2 SECRET PROCEEDINGS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. The Genuine Information, delivered to the Legislature of the State of Maryland, relative to the Proceedings of the General Convention, held at Philadelphia, in 1787, by LUTHER MARTIN, Esquire, Attorney General of Maryland, and one of the Delegates in the said Conven tion. To the Hon. THOMAS COCKEY DEYE, Speaker of the SIR, I FLATTER myself the subject of this letter will be a sufficient apology for thus publicly addressing it to you, and through you to the other members of the house of delegates. It cannot have escaped your or their recollection, that when called upon as the servant of a free state, to render an account of those transactions in which I had had a share, in consequence of the trust reposed in me by that state, among other things, I informed them," that some time in July, the honorable Mr. Yates and Mr. Lansing of New-York, left the convention; that they had uniformly opposed the system, and that I believe, despairing of getting a proper one brought forward, or of rendering any real service, they returned no more. You cannot, sir, have forgot, for the incident was too remarkable not to have made some impression, that upon B 99 my giving this information, the zeal of one of my honorable colleagues, in favor of a system which I thought it my duty to oppose, impelled him to interrupt me, and in a manner which I am confident his zeal alone prevented him from being convinced was not the most delicate, to insinuate pretty strongly, that the statement which I had given of the conduct of those gentlemen, and their motives for not returning, were not candid. Those honorable members have officially given information on this subject, by a joint letter to his excellency governor Clinton-it is published. Indulge me, sir, in giving an extract from it, that it may stand contrasted in the same page with the information I gave, and may convict me of the want of candor of which I was charged, if the charge was just-if it will not do that, then let it silence my accusers. "Thus circumstanced, under these impressions, to have hesitated would have been to be culpable-we therefore gave the principles of the constitution, which has received the sanction of a majority of the convention, our decided and unreserved dissent. We were not present at the completion of the new constitution; but before we left the convention, its principles were so well established as to convince us, that no alteration was to be expected to conform it to our ideas of expediency and safety. A persuasion that our further attendance would be fruitless and unavailing rendered us less solicitous to return." These, sir, are their words; on this I shall make no comment; I wish not to wound the feelings of any person, I only wish to convince. I have the honor to remain, Your very obedient servant, LUTHER MARTIN. BALTIMORE, January 27, 1788. Mr. MARTIN, when called upon, addressed the house nearly as follows: SINCE I was notified of the resolve of this honorable house, that we should attend this day, to give information with regard to the proceedings of the late convention, my time has necessarily been taken up with business, and I have also been obliged to make a journey to the Eastern Shore: These circumstances have prevented me from being as well prepared as I could wish, to give the information required-However, the few leisure moments I could spare, I have devoted to refreshing my memory, by looking over the papers and notes in my possession; and shall with pleasure, to the best of my abilities, render an account of my conduct. It was not in my power to attend the convention immediately on my appointment-I took my scat, I believe, about the 8th or 9th of June. I found that governor Randolph, of Virginia, had laid before the convention certain propositions for their consideration, which have been read to this house by my honorable colleague, and I believe, he has very faithfully detailed the substance of the speech with which the business of the convention was opened, for though I was not there at the time, I saw notes which had been taken of it. The members of the convention from the states, came there under different powers; the greatest number, I believe, under powers nearly the same, as those of the delegates of this state-Some came to the convention under the former appointment, authorising the meeting of delegates merely to regulate trade. Those of Delaware were expressly instructed to agree to no system which should take away from the states, that equality of suffrage secured by the original articles of confederation. Before I arrived, a number of rules had been adopted to regulate the proceedings of the convention, by one of which, seven states might proceed to business, and consequently four states, the majority of that number, might eventually have agreed upon a system which was to affect the whole union. By another, the doors were to be shut, and the whole proceedings were to be kept secret; and so far did this rule extend, that we were thereby prevented from corresponding with gentlemen in the different states upon the subjects under our discussion-a circumstance, sir, which I confess I greatly regretted-i had no idea, that all the wisdom, integrity, and virtue of this state, or of the others, were centered in the convention-I wished to have corresponded freely, and confidentially, with eminent political characters in my own, and other states, not implicitly to be dictated to by them, but to give their sentiments due weight and consideration. So extremely solicitous were they, that their proceedings should not transpire, that the members were prohibited even from taking copies of resolutions, on which the convention were deliberating, or extracts of any kind from the journals without formally moving for, and obtaining permission, by a vote of the convention for that purpose. You have heard, sir, the resolutions which were brought forward by the honorable member from Virginia ; let me call the attention of this house to the conduct of Virginia, when our confederation was entered into-that state then proposed, and obstinately contended, contrary to the sense of, and unsupported by, the other states, for an inequality of suffrage founded on numbers, or some such scale which should give her, and certain other states, influence in the union over the rest; pursuant to that spirit which then characterized her, and uniform in her conduct, the very second resolve, is calculated expressly for that purpose to give her a representation proportioned to her numbers, as if the want of that was the principal defect in our original system, and this alteration the great means of remedying the evils we had experienced under our present government. The object of Virginia, and other large states, to encrease their power and influence over the others, did not escape observation: the subject, however, was discussed with great coolness in the committee of the whole house (for the convention had resolved itself into a committee of the whole to deliberate upon the propositions delivered in by the honorable member from Virginia) Hopes were formed, that the farther we proceeded in the examination of the resolutions the better the house might be satisfied of the impropriety of adopting them, and that they would finally be rejected by a majority of the committee; if on the contrary, a majority should report in their favour, it was considered, that it would not preclude the members from bringing forward and submitting any other system to the consideration of the convention; and accordingly, while those resolves were the subject of discussion in the committee of the whole house, a number of the members who disapproved them, were preparing another system, such as they thought more conducive to the happiness and welfare of the states—The propositions originally submitted to the convention having been debated, and undergone a variety of alterations in the course of our proceedings, the committee of the whole house by a small majority agreed to a report, which I am happy, sir, to have in my power to lay before you; it was as follows : ་ 1 Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that a national government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislative, judiciary and executive. 2. That the legislative ought to consist of two branches. 3. That the members of the first branch of the national legislature ought to be elected by the people of the several states, for the term of three years, to receive fixed stipends, by which they may be compensated for the devotion of their time to public service, to be paid out of the |