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New York Ratifying Convention. Second Speech of June 23, [23 June 1788]

New York Ratifying Convention
Second Speech of June 23

[Poughkeepsie, New York, June 23, 1788]

Mr. Hamilton. I recollect well the alteration which the gentleman alludes to;1 but, it by no means militates against my idea of the principles on which the convention acted at the time the report of the committee was under deliberation. This alteration did not take place till the convention was near rising, and the business compleated; when his excellency the president expressing a wish that the number should be reduced to thirty thousand; it was agreed to without opposition.2

Childs, Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New-York description begins The Debates and Proceedings of the State of New-York, Assembled at Poughkeepsie, on the 17th June, 1788. To deliberate and decide on the Form of Federal Government recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, on the 17th September, 1787. Taken in Short Hand (New York: Printed and Sold by Francis Childs, 1788). description ends , 51.

1. John Lansing, Jr., had asked H the following question:

“I will enter no further into a discussion of the motives of the convention; but there is one point in which the gentleman and myself do not agree. The committee of details recommended an equality in the senate: In addition to this, it was proposed that every forty thousand should send one representative to the general legislature. Sir, if it was a system of accomodation, and to remain untouched, how came that number afterwards to be reduced to thirty thousand?” (Childs, Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New-York description begins The Debates and Proceedings of the State of New-York, Assembled at Poughkeepsie, on the 17th June, 1788. To deliberate and decide on the Form of Federal Government recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, on the 17th September, 1787. Taken in Short Hand (New York: Printed and Sold by Francis Childs, 1788). description ends , 51.)

2. On the last day of the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787, Nathaniel Gorham, delegate from Massachusetts, made a motion that the ratio of representation in the lower house be changed from one for every 40,000 inhabitants to one for every 30,000. George Washington, the presiding officer of the Convention, in putting the motion before the Convention recommended that it be adopted. The change was unanimously agreed to (Hunt and Scott, Debates description begins Gaillard Hunt and James Brown Scott, eds., The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 Which Framed the Constitution of the United States of America. Reported by James Madison (New York, 1920). description ends , 579–80).

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    Hamilton Papers
    Title
    New York Ratifying Convention. Second Speech of June 23, [23 June 1788]
    Authors
    Hamilton, Alexander
    Childs, Francis
    Date
    23 June 1788

    Reference

    Cite as
    “New York Ratifying Convention. Second Speech of June 23, [23 June 1788],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-05-02-0012-0021. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 5, June 1788 – November 1789, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1962, pp. 64–65.]