August 18, 1787: More Power to Congress

Elbridge Gerry

Independence National Historical Park

"The existing Congress is so constructed that it cannot of itself maintain an army. This would not be the case under the new system. The people were jealous on this head, and great opposition to the plan would spring from such an omission."

--Elbridge Gerry

Saturday, August 18, 1787

As usual, the Convention met at 11 am. Madison (VA) proposed nine additional powers to be given Congress, and Charles Pinckney (SC) suggested ten more. The Convention unanimously decided, without any noted debate, to send these proposals to the Committee of Detail. These overlapping proposals included the powers to:

• “Dispose of the unappropriated lands of the United States”
• “Institute temporary governments for new States”
• “Regulate affairs with the Indians”
• “Exercise exclusively legislative authority at the seat of the General Government, and over a district around the same not exceeding — square miles”
• “Grant charters of corporation”
• “Secure to literary authors their copyrights”
• “Establish seminaries for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences”
• “Encourage... the advancement of useful knowledge and discoveries” / “Establish public institutions, rewards, and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, commerce, trades, and manufactures”
• “Authorize the Executive to procure... landed property for the erection of forts, magazines, and other necessary buildings”
• “Grant patents for useful inventions”
• “Secure the payment of the public debt”

Also referred to the committee was a clause C. Pinckney proposed “restraining the Legislature of the United States from establishing a perpetual revenue.”

Rutledge (SC) moved to establish “a Grand Committee” that would study having the federal government assume the debts of the state governments. He argued “the State debts were contracted in the common defence” during the Revolutionary War and that “disburdening the people of the State debts” would make them more favorable to ratifying the Constitution. King (NY) and C. Pinckney seconded him. The motion passed 6–4–1, with New Hampshire, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland opposed and Pennsylvania divided. The committeemen were then appointed, with one from each of the eleven states present.

Rutledge, noting how long the Convention had carried on for, “the probable impatience of the public, and the extreme anxiety of many members of the Convention to bring the business to an end,” moved that the Convention start convening “precisely at ten o’clock,” (an hour earlier than was currently the case) and adjourn no early than 4:00 pm (apparently, adjournments had happened at earlier times in the past). This motion carried 9–2, with only Pennsylvania and Maryland opposed.

Ellsworth (CT) noted that the Constitution did not provide an executive council for the President of the United States. He suggested this should include the heads of major government departments (such as “foreign and domestic affairs, war, finance, and marine”), the Supreme Court Chief Justice, and President of the Senate. C. Pinckney wanted to leave this question to the side for now, since Gouverneur Morris (NY), who was absent on this day, had a proposal for such a council. The Convention “by general consent” agreed with C. Pinckney, but not before Gerry (MA) noted that he didn’t want department heads and Chief Justices to have anything to do with legislation.

The Convention unanimously approved the clauses allowing Congress to raise an army and a navy, although Gerry lamented that the Constitution permitted a standing army in peacetime. He thought the clause should limit the standing army to no more than two or three thousand soldiers. Luther Martin (MD) soon joined him in making a motion to that effect.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (SC), who’d served as a general during the Revolutionary War, questioned “whether no troops were ever to be raised until an attack should be made on us?” Gerry had an opposing concern that “If there be no restriction, a few States may establish a military government” by using their congressional majority. Langdon (NH) “saw no room for Mr. Gerry’s distrust of the representatives of the people”; for him there was “no more reason to be afraid of the General Government than of the State Governments.” Dayton (NJ) noted that “preparations for war are generally made in time of peace.”

L. Martin and Gerry’s motion unanimously failed.

Mason (VA) moved to give Congress “a power to regulate the militia” of the states. He hoped this would suffice to keep Congress from creating a large standing army and that it would create uniformity in the militias of the states.

Speaking from personal experience, C. C. Pinckney said “dissimilarity in the militia of different States had produced the most serious mischiefs” during the Revolutionary War. Butler agreed with C. C. Pinckney on “the necessity of submitting the whole militia to the general authority.”

Ellsworth thought Mason’s motion went too far toward federal power. He moved for Congress to only regulate the militias “when in actual service of the United States.” Sherman (CT) seconded him. Confusing things further, Mason was moved by their concerns and withdrew his original motion in favor of a new motion allowing the federal government to regulate only one tenth of the state militias. C. C. Pinckney, seconded by Langdon, renewed Mason’s original motion, allowing regulation of the entirety of the states’ militias.

After further debate, the Convention decided to refer both of Mason’s motions to the Grand Committee which had been created to study federal assumption of state debts. This referral passed 8–2–1: Connecticut and New Jersey “no” and Maryland divided.

Synopsis

• Madison (VA) and Charles Pinckney (SC) proposed several new clauses that would expand Congress’s powers. The Convention referred their ideas to the Committee of Detail which had created the first draft of the Constitution.
• A Grand Committee was created to study the question of having the federal government take on the state governments’ debts.
• A motion passed requiring the Convention to work longer hours to complete the Constitution more quickly.
• The Convention broached the subject of creating an “executive council” for the President but postponed extensive discussion or decision making on the subject.
• The Convention approved the clauses in the draft Constitution giving Congress the power to raise an army and a navy.
• A motion limiting the size of a peacetime standing army was unanimously voted down.
• After much debate over giving Congress the power to regulate state militias, the matter was referred to the Grand Committee.

Delegates Today

• Johnson (CT) dined at his boarding house, and then took a walk. He seems to have passed a bookstore on his route, since he notes spending thirty-six shillings for books, etc.
• Washington (VA) dined at Pennsylvania Chief Justice Thomas McKean’s and spent the afternoon and evening at his lodgings.

Philadelphia Today

• Today was cool, airy, and pleasant.
• The Pennsylvania Herald reported the Convention’s reaction to a widely circulated and potentially harmful rumor: “Many letters have been written to the members of the federal convention from different quarters, respecting the reports idly circulating, that it is intended to establish a monarchical government... to which it has been uniformly answered, ‘although we cannot, affirmatively, tell you what we are doing; we can, negatively, tell you what we are not doing—we never once thought of a king.’”