August 27, 1787: Line by Line

John Jay by Gilbert Stuart, 1794

National Gallery of Art, Gift of the Jay Family, https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.75023.html

"The long Session of the Convention will I doubt not produce a System so well matured and wise as to have no Room for applying the moral of the old fable: montes partei vient [the mountain labored and gave birth to a mouse]."

--John Jay to William Livingston

Monday, August 27, 1787: The Convention Today

Consideration resumed of Article X, section 2, of the draft Constitution. This section concerned the powers and duties of the Executive.

Luther Martin (MD) moved to allow the President the power to pardon only after a conviction. Wilson (PA) pointed out the need to use pardons to obtain testimony, and Martin withdrew the motion.

At Gouverneur Morris’s (PA) urging, the Convention postponed a decision on the clause having the Supreme Court try Presidential impeachments. G. Morris was also opposed to the clause stating that the President of the Senate would be the successor to the President of the United States if the latter no longer held the office. He proposed that the Supreme Court Chief Justice succeed to the Presidency.

Madison (VA) agreed that the President of the Senate was an ill-advised successor, but he thought it would be best if “the executive powers during a vacancy be administered by the persons composing the Council to the President.” (This council would be the President of the United States’s top officers.)

Williamson (NC) thought Congress should “have power to provide for occasional successors.” He moved to postpone the decision.

Dickinson (DE) thought the clause was too vague. It said the Presidency might be vacant because of a “disability.” “What is the extent of the term ‘disability,’ and who is to be the judge of it?” He seconded for postponement. The Convention unanimously agreed.

The Convention added to the Presidential oath of office the obligation to “preserve, protect, and defend, the Constitution of the United States.”

Article XI, on the Judiciary, came up. Johnson (CT) suggested that the judicial power should extend to both law and equity. Read (DE) opposed, but the motion carried. Dickinson (DE) moved to make judges removable by the Executive on application of Congress. His motion failed with only Connecticut in support.

Consideration line by line continued and several clarifying amendments were approved prior to adjournment.

Synopsis

• The delegates meticulously worked through the sections of the draft Constitution defining the powers of the executive and judicial branches.

Delegates Today

• Johnson (CT) dined at his boarding house and then went to Robert Edge Pine's studio to sit again for his portrait.
• Secretary for Foreign Affairs John Jay wrote from New York to his father-in-law, Livingston (NJ). He thank Livingston for introducing him to Mason (VA), “a man of Talents and an agreeable companion. There are few with whom on so short an acquaintance I have been so much pleased.... Be pleased to present my compliments to him, and assure him of my Respect and Esteem.”

Philadelphia Today

• Today was cool and rainy.