September 11, 1787: The Second Draft

William Livingston's signature

US Constitution

“my hopes of returning by the time expected are a little clouded by reason of there being certain creatures in this world that are more pleased with their speeches than they can [prevail] upon any body else to be.”

--William Livingston

Tuesday, September 11, 1787: The Convention Today
The Convention met and immediately adjourned since the Committee of Style had not completed its work. The members of that committee were:

• Johnson (CT)
• Hamilton (NY)
• Gouverneur Morris (PA)
• Madison (VA)
• King (MA)

Johnson’s diary indicates that the committee met after dinner on September 8, and again on the 10th and 11th. Likely they created an outline on the 8th, agreeing where each of the articles fit and assigning a member or members to write a draft. The draft was probably prepared on Sunday the 9th, revised on the 10th, and polished on the 11th.

Available evidence points to G. Morris as the draftsman, although all the members wrote exceptionally well. As example an example of how the language was improved in between drafts:

“We the people of the States of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare and establish the following Constitution for the Government of Ourselves and our Posterity.

ARTICLE I: The stile of this Government shall be, ‘The United States of America.’

Became:

“WE, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

While historians have suspected that G. Morris, with careful selection and arrangement of words and punctuation, artfully bent the meaning of some provisions closer to his own views (and he later claimed as much), the other delegates could not be easily flimflammed. Undoubtedly, the second draft presented the Convention’s work in language which has endured.

Synopsis

• The Convention adjourned while the Committee of Style finished the second draft of the Constitution.

Delegates Today

• Washington (VA) dined at Robert Morris’s (PA) with Spanish Minister Don Diego Gardoqui and many others.
• Livingston (NJ) wrote his son-in-law John Jay in New York. He looked forward to seeing “a certain little gentleman”—his grandson—soon.

Philadelphia Today

• It was exceedingly warm.