fided to him; and a motion was made to substitute for a term of seven years, the provision that he should hold his office during good behaviour. This important substitute was supported by the votes of four states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia; but the term of seven years was retained.

A judiciary during good behaviour was next established; and, after an effort to confide the appointment of the judges to the executive department solely, and then, as Hamilton had proposed in his plan, to require the consent of the senate, the appointment was given to the senate; another concession to state influence. Its jurisdiction was declared to extend to cases arising under laws passed by the general legislature, and to such other questions as involve the national peace and harmony.

The discussion was continued until the twenty-sixth of July, much time being devoted to the institution of the executive, and to the consideration of a proposal to require certain qualifications of landed property and citizenship in the members of each department of the government.

The modified resolutions were then referred to a committee of detail to prepare and report the outline of a constitution on the sixth of August, to which time the convention adjourned. A draft of a constitution was on that day reported, founded upon the principles which had been previously adopted, with many supplementary provisions.

The compromise, thus far, had only extended to the structure of the government; its influence was now chiefly seen in the limitations of its powers-limitations which may be, with much probability, ascribed to Randolph and Ellsworth, who, with Rutledge, Gorham, and Wilson, composed the committee of detail.

This supposition is founded on a fact, which, it is believed, has not heretofore attracted attention.

On the twenty-second of August, seventeen hundred

and eighty-one, Randolph, Ellsworth, and Varnum, who had been appointed a committee to prepare an exposition of the confederation, made a report. They stated that they ought to be discharged, because "the omission to enumerate any of the powers of congress would become an argument against their existence, and that it will be early enough to insist on them when they shall be exercised and disputed."

Having specified in what particulars "the confederation requires execution," they proceeded to enumerate the cases in which they deemed the extension of the powers of congress necessary.

This exposition of the existing powers of the confederation, and this enumeration of the proposed supplemental powers, may be regarded as the source from which the detail of the legislative powers enumerated in this plan of a constitution is derived. One marked difference is observed.

By the report, the concurrence of two-thirds of congress was required in the exercise of the great powers of war, treaty, and revenue, while in this draft of the constitution such concurrence is only made necessary to the passage of a navigation act-a vicious check upon legislation, certain to result in evasive refinements. The convention having refused to go into committee, this plan of a constitution was discussed in the house. In its general outline may be seen the extent to which Hamilton's system was followed, and in the similarity of some of the modifications which were proposed, the part he took as the discussion progressed.

He continued in the convention until after the thirteenth of August, when it is seen by the journal, that instead of the provision requiring as a qualification for a seat in the house of representatives that the candidate should have been a citizen seven years, he urged that citizenship and inhabitancy were sufficient pre-requisites, leaving to the discre

tion of the legislature to prescribe such rules of naturalization as should be found expedient. He was soon after compelled again to repair to New-York.

The following letters evince his determination to give his sanction to its proceedings, under a conviction that whatever plan should be adopted, would be an improvement upon the articles of the confederation, and that a dissolution of that body without the recommendation of a substitute, would produce a dissolution of the union.

HAMILTON TO RUFUS KING.

DEAR SIR,

Since my arrival here, I have written to my colleagues, informing them if either of them would come down, I would accompany him to Philadelphia: so much for the sake of propriety and public opinion.

In the mean time, if any material alteration should happen to be made in the plan now before the convention, I will be obliged to you for a communication of it. I will also be obliged to you to let me know when your conclusion is at hand, for I would choose to be present at that time.

New-York, August 20, 1787.

THE SAME TO THE SAME.

DEAR SIR,

I wrote you some days since, to request you to inform me when there was a prospect of your finishing, as I intended to be with you, for certain reasons, before the conclusion.

It is whispered here, that some late changes in your scheme have taken place, which give it a higher tone. Is this the case? I leave town to-day to attend a circuit in

a neighbouring county, from which I shall return the last of the week, and shall be glad to find a line from you, explanatory of the period of the probable termination of your business.

New-York, August 28, 1787.

His anxiety for the establishment of an energetic national government was increased by a circumstance which indicates the unsettled state of the public feeling, the distrusts of the community, and the mad projects which the deranged affairs of the country had engendered.

During his sojourn at New-York, a report was mentioned in a gazette* of that city, that a project was in embryo for the establishment of a monarchy, at the head of which it was contemplated to place the bishop of Osnaburgh.

This report was traced to a political letter, which had been circulated in Connecticut, suggesting this plot.

The extraordinary nature of this suggestion, whether intended to excite prejudices against the convention, or to alarm the anti-federalists to an adoption of such a constitution as it should propose, or as an experiment upon public opinion, engaged the attention of Hamilton. He immediately addressed a letter to Colonel Wadsworth, asking a solution of this enigma, in which he observes, "The history of its appearance among us, is, that it was sent by one Whetmore, of Strafford, formerly in the paymastergeneral's office, to a person in this city.

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I am at a loss clearly to understand its object, and have some suspicion that it has been fabricated to excite jealousies against the convention, with a view to an opposition to their recommendations; at all events, I wish you, if possible, to trace its source, and send it to you for that

purpose.

Daily Advertiser, August 18, 1787

"Whetmore must of course say where he got it, and by pursuing the information, we may at last come at the author. Let me know the political connections of this man, and the complexion of the people most active in the circulation of the letter." It appears from the reply of Colonel Wadsworth, that he had referred the inquiry to Colonel Humphries, whose letter to Hamilton of the first of September, states that this letter had been printed in a Fairfield paper of the twenty-fifth of July past. "Whetmore informs me that when he first saw it, it was in the hands of one Jared Mansfield, who, I believe, has formerly been reputed a loyalist. Indeed, it seems to have been received and circulated with avidity by that class of people, whether fabricated by them or not. I think there is little doubt it was manufactured in this state. Some think the real design was to excite the apprehensions of the anti-federalists, with the idea that the most disastrous consequences are to be expected, unless we shall accept the proceedings of the convention; but others, with more reason, that it was intended to feel the public pulse, and to discover whether the public mind would be startled with propositions of royalty. The quondam tories have undoubtedly conceived hopes of a future union with Great Britain, from the inefficacy of our government, and the tumults which prevailed in Massachusetts during the last winter.

"It seems, by a conversation I have had here, that the ultimate practicability of introducing the bishop of Osnaburgh, is not a novel idea among those who were formerly termed loyalists. Ever since the peace, it has been occasionally talked of and wished for. Yesterday, where I dined, half jest, half earnest, he was given as the first

toast.

"I leave you now, my dear friend, to reflect how ripe we are for the most mad and ruinous project that can be suggested, especially when, in addition to this view, we