Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 3.djvu/376

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Philada, April 4, 1796.

The Newspapers will inform you that the call for the Treaty papers was carried by 62 agst 37. You will find the answer of the President herewith inclosed. The absolute refusal was as unexpected as the tone & tenor of the message are improper & indelicate. If you do not at once perceive the drift of the appeal to the Genl Convention & its journal, recollect one of Camillus’ last numbers, & read the latter part of Murray’s speech. …

According to my memory & that of others, the Journal of the Convention was, by a vote deposited with the P., to be kept sacred until called for by some competent authority. How can this be reconciled with the use he has made of it? Examine my notes if you please at the close of the business, & let me know what is said on the subject.—You will perceive that the quotation is nothing to the purpose. Most of the majority wd decide as the Convention did because they think there may be some Treaties, as a Mere Treaty of peace that would not require the Legislative power—a ratification by law also expressed a different idea from that entertained by the House of its agency.

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April 6, 1796.

He proceeded to review the several topics on which the Message relied. First. The intention of the body which framed the Constitution. …

1. When the members on the floor, who were members of the General Convention, particularly a member from Georgia and himself, were called on in a former debate for the sense of that body on the Constitutional question, it was a matter of some surprise, which was much increased by the peculiar stress laid on the information expected. He acknowledged his surprise, also, at seeing the Message of the Executive appealing to the same proceedings in the General Convention, as a clue to the meaning of the Constitution.

It had been his purpose, during the late debate, to make some observations on what had fallen from the gentlemen from Connecticut and Maryland, if the sudden termination of the debate had not cut him off from the opportunity. He should have reminded them that this was the ninth year since the Convention executed