August 10, 1787: Qualifications and Quorums

Part of the National Park Service's day-by-day account of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, August 1787.

Charles Thomson. Independence National Historical Park.

"Since the first Monday in November last the United States have not been represented [in Congress] more than three days by 10 States, thirty days by 9 states, and forty days by 7 and 8 States."
— Charles Thomson, secretary to the Confederation Congress, reporting to the state governments

In the Convention: Friday, August 10, 1787

Should officeholders own property?

The draft let Congress set property qualifications for its members, so the first Congress would meet with none.

• Charles Pinckney (South Carolina) noted that the Committee of Detail had been told to write specific qualifications into the Constitution. Left to Congress, he warned, a rich Congress would set them high and a poor one very low. He wanted the president, judges and legislators to own property — 100,000 pounds for the president, half that for judges, and half again for legislators — and to swear that they held it free of debt. Rutledge (South Carolina), who had chaired the committee, seconded, explaining that it had reported no figure because it could not agree on one.
• Ellsworth (Connecticut) pointed out that a sum that was high in the North would be low in the South, and suggested leaving it to Congress.
• Franklin (Pennsylvania) disliked the whole idea: if honesty often went with wealth and poverty brought temptations, it was just as true that owning property increased the desire for more — "some of the greatest rogues he was ever acquainted with, were the richest rogues." Madison (Virginia) agreed.

Pinckney's motion was rejected by so general a "no" that no roll call was taken.

Quorums and other business

• The Convention agreed to reconsider requiring seven years' citizenship for the House instead of three.
• On the very day Thomson was reporting Congress's poor attendance to the states, the delegates set a quorum for each house of the first Congress at a bare majority, which later Congresses could raise.
• Sections letting each house judge its members' elections and qualifications, setting members' immunities, and letting each house make its rules passed easily. The delegates were debating the requirement to keep journals of proceedings when it was time to adjourn.

In short

• The Convention moved away from requiring federal officeholders to own property.
• With no major controversy, several parts of the draft were approved.

The delegates' day

• Johnson (Connecticut) dined at his boarding house and bought shoes (13 shillings and sixpence), a knife (3 shillings and ninepence — not, to judge from the thick lines in his diary, used to sharpen his quills) and a comb (5 shillings).
• Gerry (Massachusetts), writing to his wife Ann Thompson Gerry as he did every two or three days, passed on advice that Philadelphia in August was unhealthy for babies, so she and their infant should stay in New York. "The President" — probably Washington, the Convention's president, possibly Franklin, president of Pennsylvania — Butler, Langdon, Rutledge and others had asked after her.

Philadelphia today

• After the previous night's storm, a humid, showery day, with a mean temperature of 77°.
• Mathew Carey's American Museum for July went on sale, with letters to and from Franklin on northeast storms, whirlwinds and waterspouts.
• Philip Yost of New Hanover Township, Montgomery County, offered an eight-dollar reward for John Rutter, an apprentice wheelwright who had run away.

Sources

• National Park Service, Independence National Historical Park, "August 10, 1787: Qualifications and Quorums," from The Constitutional Convention: A Day by Day Account. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/constitutionalconvention-august10.htm
• Quotations are from the records and letters of 1787; the rest is rewritten in hubnx's own words.