as secretary. Again, I would have guessed Benjamin Franklin himself would have made the nomination had he not been sick in bed. Hamilton nominated Jackson. The vote by state went for Jackson by a vote of five to two.
So why was Madison taking notes when it was Jackson's job to do this? Madison did not trust Jackson, or anyone else, to keep a full record of the debates. On that point he was correct. Jackson only recorded formal motions and votes. He did not record any of the debate over those motions. Madison believed the record of the debates would be very important and therefore took it upon himself to record them. As a result, Madison’s notes are the best record we have of the debates at the Convention.
The Convention did not really dive into any other issues that day. Instead, it also appointed Nicholas Weaver as the messenger for the convention and Joseph Fry as door-keeper. Both men served in similar roles for the Pennsylvania legislature which normally met in that same room.
With the clerical appointments done, the delegates turned to the creation of a rules committee that would determine how the Convention would work. After that it adjourned until Monday.
Rules of the Convention
George Wythe of Virginia would serve as chair the rules committee. He was a longtime attorney and legislator who had served in the Virginia legislature for decades and had also served in the Continental Congress. In Virginia, he had served on the committee, along with Thomas Jefferson, to re-codify all of the state’s laws after independence. He also served as a judge and a law professor during and after the war.
Also appointed to the rules committee was Charles Pickney of South Carolina. Pickney was one of the youngest delegates at the convention, still in his late 20s. He was a Charleston lawyer, and had served in the South Carolina militia during the war. He had been taken prisoner when the British captured Charleston in 1780. Since he was a militia officer, and not a Continental officer, he was paroled after a few months. He served in the Continental Congress after the war and had been a vocal advocate in the Congress to approve this Convention.
The final member of the committee was New York delegate, Alexander Hamilton. I'm not going to get into much detail on Hamilton's background. You should know this already. He was about the same age as Pickney. Hamilton had served as an aide to Washington during the war, before moving to an independent command. He was appointed to the Continental Congress near the end of the war
After the war, he began a legal practice in New York City. Marrying into the powerful Schuyler family, increased Hamilton’s stature, but he had a pretty strong reputation on his own for a young man with no respected family of his own.
Hamilton had a reputation of dominating most committees where he was appointed. But by most accounts, Wythe dominated the drafting of the rule. Hamilton certainly had input, but Wythe chaired the committee and was very much the senior to the other two members.
The committee worked over the weekend and reported the rules on Monday. By that time a few more delegates had arrived, including delegates from Connecticut and Maryland. This brought the total number of state delegations to nine.
The delegates voted on the recommendations of the rules committee. One of the most controversial rules, at least for those not in attendance at the convention, was secrecy. In order to encourage free and open debate on all issues, there would be no public records of the debates. Delegates had to take an oath that they would not speak or write about anything that happened during the convention until after it had ended. Sentries would be stationed by the doors to prevent any spectators or journalists from trying to overhear debates. At one point during the debates, they moved upstairs to a second floor room in the State House so they could open windows to help endure the summer heat, but wanted to make sure people were not listening by the open windows.
The rule regarding secrecy might seem rather anti-democratic today. But keep in mind that the convention was not really a group of lawmakers. They were there simply to come up with recommendations for other people to enact.
The members took the secrecy requirement very seriously. George Washington even stopped recording discussions in his private diary. There were a few minor leaks. French officials recorded some information about the convention in letters home, indicating they had talked to someone inside. At one point, early in the convention, someone dropped a copy of the Virginia plan outside the meeting chamber. Washington sternly admonished the delegates to be more careful. There were a few private letters that were later discovered to have discussed some matters before the convention, but amazingly nothing really found itself into the public newspapers or the public discourse until the convention ended.
A second rule involved reconsideration of votes. They would take votes on issues over the course of the convention, but a vote deciding a matter would not mean it was final. Delegates could bring any matter up for reconsideration, as long as they gave a day’s notice. While there was an argument that this could prevent the convention from actually making any progress since no issue would ever be finalized, it was necessary since votes on controversial issues might cause some delegations to walk out of the convention. Knowing that they could have a chance to reconsider the matter in the future meant that they could stay and continue to debate.
Voting would be done by state, not by individuals. Since states had sent wildly differing sized delegations, and those delegation sizes had nothing to do with the size or power of the state, offering individual votes made little sense. For example, New York had three delegates present. Delaware had five. The Pennsylvania delegation wanted each delegation to have voting power more proportionate with its own population, but several delegations from small states threatened to walk out. In the end, the delegates agreed that each state delegation would decide amongst themselves how that state would cast its single vote.
The delegates also agreed that a quorum to do any business would require the presence of delegates from at least seven states. The convention also approved some more basic rules, like an instruction that memes would not read, gossip among themselves, nor interrupt when someone else was speaking. Anyone speaking would address their remarks to the President, and that no delegate, unless given special leave, would speak twice on a subject before every delegate had a chance to speak. Any member who spoke out of order could be called to order, not only by the chair, but by any other delegate. There were other basic rules of procedure, which I won’t cover in more detail here. No one wants me to discuss parliamentary procedure for the entire episode.
The rules committee also recommended a rule that any delegate could call for a roll-call vote on any motion. The majority of delegates voted down this recommendation. George Mason argued that putting delegates on the record with a position might make it more difficult for them to change their minds later. Following the establishment of the rules for the convention, the delegates adjourned for the day.
While not a formal rule, the convention met for about five hours a day, six days a week, taking off only Sundays and for the Fourth of July holiday. There would also be a break later in the summer. The reason for relatively short days in session was that it gave delegates time to go out and have even more informal discussions with each other as a way of coming to consensus. Because of the secrecy rule, they could not speak with others outside the Convention, but could speak with each other in a more casual environment.
Introducing the Virginia Plan
The following day, Edmund Randolph of Virginia rose to introduce the resolution that the Articles of Confederation ought to be “corrected and enlarged” to ensure the “common defense, security of Liberty, and general welfare.” This made clear at the outset that the convention was going to have a broad mandate, not just matters of trade.
His introductory speech mentioned the commercial discord that had arisen between states, some states like Massachusetts had dealt with internal rebellions, paper money was causing havoc, and states were violating treaties. The current articles gave the Congress no power to prepare for foreign invasions, to enforce treaties, to raise money, to establish commercial regulations, or really prevent the states from doing anything they wanted. He feared the United States could fall into anarchy and fulfill the prophecies of those who predicted that a republic could not stand on its own without a king.
As head of the Virginia delegation, Governor Randolph introduced Madison’s draft plan for a new constitution, the so-called Virginia Plan that I discussed last week. Among its more controversial recommendations was a congress where states would be represented by population rather than the old one-state, one-vote standard. Again, I won’t go over all the proposals again here, but we will get into them as the debate begins.
The important thing to remember is that it was the Virginia Plan that would become the basis of discussion as the Convention began its debate.
Committee of the Whole
To begin debate on the Virginia Plan, the Convention voted to meet as a Committee of the Whole. This was a common parliamentary fiction used at the time, and still used today. A committee of the whole means everyone at the convention sat on the committee. The point of doing this was to allow debate and discussion to remain informal and to avoid the more rigid parliamentary rules that would apply when the Convention met in regular session.
It also meant that Washington would not have to sit at the head of the Convention all day, every day. The convention voted Nathaniel Gorham to sit as chairman of the Committee of the Whole. During this time, Washington took his seat with the Virginia delegation and acted just like any other delegate. In this role, Washington was free to debate just like any other delegate. Even so, the general mostly kept his mouth shut. He only rose to speak once during the entire convention, and it was on a relatively minor point near the end of the convention.
Washington knew that his name and reputation gave his words far more power than he would have liked. He did not want to be seen as bullying the delegates. Even simply by arguing a point just like any other delegate, he words would have more power and receive more deference than any other delegate would get. Instead, he kept a low profile. This is not to say that he never expressed an opinion. Washington regularly spent time outside of the convention, speaking informally with other delegates and sharing his opinion on things. He just didn’t want to be seen as dominating the debate at the convention itself. While the delegates debated in the Committee of the Whole, Washington tried to stay above the fray.
Gorham of Massachusetts was a long time legislator, serving in the Provincial Congress and the Massachusetts legislature. He was also a delegate at the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention and a state judge. Gorham had also recently served as President of the Continental Congress.
The selection of Gorham appears to have been pretty uncontroversial, and perhaps decided in outside discussions ahead of time. The vote was seven to one, with the one vote going to John Rutledge of South Carolina. The vote was taken in secret, but I’ve seen other historians speculate that the vote for Rutledge came from Gorham himself, just to appear humble and keep the vote from being unanimous.
Once Gorham took his seat at the head of the convention, the Committee of the Whole took up the Virginia Plan as the matter under debate.
Next week: we will dive into that debate, and will cover the most controversial issue that the convention would face.
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Next Episode 347 Constitutional Convention's Biggest Fight
Previous Episode 345 Planning a Constitutional Convention
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Further Reading
Websites
William Jackson: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/major-william-jackson
The Virginia Plan: https://www.senate.gov/civics/common/generic/Virginia_Plan_item.htm
The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Revolution in Government https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/white-papers/the-constitutional-convention-of-1787-a-revolution-in-government
The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Day by Day Account: https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/stories-constitutionalconvention.htm
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Adams, John A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States, London: C. Dilly, 1787:
Brant, Irving James Madison: Father of the Constitution, 1787-1800. Bobbs-Merrill Co. 1950 (borrow only).
Donovan, Frank R. Mr. Madison’s Constitution: The Story Behind the Constitutional Convention, New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1965 (borrow only)
Farrand, Max (ed) The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol 3, Yale Univ. Press, 1911.
Ford, Worthington, Chauncey The Federal Constitution in Virginia, 1787-1788. Cambridge: University Press, 1903.
Jameson, J. Franklin Studies in the History of the Federal Convention of 1787, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903.
Madison, James Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, Ohio Univ. Press, 1966.
McMaster, John Bach (ed) Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution: 1787-1788, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1888.
Richardson, Hamilton P. The Journal of the Federal Convention of 1787 Analyzed, San Francisco: Murdock Press, 1899.
Scott, James B. James Madison's notes of debates in the Federal convention of 1787, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1918.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Amar, Akhil Reed America’s Constitution: A Biography, Random House 2005.
Beeman, Richard R. Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution, Random House, 2009.
Bowen, Catherine Drinker Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, Little, Brown & Co. 1966 (borrow at archive.org).
Collier, Christopher Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787, Random House, 1986 (borrow at archive.org).
Morris, Richard B. Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay and the Constitution, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1985.
Rossiter, Clinton 1787: The Grand Convention, Macmillan Co. 1966 (borrow on archive.org).
Smith, Page The Constitution: A Documentary and Narrative History, Morrow Quill, 1978.
Stewart, David O. The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, Simon & Schuster, 2007.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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