Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 3.djvu/460

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[1823, January] 9th.… I received a letter from General Alexander Smyth, asking the inspection of Mr. Brearley’s printed draft of a constitution, reported to the Federal Convention on the 12th of September, 1787. I see at once his object, which is a new device to trump up a charge before the public against me. My first impression was to send him the paper itself, requesting him to return it at his convenience, and I wrote him an answer accordingly. But, reflecting upon the insidious character, as well as the malignity, of his first attack upon me, and on the evident portion of the same ingredients in this application, I thought it not safe to trust the paper with him. I therefore wrote him that the paper would be submitted to his inspection at the office whenever it would suit his convenience to call.…

11th. When I came to my own office, I found General Alexander Smyth there, with Mr. E.B. Jackson, another member of the House of Representatives, from Virginia. They were in my room with Mr. Brent, and Mr. Smyth was inspecting Mr. Brearley’s copy of the draft of a Constitution—was taking a copy of a passage in it, and writing a certificate under the copy that he made which certificate he desired Mr. Brent to sign. The journal of the Federal Convention was published by a resolution of Congress under my direction, in the year 1819. In the section and paragraph enumerating the powers of Congress there are errors of punctuation—errors of the press, which had escaped my attention. Mr. Smyth now came with the intention of trumping up a charge against me of having intentionally falsified that publication, by introducing a false punctuation. Smyth was comparing Brearley’s printed draft with the copy of it printed in the journal of the Convention, and eagerly seeking for variations between them. He found on Brearley’s paper a manuscript minute, “Brought into the Convention 13th of September, 1787.” “The book says on the 12th,” said Smyth, and, charmed with his imaginary detection of a new blunder, wrote his certificate for Brent to sign, that it was a true copy from the Constitution reported on the 13th of September, showing the punctuation, obliteration, and amendments. He had written the copy in two different hands, one, it seems, intended to represent the printed, and the other the manuscript part of the copy.

Mr. Brent showed me the certificate, asking if he should sign it. I said the certificate, as written, was not correct. Smyth said, “It’s not true. It is correct.” I said the certificate purported to show