Page:Debates in the Several State Conventions, v5.djvu/578

552 "that no state shall, without its consent, be affected in its internal police, or deprived of its equal suffrage in the senate."

Mr. MADISON. Begin with these special provisos, and ever" state will insist on them, for their boundaries, exports, &c.

On the motion of Mr. Sherman,—

Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, ay, 3; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, no, 8.

Mr. SHERMAN then moved to strike out article 5 altogether.

Mr. BREARLY seconded the motion; on which,—

Connecticut, New Jersey, ay, 2; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, no, 8; Delaware, divided.

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS moved to annex a further proviso,—

"that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate."

This motion, being dictated by the circulating murmurs of the small stales, was agreed to without debate, no one opposing it, or on the question, saying no.

Col. MASON, expressing his discontent at the power given to Congress, by a bare majority, to pass navigation acts, which he said would not only enhance the freight, (a consequence he did not so much regard,) but would enable a few rich merchants in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, to monopolize the staples of the Southern States, and reduce their value perhaps fifty per cent., moved a further proviso,—

"that no law in the nature of a navigation act be passed before the year 1808, without the consent of two thirds of each branch of the legislature."

On which motion,—

"Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, ay, 3; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, no, 7; North Carolina, absent.

Mr. RANDOLPH, animadverting on the indefinite and dangerous power given by the Constitution to Congress, expressing the pain ne felt at differing from the body of the Convention on the close of the great and awful subject of their labors, and anxiously wishing for some accommodating expedient which would relieve him from his embarrassments, made a motion importing, "that amendments to the plan might be offered by the state conventions, which should be submitted to, and finally decided on by, another General Convention." Should this proposition be disregarded, it would, he said, be impossible for him to put his name to the instrument. Whether he should oppose it afterwards, he would not then decide; but he would not deprive himself of the freedom to do so in his own state, if that course should be prescribed by his final judgment.

Col. MASON seconded and followed Mr. RANDOLPH in animadversions on the dangerous power and structure of the government, concluding that it would end either in monarchy or a tyrannical aristocracy—which, he was in doubt,—but one or other, he was