Resolution to Select Commissioners for a Federal Convention, 30 November 1786

Resolution to Select Commissioners
for a Federal Convention

In the House of Delegates. Thursday November 30th 17861

Resolved that this house will on Monday next2 proceed by joint Ballot with the Senate, to the Choice of seven Commissioners, to meet such Commissioners as may be appointed by the other States in the Union, at a Convention to be held in the City of Philadelphia in May next, for the Purpose of revising the foederal Constitution.

Ms (Vi). In Beckley’s hand. Docketed on the verso with date and “Reson to ballot for Commrs. Madison.”

1. JM introduced the motion and carried the approved resolution to the Senate on 30 Nov. 1786 (JHDV description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg. Beginning in 1780, the portion after the semicolon reads, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond, In the County of Henrico. The journal for each session has its own title page and is individually paginated. The edition used is the one in which the journals for 1777–1786 are brought together in two volumes, with each journal published in Richmond in either 1827 or 1828 and often called the “Thomas W. White reprint.” description ends , Oct. 1786, p. 68).

2. On 4 Dec. the two branches of the legislature met to elect George Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, John Blair, JM, George Mason, and George Wythe as the commissioners (ibid., pp. 85–86).

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Source Project: Madison Papers
Title: Resolution to Select Commissioners for a Federal Convention, 30 November 1786
Authors: Virginia House of Delegates
Madison, James
Date: 30 November 1786

Reference

Cite as: “Resolution to Select Commissioners for a Federal Convention, 30 November 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-09-02-0093. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 9, 9 April 1786 – 24 May 1787 and supplement 1781–1784, ed. Robert A. Rutland and William M. E. Rachal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1975, p. 187.]