1[Diary entry: 21 June 1787] (Washington Papers)
Thursday 21st. Attended Convention. Dined at Mr. Pragers, and spent the evening in my Chamber. Mr. Prager is probably Mark Prager, Sr., a member of the Jewish mercantile family that came to Philadelphia shortly after the Revolution. The firm, at first called Pragers, Liebaert & Co., was some time before 1791 changed to Pragers & Co. GW had written William Fitzhugh on 23 July 1784 introducing...
2Constitutional Convention. Remarks in Support of a Three-Year Term for Members of the House of Representatives, [21 June … (Hamilton Papers)
Col. Hamilton urged the necessity of 3 years. There ought to be neither too much nor too little dependence, on the popular sentiments. The checks in the other branches of Governt. would be but feeble, and would need every auxiliary principle that could be interwoven. The British House of Commons were elected septennially, yet the democratic spirit of ye. Constitution had not ceased. Frequency...
3[Diary entry: 21 June 1787] (Washington Papers)
Thursday 21st. Dined at Mr. Pragers and spent the evening in my own room.
4To Thomas Jefferson from Richard Claiborne, 21 June 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I am sorry to Give your Excellency trouble, which I have done in one or two late instances, and particularly so now, as it is on an occasion of a peculiar nature. I write in a confidential manner, meaning nothing further for the present than a private communication; as it relates to a subject in which my interest is materially involved, and yet I mean no further promulgation of the matter than...
5From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 21 June 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of addressing you in a letter of May 4. from Marseilles which was to have gone by the last packet; but it arrived a few hours too late for that conveiance, and has been committed to a private one passing thro’ England, with a promise that it should go thro’ no post office. I was desirous, while at the seaports, to obtain a list of the American vessels which have come to them...
6Election of the First Branch of the Legislature, [21 June] 1787 (Madison Papers)
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney moved that the members of the first branch of the legislature “‘instead of being elected by the people, shd. be elected in such manner as the Legislature of each State should direct’” ( Farrand, Records Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (4 vols.; New Haven, 1911–37). , I, 358). Agt. the Election by the Legislatures and in favor of one...
7Constitutional Convention. Remarks on the Organization of the House of Representatives, [21 June 1787] (Hamilton Papers)
Col. Hamilton considered the motion as intended manifestly to transfer the election from the people to the State Legislatures, which would essentially vitiate the plan. It would increase that State influence which could not be too watchfully guarded agst. All too must admit the possibility, in case the Genl. Govt. shd. maintain itself, that the State Govts. might gradually dwindle into...
8From Thomas Jefferson to George Rogers Clark, 21 June 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearers hereof Doctor Saugrain and Monsieur Picque purposing to go to Kentucky to establish themselves, I take the liberty of recommending them to your notice and civilities. The former is recommended to me by a very good friend of mine, as a gentleman of skill in his profession, of general science and merit. The latter is associated with him in the design of procuring a considerable...
9Term of the First Branch of the Legislature, [21 June] 1787 (Madison Papers)
Ellsworth moved to substitute annual for triennial elections in the first branch of the legislature. Mr. Madison was persuaded that annual elections would be extremely inconvenient and apprehensive that biennial would be too much so: he did not mean inconvenient to the electors; but to the representatives. They would have to travel seven or eight hundred miles from the distant parts of the...
10Relationship between Federal and State Governments, [21 June] 1787 (Madison Papers)
Having rejected the New Jersey Plan, the convention now was considering the amended Virginia Plan as reported out of the Committee of the Whole on 13 June. The resolution calling for a legislature with two branches was under debate. Johnson argued the small states’ view that it was necessary to give each state an equal vote in the legislature in order to preserve state sovereignty against the...