Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 3.djvu/439

  proposed by Mr. Dickinson “that the Articles of Confederation ought to be revised and amended so as to render the Government of the U. States adequate to the exigencies, the preservation, and the prosperity of the Union.”

ⅭⅭⅭⅩⅩⅩ.

Montpellier June 27, 1819

I return the list of yeas and nays in the Convention with the blanks filled according to your request, as far as I could do it, by tracing the order of the yeas and nays and their coincidences with those belonging to successive questions in my papers. In some instances, the yeas and nays in the list, corresponding with those on more questions than one did not designate the particular question on which they were taken; and of course did not enable me to fill the blanks. In other instances, as you will find by the paper formerly sent you, there are questions noted by me, for which the list does not contain yeas and nays. I have taken the liberty as you will see of correcting one or two slips in the original list or in the copy: and I have distinguished the days on which the several votes passed.

ⅭⅭⅭⅩⅩⅩⅠ.

September 2, 1819.

It could not but happen, and was foreseen at the birth of the Constitution, that difficulties and differences of opinion might occasionally arise in expounding terms and phrases necessarily used in such a charter; more especially those which divide legislation between the general and local governments; and that it might require a regular course of practice to liquidate and settle the meaning of some of them. But it was anticipated, I believe, by few, if any, of the friends of the Constitution, that a rule of construction would be introduced as broad and pliant as what has occurred. And those who recollect, and, still more, those who shared in what passed in the State conventions, through which the people ratified the Constitution, with respect to the extent of the powers vested in Congress, cannot easily be persuaded that the avowal of such a rule would not have prevented its ratification.