Salaries for Members of the First Branch of the Legislature, [12 June] 1787
Salaries for Members of
the First Branch of the Legislature
[12 June 1787]
The clause of the fourth resolution providing for the members “to receive liberal stipends” was under consideration.
Mr. Madison moves to insert the words “& fixt.” He observed that it would be improper to leave the members of the Natl. legislature to be provided for by the State Legisls: because it would create an improper dependence; and to leave them to regulate their own wages, was an indecent thing, and might in time prove a dangerous one. He thought wheat or some other article of which the average price throughout a reasonable period precedn’g might be settled in some convenient mode, would form a proper standard.1
Ms (DLC).
1. JM and Jefferson were convinced that wheat was the most suitable standard for fixing salaries. Jefferson had proposed the equivalent of two bushels as a proper daily wage for state legislators in 1783, and JM suggested a salary scale based on “the medium value of wheat” for the Kentucky constitution in 1785 ( , VI, 297; , VIII, 351).