Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 2.djvu/196

 I90 RECORDS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION Monday McHENRY lgut 6 McHENRY Augt. (5. Convention met. present 8 States. Report de- livered in by Mr. Rutledge. read. Convention adjourned till to-morrow to give the members an opportunity to consider the report. Proposed to Mr. D. Carrol, Mr. Jeni�er -- Mr. Mercer and Mr. Martin, to meet to confer on the report, and to piriepare ourselves to act in unison. s Met at Mr. Carrolls lodgings in the afternoon. I repeated the object of our meeting, and proposed that we should take the report up by paragraphs and give our opinions thereon. Mr. Mercer wished to know of me whether I thought Mary- land would embrace such a system. I told him I did not know, but I presumed the people would not object to a wise system. He extended this idea to the other gentlemen. Mr. Martin said they would not; That he was against the system, that a compromise only had enabled its abettors to bring it into its present stage- that had Mr. Jenifer voted with him, things would have taken a different turn. Mr. Jenifer said he voted with him till he saw it was in vain to oppose its pro- gress. I begged the gentlemen to observe some order to enable us to do the business we had convened upon. I wished that we could be unanimous- and would make a proposition to effect it. -- I would join the deputation in bringing on a motion to postpone the report, to try the affections of the house to an amendment of the confederation without altering the sovereignty of suffrage; which failing we should then agree to render the system reported as perfect as we could, in the mean while to consider our motion to fait and proceed to con- fer upon the report agreeably to the intention of our meeting. I. E. That we should now and at our future meetings alter the report to our own judgement to be able to appear unani-. mous in case our motion failed.- Mr. Carrol could not agree to this proposition, because he did not think the confederation could be amended to answer See Appendix A, CLXXXIX and CXCI.

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