September 15, 1787: The Constitution Approved, Three Dissenting

James Madison by Charles Willson Peale, 1783 (Library of Congress), and Madison's voting record of the Convention (National Archives).

"On the question to agree to the Constitution, as amended, all the States, aye."
— James Madison's notes

Saturday, September 15, 1787

The Convention's longest and last full day: the delegates worked through the rest of the Committee of Style's second draft, mostly making small changes.

No address, no new seats

• Carroll (MD) moved for a committee to write an address to the people to go with the Constitution. Rutledge (SC) and Sherman (CT) said it would be improper before Congress acted — and Rutledge, like many, wanted to go home. Lost.
• Langdon (NH) moved an extra Representative each for North Carolina and Rhode Island. Sherman backed one for North Carolina; King (MA) objected to the delay and said he wouldn't sign if Rhode Island got more; Charles Pinckney (SC) and Bedford (DE) were in favor. Voted separately, each lost 5–6.

The Convention went on section by section, with several changes about trade.

No other pay for the President

Rutledge and Franklin (PA) moved to bar the President from taking "any other emolument" — beyond the salary Congress sets — from the U.S. treasury or any state while in office. Passed 7–4; Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and North Carolina no.

Pardons for treason

Randolph (VA) moved to strip the President's power to pardon treason: a President might pardon co-conspirators in a treasonous plot. Mason (VA) seconded.

• Wilson (PA): the President should pardon all offenses; a traitorous President can be impeached, removed and then prosecuted.
• King: have the Senate concur in pardons. Randolph wanted no more ties between Senate and President, and Mason thought the Senate too powerful already.

Failed 2–9, only Virginia and Georgia in favor.

Appointing lesser officers

Gouverneur Morris (PA), seconded by Sherman and backed by Madison, moved to let Congress allow the President, "the courts of law" or department heads to appoint inferior officers without Senate approval. It tied 5–5–1 and failed — but since many thought it essential to good government, a second vote was pressed, and it passed unanimously.

Slavery's wording

"Person legally held to service or labor in one State" — a euphemism for enslaved Americans — became "person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof." Antislavery delegates objected that "legally" implied slavery was morally just.

Amendments and the Senate

After a long tussle over the amendment process, with motion after motion failing, the one real change passed unanimously: "that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate."

Three who would not sign

As the day closed, Randolph, Mason and Gerry explained their opposition.

• Randolph: almost apologetic; Congress had too much power. He moved for a second convention and would not yet say how he'd stand in Virginia's ratifying convention.
• Mason, seconding: the government would "end either in monarchy, or a tyrannical aristocracy." "This Constitution had been formed without the knowledge or idea of the people.... It was improper to say to the people, take this or nothing." He would oppose it in Virginia.
• Gerry (MA) listed his objections:
• • Senators could be reelected and served too long.
  • The House could keep its records secret.
  • Congress could regulate where elections were held.
  • Congress set its own pay.
  • Massachusetts deserved more Representatives.
  • Enslaved Americans counted at three-fifths for representation, though not citizens.
  • Congress could create commercial monopolies.
  • The Vice President presided over the Senate.

Charles Pinckney answered them: "Conventions are serious things, and ought not to be repeated." He "was not without objections, as well as others, to the plan" — the President too weak, Congress too strong on trade — but the chaos, perhaps civil war, of failing to adopt it made him support it.

The votes

From Madison's notes:

"On the question, on the proposition of Mr. RANDOLPH, [the motion for a second convention] all the States answered, no.
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On the question to agree to the Constitution, as amended, all the States, aye.
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The Constitution was then ordered to be engrossed, and the House
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Adjourned."

The delegates today

• Mifflin (PA) went with local resident Jacob Hiltzheimer "to see the Camel advertised in Shippen's Alley between Walnut and Spruce Streets, gave 1/6 each for seeing him."
• Johnson (CT) dined at City Tavern at 6 o'clock.
• Washington (VA) wrote: "Concluded the business of Convention, all to signing the proceedings; to effect which the House sat till 6 o'clock; and adjourned till Monday that the Constitution which it was proposed to offer to the People might be engrossed and a number of printed copies struck off." He dined and spent the evening at Robert Morris's (PA), and wrote Philadelphia merchant Clement Biddle about the price of the best Dutch striped blankets and their accounts.
• Madison, readying to return to the Confederation Congress in New York, borrowed $100 from Blair (VA), who was heading home with some expense money left.
• Fitzsimons (PA) asked Noah Webster to start writing for the new federal system.
• Dickinson (DE) sent Read (DE) two notes: a headache had kept him away the day before and he was leaving for home, so he enclosed a bank bill for his share of the delegates' dinner at City Tavern for their Philadelphia hosts — then, on second thought, asked Read to sign for him if the delegates signed the Constitution.

Philadelphia: cool and pleasant.

The series: The Constitutional Convention: A Day-by-Day Account for September 1787 · previous: September 14, 1787: All the Possibilities · next: September 16, 1787: A Final Recess

Sources

Based on "September 15, 1787: Unanimity and Dissent," 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. Peale's portrait (Library of Congress) and Madison's voting record (National Archives) are in the public domain.