Mr. WILLIAMSON introduced his opposition to the motion, by referring to the question concerning "money bills." That clause, he said, was dead. Its ghost, he was afraid, would, notwithstanding, haunt us. It had been a matter of conscience with him to insist on it as long as there was hope of retaining it. He had swallowed the vote of rejection with reluctance. He could not digest it.. All that was said on the other side was, that the restriction was not convenient. We have now got a House of Lords which is to originate money bills. To avoid another inconvenience, we are to have a whole legislature at liberty to cut out offices for one another. He thought a self-denying ordinance for ourselves would be more proper. Bad as the Constitution has been made by expunging the restriction on the Senate concerning money bills, he did not wish to make it worse, by expunging the present section. He had scarcely seen a single corrupt measure in the legislature of North Carolina, which could not be traced up to office-hunting.

Mr. SHERMAN. The Constitution should lay as few temptations as possible in the way of those in power. Men of abilities will increase as the country grows more populous, and as the means of education are more diffused.

Mr. PINCKNEY. No state has rendered the members of the legislature ineligible to offices. In South Carolina, the judges are eligible into the legislature. It cannot be supposed, then, that the motion will be offensive to the people. If the state constitutions should be revised, he believed, restrictions of this sort would be rather diminished than multiplied.

Mr. WILSON could not approve of the section as it stood, and could not give up his judgment to any supposed objections that might arise among the people. He considered himself as acting and responsible for the welfare of millions not immediately represented in this House. He had also asked himself the serious question, what he should say to his constituents, in case they should call upon him to tell them why he sacrificed his own judgment in a case where they authorized him to exercise it. Were he to own to them that he sacrificed it in order to flatter their prejudices, he should dread the retort, "Did you suppose the people of Pennsylvania had not good sense enough to receive a good government? Under this im

pression, he should certainly follow his own judgment, which disapproved of the section. He would remark, in addition to the objections urged against it, that, as one branch of the legislature was to be appointed by the legislatures of the states, the other by the people of the states, as both are to be paid by the states, and to be appointable to state offices, nothing seemed to be wanting to prostrate the national legislature, but to render its members ineligible to national offices, and by that means take away its power of attracting those talents which were necessary to give weight to the government, and to render it useful to the people. He was far from thinking the ambition which aspired to offices of dignity and trust an ignoble or culpable one. He

was sure it was not politic to regard it in that light, or to withhold from it the prospect of those rewards which might engage it in the career of public service. He observed that the state of Pennsylvania, which had gone as far as any state into the policy of fettering power, had not rendered the members of the legislature ineligible to offices of government.

Mr. ELLSWORTH did not think the mere postponement of the reward would be any material discouragement of merit. Ambitious minds will serve two years, or seven years, in the legislature, for the sake of qualifying themselves for other offices. This he thought a sufficient security for obtaining the services of the ablest men in the legislature; although, whilst members, they should be ineligible to public offices. Besides, merit will be most encouraged when most impartially rewarded. If rewards are to circulate only within the legislature, merit out of it will be discouraged.

Mr. MERCER was extremely anxious on this point. What led to the appointment of this Convention? The corruption and mutability of the legislative councils of the states. If the plan does not remedy these, it will not recommend itself; and we shall not be able, in our private capacities, to support and enforce it; nor will the best part of our citizens exert themselves for the purpose. It is a great mistake to suppose that the paper we are to propose will govern the United States. It is the men whom it will bring into the government, and interest in maintaining it, that are to govern them. The paper will only mark out the mode and the form. Men are the substance, and must do the business. All government must be by force or influence. It is not the king of France, but 200,000 janizaries of power, that govern that kingdom. There will be no such force here; influence, then, must be substituted; and he would ask, whether this could be done, if the members of the legislature should be ineligible to offices of state; whether such a disqualification would not determine all the most influential men to stay at home, and prefer appointments within their respective states.

Mr. WILSON was by no means satisfied with the answer given by Mr. Ellsworth to the argument, as to the discouragement of merit. The members must either go a second time into the legislature, and disqualify themselves, or say to their constituents, "We served you before only from the mercenary view of qualifying ourselves for offices, and, having answered this purpose, we do not choose to be again elected."

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS put the case of a war, and the citizen most capable of conducting it happening to be a member of the legislature. 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?

On the question for postponing, in order to take up Mr. Pinckney's motion, it was lost.

New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, ay, 5; Massachu

setts, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, no, 5; Georgia, divided.

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS moved to insert, after " office," "except offices in the army or navy; but, in that case, their offices shall be vacated."

Mr. BROOM seconds him.

Mr. RANDOLPH had been, and should continue, uniformly opposed to the striking out of the clause, as opening a door for influence and corruption. No arguments had made any impression on him but those which related to the case of war, and a coëxisting incapacity of the fittest commanders to be employed. He admitted great weight in these, and would agree to the exception proposed by Mr. Gouverneur Morris.

Mr. BUTLER and Mr. PINCKNEY urged a general postponement of article 6, sect. 9, till it should be seen what powers would be vested in the Senate, when it would be more easy to judge of the expediency of allowing the officers of state to be chosen out of that body.

A general postponement was agreed to, nem. con.207

Article 6, sect. 10, was then taken up, "that members be paid by their respective states."

