August 30, 1787: Self-Governance

Part of the National Park Service's day-by-day account of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, August 16 to 31, 1787.

James Wilson, by Jean Pierre Henri Elouis, 1792. Smithsonian American Art Museum.

"Nothing... would give greater or juster alarm than the doctrine, that a political society is to be torn asunder without its own consent."
— James Wilson

In the Convention: Thursday, August 30, 1787

Dividing states

The debate on admitting new states went on.

• Carroll (Maryland), seconded by Luther Martin (Maryland), moved that Congress could divide a state without its legislature's consent. Rutledge (South Carolina) opposed it, and so did Williamson (North Carolina): his state was willing to give up its western lands (today's Tennessee), but compulsion was not the way. It failed 3–8, with New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland in favour.
• The delegates wanted a way for Vermont — claimed by New York but in practice self-governing — to join if New York rejected the Constitution. After much wrangling over wording, it passed.
• Martin pressed for others seeking self-government, such as Maine (then part of Massachusetts) and the western lands of the southern states. Recalling Gouverneur Morris's threat the day before that the large states would abandon the Constitution rather than be broken up, he answered with his own: the small states would abandon it if it forced them to guarantee the borders of large states that denied their territories autonomy. His motion drew no more support than Carroll's.

After more work on the wording for western lands ceded by Britain in the Treaty of Paris, the Convention moved on.

Insurrections

The draft let the federal government put down an insurrection against a state only if the state's legislature asked. Some thought that unwise — what if the legislature itself rebelled, or could not meet? The only real change was to let a state's executive ask too.

Oaths and religious tests

• The draft's Article XX bound federal and state legislators, executives and judges by oath to support the Constitution. The Convention added "or affirmation", so religious minorities who would not swear vows could serve.
• Charles Pinckney (South Carolina) moved to add: "but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the authority of the United States." It passed unanimously, and Article XX as a whole passed with only North Carolina against and Maryland divided.

How many states to ratify?

Article XXI said the Constitution would take effect after ratification by "—" states.

• Wilson (Pennsylvania) proposed seven, a bare majority. Sherman (Connecticut) favoured ten and Randolph (Virginia) nine, which moved Wilson to eight. Gouverneur Morris (Pennsylvania) proposed a complicated scheme in which the number depended on how quickly ratifications came in.
• Dickinson (Delaware) raised the deeper questions: would the Confederation Congress have to consent? Could it consent to a Constitution that abolished it? What of states that refused?
• Madison feared enough states might ratify without the large ones, binding most Americans to a government they had not accepted. Wilson said only ratifying states would be bound — and anyway the situation was desperate: "The house on fire must be extinguished, without a scrupulous regard to ordinary rights."
• Butler (South Carolina) hated the thought of one or two states wrecking the plan for the rest, while Carroll argued that all thirteen must ratify, since unanimity had created the Confederation and was needed to dissolve it.

They adjourned without deciding.

In short

• States could be divided only with their legislatures' consent.
• Religious minorities and non-believers were guaranteed the right to hold federal office: no religious test, and affirmation allowed in place of an oath.
• No agreement yet on how many states must ratify.

The delegates' day

• Johnson (Connecticut) dined at Wilson's and sat again for Robert Edge Pine, who was painting his portrait.
• For the third day running, Washington (Virginia) dined and spent the evening with his hosts, Mary and Robert Morris.
• Dickinson, 54 and famously proper, was still writing love letters to Mary Norris Dickinson, his wife of 17 years: "I love you with the tenderest Affection."
• Gerry (Massachusetts) wrote to his wife that he was uneasy at having no letter by the last post and worried about her fainting — and was determined to leave no stone unturned to stop measures he thought would have fatal consequences, meaning ratification of the Constitution.
• Rev. John Lathrop of Boston's Second Church sent Franklin a discourse given before the Humane Society.

Philadelphia today

• Pleasant and cool after morning rain; late in the day, heavy gusts with thunder and lightning until 8 p.m.
• The Independent Gazette advertised for James, a 13-year-old boy of mixed race and a house servant, who had run away from Robert Shewell of Water Street on Sunday, August 26, offering a three-dollar reward for his return.

Sources

• National Park Service, Independence National Historical Park, "August 30, 1787: Self-governance," from The Constitutional Convention: A Day by Day Account for August 16 to 31, 1787. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/constitutionalconvention-august30.htm
• Quotations are from the Convention's records and letters of 1787; the rest is rewritten in hubnx's own words.