Constitutional Convention. Remarks on the Ineligibility of Members of the House of Representatives for Other Offices, [23 June 1787]
Constitutional Convention. Remarks on the
Ineligibility of Members of the House of Representatives
for Other Offices1
[Philadelphia, June 23, 1787]
Mr. Hamilton.2 Evasions cd. not be prevented—as by proxies—by friends holding for a year, & them opening the way &c.
, 155.
1. Robert Yates’s version of H’s speech reads: “The clause may be evaded many ways. Offices may be held by proxy—they may be procured by friends, &c” ( , 161).
2. Near the close of debate on June 22, the Convention again took up a proposal that members of the lower branch of the legislature be declared ineligible for office for a year after the expiration of the term for which they had been elected, a proposal on which H had spoken on June 22. See “Constitutional Convention. Remarks on the Ineligibility of Members of the First Branch of the Legislature for Other Offices,” of that date.
Before H spoke, George Mason argued that he thought the proposal “essential to guard agst. evasions by resignations, and stipulations for office to be fulfilled at the expiration of the legislative term” (
, 155).