South Carolina, Georgia, aye-9; Connecticut, Maryland, no-2.

Mr. MADISON moved to amend the next part of the clause so as to read, "reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, under the rank of general officers."

Mr. SHERMAN considered this as absolutely inadmissible. He said that if the people should be so far asleep as to allow the most influential officers of the militia to be appointed by the General Government, every man of discernment would rouse them by sounding the alarm to them.

Mr. GERRY. Let us at once destroy the State Governments, have an Executive for life or hereditary, and a proper Senate; and then there would be some consistency in giving full powers to the General Government: but as the States are not to be abolished, he wondered at the attempts that were made to give powers inconsistent with their existence. He warned the Convention against pushing

the experiment too far. Some people will support a plan of vigorous government at every risk. Others, of a more democratic cast, will oppose it with equal determination; and a civil war may be produced by the conflict.

Mr. MADISON. As the greatest danger is that of disunion of the States, it is necessary to guard against it by sufficient powers to the common government; and as the greatest danger to liberty is from large standing armies, it is best to prevent them by an effectual provision for a good militia.

On the question to agree to Mr. MADISON'S motion,-New Hampshire, South Carolina, Geor

gia,* aye-3; Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, no-8.

On the question to agree to the "reserving to the States the appointment of the officers"-it was agreed to, nem. con.

On the question on the clause, " and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by the United States,"

New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, aye-7; Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, no-4.

On the question to agree to Article 7, Section 7, as reported, it passed, nem. con.

328

Mr. PINCKNEY urged the necessity of preserving foreign ministers, and other officers of the United States, independent of external influence; and moved to insert after Article 7, Section 7, the clause following: "No person holding any office of trust or profit under the United States shall, without the consent of the Legislature, accept of any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign State;" which passed, nem. con.

Mr. RUTLEDGE moved to amend Article 8; to read as follows: "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and all the treaties made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the several States and of their citizens and inhabitants; and the Judges of the several States shall be bound

* In the printed Journal, Georgia, no.

thereby in their decisions, any thing in the Constitutions or laws of the several States to the contrary. notwithstanding;" which was agreed to, nem. con. Article 9, being next for consideration,—

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS argued against the appointment of officers by the Senate. He considered the body as too numerous for that purpose; as subject to cabal; and as devoid of responsibility. If Judges were to be tried by the Senate, according to a late Report of a Committee, it was particularly wrong to let the Senate have the filling of vacancies which its own decrees were to create.

Mr. WILSON was of the same opinion, and for like

reasons.

Article 9, being waved, and Article 7, Section 1, being resumed,

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS moved to strike the following words out of the eighteenth clause, "enforce treaties," as being superfluous, since treaties were to be" laws," which was agreed to, nem. con.

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS moved to alter the first part of the eighteenth clause, so as to read, "to provide for calling forth the militia, to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions," which was agreed to, nem. con.

On the question then to agree to the eighteenth clause of Article 7, Sect. 1, as amended, it passed in the affirmative, nem. con.

Mr. CHARLES PINCKNEY moved to add, as an additional power, to be vested in the Legislature of the United States, "to negative all laws passed by the several States interfering, in the opinion of the Legislature, with the general interests and harmony of

the Union; provided that two-thirds of the members of each House assent to the same." This principle, he observed, had formerly been agreed to. He considered the precaution as essentially necessary. The objection drawn from the predominance of the large States had been removed by the equality established in the Senate.

Mr. BROOM Seconded the proposition.

Mr. SHERMAN thought it unnecessary; the laws of the General Government being supreme and paramount to the State laws, according to the plan as it now stands.

Mr. MADISON proposed that it should be committed. He had been from the beginning a friend to the principle; but thought the modification might be made better.

Mr. MASON wished to know' how the power was to be exercised. Are all laws whatever to be brought up? Is no road nor bridge to be established without the sanction of the General Legislature? Is this to sit constantly in order to receive and revise the State laws? He did not mean, by these remarks, to condemn the expedient; but he was apprehensive that great objections would lie against it.

Mr. WILLIAMSON thought it unnecessary; and having been already decided, a revival of the question was a waste of time.

Mr. WILSON Considered this as the key-stone wanted to complete the wide arch of government we are raising. The power of self-defence had been urged as necessary for the State Governments. It was equally necessary for the General Government. The firmness

of Judges is not of itself sufficient. Something further is requisite. It will be better to prevent the passage of an improper law, than to declare it void when passed.

Mr. RUTLEDGE. If nothing else, this alone would damn, and ought to damn, the Constitution. Will any State ever agree to be bound hand and foot in this manner? It is worse than making mere corporations of them, whose by-laws would not be subject to this shackle.

Mr. ELLSWORTH observed, that the power contended for would require, either that all laws of the State Legislatures should, previously to their taking effect, be transmitted to the General Legislature, or be repealable by the latter; or that the State Executives should be appointed by the General Government, and have a control over the State laws. If the last was meditated, let it be declared.

Mr. PINCKNEY declared, that he thought the State Executives ought to be so appointed, with such a control; and that it would be so provided if another Convention should take place.

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS did not see the utility or practicability of the proposition of Mr. PINCKNEY, but wished it to be referred to the consideration of a Committee.

Mr. LANGDON was in favor of the proposition. He considered it as resolvable into the question, whether the extent of the National Constitution was to be judged of by the General or the State Governments.

On the question for commitment, it passed in the negative,

New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary