August 14, 1787: Congress, Other Offices and Congressional Pay

Roger Sherman, by an unidentified artist after Ralph Earl. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

"The Constitution should lay as few temptations as possible in the way of those in power."
— Roger Sherman

Tuesday, August 14, 1787

Can members of Congress hold other offices?

Article VI, Section 9 of the draft barred members of both houses from holding any federal office during their terms, and Senators for one year after. The aim: keep the branches separate (no Senator-judges, no Representatives in the President's administration) and prevent corruption (no creating well-paid, useless offices and then filling them).

• Charles Pinckney (SC) called it degrading — voters had shown their trust — and inconvenient, keeping the best men out of office. He moved to bar members only from paid offices, and only while serving; Mifflin (PA) seconded.
• Against: Mason (VA) — who sarcastically suggested dropping the whole section to encourage "exotic corruption" — Gerry (MA), Sherman (CT) and Ellsworth (CT). Williamson (NC) had "scarcely seen a single corrupt measure in the Legislature of North Carolina, which could not be traced up to office hunting."
• For: Mercer (MD), who feared a weak President without members of Congress in his administration; Wilson (PA); and Gouverneur Morris (PA): "Put the case of a war, and the citizen most capable of conducting it happening to be a member of the Legislature." He hinted at Washington, chosen to lead the Continental Army in 1775 while a member of the Continental Congress: "What might have been the consequence of such a regulation at the commencement, or even in the course, of the late contest for our liberties?"

Pinckney's motion failed on a 5–5–1 tie (New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia for; Georgia divided).

Morris, seconded by Broom (DE), moved an exception for Army and Navy offices; Randolph (VA) said it was the one exemption he might accept. Butler (SC) and Pinckney moved to postpone the whole section until the Senate's powers were settled — unanimously agreed.

Who pays Congress?

Article VI, Section 10 had members "paid by their respective States," as under the Confederation.

• Ellsworth changed his mind — "too much dependence on the States would be produced by this mode of payment" — and moved a fixed salary, adjusted for inflation, from the federal treasury.
• Supporting: Gouverneur Morris, Langdon (NH), Madison, Mason, Broom, Sherman and Dickinson (DE). Sherman, one of the few delegates of working-class background, feared pay would be set too low, "so that men ever so fit could not serve unless they were at the same time rich"; he favored a moderate national salary the states could supplement. Carroll (MD): "The States can now say: If you do not comply with our wishes, we will starve you."
• Opposed: Butler and Luther Martin (MD) liked giving states that leverage. Gerry saw merit on both sides.

Federal pay passed 9–2 (Massachusetts and South Carolina against). After some haggling and failed motions over the amount, the Convention unanimously left it to Congress.

The delegates today

• Gerry wrote his wife again — her health, social gossip, family business.
• Henry Knox wrote Washington from Massachusetts. He hadn't written sooner for fear a leak of Convention business might be blamed on Washington; now he backed the new government as the best attainable, though he wished it stronger. He seemed better informed than the secrecy rule allowed — probably through King (MA) or perhaps Gorham (MA), certainly not the scrupulous Washington. He also wrote: "Mrs. Knox and myself recently sustained the severe affliction of losing our youngest child of most eleven months old.... This is the third time that Mrs. Knox has had her tenderest affections lacerated by the rigid hand of death." Of the Knoxes' twelve children, only three outlived their parents.
• Thomas Jefferson wrote Washington from Paris about European politics and the statue of Washington he had commissioned from Jean-Antoine Houdon, agreeing with Washington's wish to be shown in modern dress — people insisting on togas were "an object of ridicule."
• Mifflin attended the Society of Home Manufacture.

Philadelphia: hot, in the high 80s.

The series: The Constitutional Convention: A Day-by-Day Account for August 1 to 15, 1787 · previous: August 13, 1787: Immigrants as Representatives · next: August 15, 1787: The Veto

Sources

Based on "August 14, 1787: Preventing Corruption," The Constitutional Convention: A Day-by-Day Account, Independence National Historical Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The portrait (National Portrait Gallery) is in the public domain.