History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States Volume II Part 18

[237] August 22. Ibid. 462.

[238] See the proceedings which took place, August 22, 24, and 25.

Elliot, V. 462, 463, 464, 471, 475-477.

[239] Elliot, V. 476, 477. Mr. Madison says, "This proposition, as being unnecessary, was disagreed to"; that is, unnecessary as a security of the _old debts_ of the United States.

[240] Ibid. 506, 507.

[241] Elliot, V. 478, 479.

[242] Const.i.tution, Art. I. --9. See the proceedings which took place on the proposition of the Maryland delegates. Elliot, V. 478, 479, 483, 502, 545.

[243] Elliot, V. 543. Const.i.tution, Art. I. -- 8, clause 1.

[244] Elliot, V. 439.

[245] Ibid. 506, 507.

[246] Ibid. 434. Journal, Elliot, I. 245.

[247] See the debate, and Mr. Madison's explanation of his vote, Elliot, V. 434, 435, and the note on the latter page.

[248] Const.i.tution, Art. I. -- 8, clause 9.

[249] Ibid., clause 11.

[250] Elliot, V. 436.

[251] That is to say, it is the same crime, committed on the high seas, that is denominated robbery when committed on the land.

[252] Madison, Elliot, V. 436, 437.

[253] In the clause as it pa.s.sed the Convention, the offence of _counterfeiting_ was placed with the other crimes which Congress was to "define" and "punish"; but, on the revision of the Const.i.tution, counterfeiting was placed in a separate clause, under the term "to provide for the punishment of," &c. See Art. I. -- 8, clauses 6, 10.

[254] Elliot, V. 438, 439.

[255] Elliot, V. 440, 510, 511.

[256] Ibid. 442.

[257] Ibid. 443.

[258] Ibid. 440.

[259] Elliot, V. 510, 511. Const.i.tution, Art. 1. -- 8, clause 12.

[260] Elliot, V. 443.

[261] Art. VII. -- 1 of the first draft. Elliot, V. 379.

[262] Ibid. 440.

[263] Aug 18. Elliot, V. 445.

[264] Const.i.tution, Art. I -- 8, cl. 16.

[265] Art. I. -- 8, cl. 15. Ibid. p. 467.

[266] Const.i.tution, Art. I. -- 8, cl. 18.

[267] Elliot, V. 447.

[268] See the statutes of Ma.s.sachusetts and Connecticut, &c. cited in Curtis on Copyright, pp. 77, 78, 79.

[269] _Ante_, Chap. IX.

[270] Elliot, V. 510, 511, 512.

[271] _Ante_, Vol. I. Book III. ch. 5, p. 291 _et seq._

[272] Resolve of October 10, 1780. Journals, VI. 325.

[273] Resolve of April 23, 1784. Journals, IX. 153.

[274] March 16, 1785. Journals, X. 79. See _ante_, Vol. I. p. 299.

[275] See the note on the authors.h.i.+p of the Ordinance of 1787, in the Appendix to this volume.

[276] _Ante_, Chap. IV. p. 77, note.

[277] See the proceedings concerning Kentucky, in 1788. Journals, XIII. 16, 32, 51, 52, 55.

[278] The Federalist, No. 38.

[279] The pa.s.sage quoted from Mr. Jefferson, _ante_, p. 77, also shows that strong doubts were felt in Congress, in 1784, respecting their power to admit new States formed out of unoccupied territory. Indeed, the whole of the proceedings upon Mr. Jefferson's measure of April 23, 1784, show that the powers of Congress over the territory that had been acquired under the cession of Virginia were very variously regarded by the different delegates. See Journals, IX. 138-156. The State of South Carolina voted against the resolve on its final pa.s.sage, and after it had been modified to meet some of the objections raised.

[280] I think we are to understand Mr. Madison's a.s.sertion in the Federalist,--that what had been done by Congress in relation to the Northwestern Territory was without const.i.tutional authority,--to mean, that it had been done without the authority of any proper const.i.tutional provision. Mr. Madison himself, being a member of Congress in 1783, voted for the acceptance of a report, by the adoption of which Congress settled the conditions on which the cession of Virginia was to be received by the United States. These conditions embraced the whole of the three fundamental points, that the territory should be held and disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, that it should be divided into States, and that those States should be admitted into the Union. So that Mr. Madison was a party to the arrangement by which Congress undertook to hold out these promises to the States. (Journals of Congress for September 13, 1783, VIII.

355-359.) But he was not a member of Congress in 1784, when Mr.

Jefferson's measure was adopted; and although he was a member in 1787, when the Ordinance was adopted, he was at that time in attendance upon the national Convention, and consequently never voted upon the Ordinance. His partic.i.p.ation in the proceedings of the Convention, by which the necessary power was created, shows his sense of its necessity.

[281] See especially the cession by Virginia, of March 1, 1784.

Journals of Congress, IX. 67. Cession by Ma.s.sachusetts, April 19, 1785. Journals, X. 128. Cession by Connecticut, September 13, 1786.

Journals, XI. 221. Also the resolve of Congress pa.s.sed, in antic.i.p.ation of these cessions, October 10, 1780. Journals, VI. 325.

[282] Resolution 10. Madison, Elliot, V. 128.

[283] Art. XVII. of the draft prepared by the committee of detail.

Elliot, V. 381.