Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 3.djvu/273

 Mr. King stated the reasons for not appointing a Council, which were that the small States would insist on having one, at least; and that would make another body similar to the Senate. Therefore it was thought, if in some cases the Senate might answer, and in others the President might require the opinion of the officers of State, that, in this case, secrecy, despatch, and fidelity were more to be expected than where there is a multitudinous executive.

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To the, Speaker of the House of Delegates of Maryland.

Sir,

I myself the subject of this letter will be a sufficient apology for thus publicly addressing it to you, and through you to the other members of the house of delegates. It cannot have escaped your or their recollection, that when called upon as the servant of a free state, to render an account of those transactions in which I had had a share, in consequence of the trust reposed in me by that state, among other things, I informed them, “that some time in July, the honorable Mr. Yates and Mr. Lansing of New-York, left the convention; that they had uniformly opposed the system, and that I believe, despairing of getting a proper one brought forward, or of rendering any real service, they returned no more.” —You cannot, sir, have forgot, for the incident was too remarkable not to have made some impression, that upon my giving this information, the zeal of one of my honorable colleagues, in favor of a system which I thought it my duty to oppose, impelled him to interrupt me, and in a manner which I am confident his zeal alone prevented him from being convinced was not the most delicate, to insinuate pretty strongly, that the statement which I had given of the conduct of those gentlemen, and their motives for not returning, were not candid.

Those honorable members have officially given information on this subject, by a joint letter to his excellency governor Clinton—it is published. Indulge me, sir, in giving an extract from it, that it may stand contrasted in the same page with the information I gave, and may convict me of the want of candor of which I was charged, if the charge was just—if it will not do that, then let it silence my accusers.

“Thus circumstanced, under these impressions, to have hesitated