Mr. ELLSWORTH said that, in reflecting on this subject, he had been satisfied that too much dependence on the states would be produced by this mode of payment. He moved to strike it out, and insert, "that they should be paid out of the treasury of the United States an allowance not exceeding dollars per day, or the present value thereof."

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS remarked, that, if the members were to be paid by the states, it would throw an unequal burden on the distant states, which would be unjust, as the legislature was to be a national assembly. He moved that the payment be out of the national treasury, leaving the quantum to the discretion of the national legislature. There could be no reason to fear that they would overpay themselves.

Mr. BUTLER contended for payment by the states, particularly in the case of the Senate, who will be so long out of their respective states that they will lose sight of their constituents, unless dependent on them for their support.

Mr. LANGDON was against payment by the states. There would be some difficulty in fixing the sum, but it would be unjust to oblige the distant states to bear the expense of their members, in travelling to and from the seat of government.

Mr. MADISON. If the House of Representatives is to be chosen biennially, and the Senate to be constantly dependent on the legislatures, which are chosen annually, he could not see any chance for that stability in the general government, the want of which was a principal evil in the state governments. His fear was, that the organization of the government, supposing the Senate to be really inde

pendent for six years, would not effect our purpose. It was nothing more than a combination of the peculiarities of two of the state governments, which, separately, had been found insufficient. The Senate was formed on the model of that of Maryland; the revisionary check, on that of New York. What the effect of a union of these provisions might be, could not be foreseen. The enlargement of the sphere of the government was, indeed, a circumstance which he thought would be favorable, as he had, on several occasions, undertaken to show. He was, however, for fixing, at least, two extremes, not to be exceeded by the national legislature, in the payment of themselves.

Mr. GERRY. There are difficulties on both sides. The observation of Mr. Butler has weight in it. On the other side, the state legislatures may turn out the senators, by reducing their salaries. Such things have been practised.

Col. MASON. It has not yet been noticed that the clause, as it now stands, makes the House of Representatives also dependent on the state legislatures, so that both Houses will be made the instruments of the politics of the states, whatever they may be.

Mr. BROOM could see no danger in trusting the general legislature with the payment of themselves. The state legislatures had this power, and no complaint had been made of it.

Mr. SHERMAN was not afraid that the legislature would make their own wages too high, but too low, so that men ever so fit could not serve, unless they were, at the same time, rich. He thought the best plan would be, to fix a moderate allowance, to be paid out of the national treasury, and let the states make such additions as they might judge fit. He moved that five dollars per day be the sum, any further emoluments to be added by the states.

Mr. CARROLL had been much surprised at seeing this clause in the report. The dependence of both Houses on the state legislatures is complete, especially as the members of the former are eligible to state offices. The states can now say, "If you do not comply with our wishes, we will starve you; if you do, we will reward you." The new government, in this form, was nothing more than a second edition of Congress, in two volumes instead of one, and, perhaps, with very few amendments.

Mr. DICKINSON took it for granted that all were convinced of the necessity of making the general government independent of the prejudices, passions, and improper views, of the state legislatures. The contrary of this was effected by the section, as it stands. On the other hand, there were objections against taking a permanent standard, as wheat, which had been suggested on a former occasion, as well as against leaving the matter to the pleasure of the national legislature. He proposed that an act should be passed, every twelve years, by the national legislature, settling the quantum of their wages. If the general government should be left dependent on the state - legislatures, it would be happy for us if we had never met in this

room.

Mr. ELLSWORTH was not unwilling himself to trust the legislature with authority to regulate their own wages, but well knew that an unlimited discretion for that purpose would produce strong, though, perhaps, not insuperable objections. He thought changes in the value of money provided for by his motion in the words "or the present value thereof."

Mr. L. MARTIN. As the Senate is to represent the states, the members of it ought to be paid by the states.

Mr. CARROLL. The Senate was to represent and manage the affairs of the whole, and not to be the advocates of state interests. They ought, then, not to be dependent on, nor paid by, the states.

On the question for paying the members of the legislature out of the national treasury,

New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, ay, 9; Massachusetts, South Carolina, no, 2.

Mr. ELLSWORTH moved that the pay be fixed at five dollars, or the present value thereof, per day, during their attendance, and for every thirty miles in travelling to and from Congress.

Mr. STRONG preferred four dollars, leaving the states at liberty to make additions.

On the question for fixing the pay at five dollars,

Connecticut, Virginia, ay, 2; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, no, 9.

Mr. DICKINSON proposed that the wages of the members of both Houses should be required to be the same.

Mr. BROOM seconded him.

Mr. GORHAM. This would be unreasonable. The Senate will be detained longer from home, will be obliged to remove their families, and, in time of war, perhaps, to sit constantly. Their allowance should certainly be higher. The members of the senates in the states are allowed more than those of the other house.

Mr. DICKINSON withdrew his motion.

It was moved and agreed to amend the section, by adding, "to be ascertained by law."

The section, (article 6, sect. 10,) as amended, was then agreed to, nem. con.

208

Adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, August 15.

In Convention. Article 6, sect. 11, was agreed to, nem. con.
Article 6, sect. 12, was then taken up.

Mr. STRONG moved to amend the article, so as to read,

"Each House shall possess the right of originating all bills, except bills for raising money for the purposes of revenue, or for appropriating the same, and for fixing the salaries of the officers of the government, which shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as in other cases."

Col. MASON seconds the motion. He was extremely earnest to take this power from the Senate, who, he said, could already sell the whole country by means of treaties.