ed States, or in any of its departments or offices.* The name congress was adopted to mark the two branches of the legislature, which were now named the house of representatives and the senate; the house still taking precedence as the first branch. The executive was henceforward known as "the President." The scheme of erecting a general government on the authority of the state legislatures was discarded; and the states were enjoined to prescribe for the election of the members of each branch regulations subject to be altered by the legislature of the United States; but the convention itself, in its last days, unanimously reserved to the states alone the right to establish the places for choosing senators.† To ensure the continuous succession of the government, the legislature was ordered to meet on the first Monday in December in every year, ‡ "unless," added the convention, "congress should by law appoint a different day.” To complete the independence of congress, provision needed to be made for the support of its members. The committee of detail left them to be paid for their services by their respective states; but this mode would impair the self-sustaining character of the government. Ellsworth, avowing a change of opinion, moved that they should be paid out of the Treasury of the United States.# "If the general legislature," said Dickinson, "should be left dependent on the state legislatures, it would be happy for us if we had never met in this room.” The motion of Ellsworth was carried by nine states against Massachusetts and South Carolina. The compensation which he and Sherman would have fixed at five dollars a day, and the same for every thirty miles of travel, was left "to be ascertained by law.' "A In the distribution of representatives among the states no change was made; but to the rule of one member of the house for every forty thousand inhabitants Madison objected that in the coming increase of population it would render the number excessive. "The government," replied Gorham, "will not last so long as to produce this effect. Can it be supposed that this vast country, including the western territory, will one hundred and fifty years hence remain one nation?" * The clause was for the time unanimously made to read: "not exceeding one for every forty thousand." As the first qualification for membership of the legislature, it was agreed, and it so remains, that the candidate at the time of his election should be an inhabitant of the state in which he should be chosen. It is not required that a representative should reside in the district which he may be elected to repre sent. Citizenship was indispensable; and, before a comer from a foreign country could be elected to the house, he must, according to the report, have been a citizen of the United States for at least three years; before eligibility to the senate, for at least four. "I do not choose," said Mason, "to let foreigners and adventurers make laws for us and govern us without that local knowledge which ought to be possessed by the representative." And he moved for seven years instead of three. To this all the states agreed except Connecticut. From respect to Wilson, who was born and educated in Scotland, the subject was taken up once more. Gerry, on the thirteenth, wished none to be elected but men born in the land. Williamson preferred a residence of nine years to seven. Hamilton proposed to require only citizenship and inhabitancy,# and Madison seconded him. In proof of the advantage of encouraging emigration, Wilson cited Pennsylvania, the youngest settlement on the Atlantic except Georgia, yet among the foremost in population and prosperity; almost all the general officers of her line in the late army and three of her deputies to the convention-Robert Morris, Fitzsimons, and himself-were not natives. But Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, which voted with Hamilton and Madison, were overpowered by the seven other states, of which, on this question, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Georgia were the most stubborn.A Gilpin, 1263; Elliot, 392. # Gilpin, 1299, 1300; Elliot, 411. | Gilpin, 1300, 1301; Elliot, 412. A Gilpin, 1301; Elliot, 412. Gouverneur Morris desired that the proviso of seven years should not affect any person then a citizen. On this candid motion New Jersey joined the four more liberal states; but Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, Mason, and Baldwin spoke with inveterate tenacity for the disfranchisement against Gorham, Madison, Morris, and Wilson; and the motion was lost by five states to six.* For a senator, citizenship for nine years was required; Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland alone finding the number of years excessive. Three days later, power was vested in the legislature of the United States to establish a uniform rule of naturalization throughout the United States. ‡ The committee of detail had evaded the question of a property qualification for the members of the federal legislature and other branches of the government by referring it to legislative discretion. Charles Pinckney, who wished to require for the president a fortune of not less than a hundred thousand dollars, for a judge half as much, and a like proportion for the members of the national legislature, ventured no more than to move generally that a property qualification should be required of them all. Franklin made answer: "I dislike everything that tends to debase the spirit of the common people. If honesty is often the companion of wealth, and if poverty is exposed to peculiar temptation, the possession of property increases the desire for more. Some of the greatest rogues I was ever acquainted with were the richest rogues. Remember, the scripture requires in rulers that they should be men hating covetousness. If this constitution should betray a great partiality to the rich, it will not only hurt us in the esteem of the most liberal and enlightened men in Europe, but discourage the common people from removing to this country."| The motion was rejected by a general "no." The question was for a while left open, but the constitution finally escaped without imposing a property qualification on any person in the public employ. Various efforts were made by Gorham, Mercer, King, and # Gilpin, 1283, 1284; Elliot, 402, 403. Gilpin, 1284, 1285; Elliot, 403. *Gilpin, 1301-1305; Elliot, 412-414. Gouverneur Morris to follow the precedent of the British parliament, and constitute a less number than a majority in each house sufficient for a quorum, lest the secession of a few members should fatally interrupt the course of public business. But, by the exertions of Wilson and Ellsworth, Randolph and Madison, power was all but unanimously given to each branch. to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house might provide. Moreover, each house received the power, unknown to the confederacy, to expel a member with the concurrence of two thirds of those voting.* What should distinguish the "electors" of the United States from their citizens? the constituency of the house of representatives of the United States from the people? The report of the committee ran thus: "The qualifications of the electors shall be the same, from time to time, as those of the electors in the several states of the most numerous branch of their own legislatures."+ Gouverneur Morris desired to restrain the right of suffrage to freeholders; and he thought it not proper that the qualifications of the national legislature. should depend on the will of the states. "The states," said Ellsworth, "are the best judges of the circumstances and temper of their own people." "Eight or nine states," remarked Mason, "have extended the right of suffrage beyond the freeholders. What will the people there say if any should be disfranchised?" # "Abridgments of the right of suffrage," declared Butler, "tend to revolution." "The freeholders of the country," replied Dickinson, "are the best guardians of liberty; and the restriction of the right to them is a necessary defence against the dangerous influence of those multitudes without property and without principle, with which our country, like all others, will in time abound. As to the unpopularity of the innovation, it is chimerical. The great mass of our citizens is composed at this time of freeholders, and will be pleased with it." "Ought not every man who pays a tax," asked Ellsworth, "to vote for the representative who is to levy and dispose of his money?" "The time," said Gouverneur Gilpin, 1227; Elliot, 377. Gilpin, 1251; Elliot, 386. * Gilpin, 1291; Elliot, 407. || # Ibid. Morris, "is not distant when this country will abound with mechanics and manufacturers, who will receive their bread from their employers. Will such men be the secure and faithful guardians of liberty-the impregnable barrier against aristocracy? The ignorant and the dependent can be as little trusted with the public interest as children. Nine tenths of the people are at present freeholders, and these will certainly be pleased with the restriction." * "The true idea," said Mason, "is that every man having evidence of attachment to the society, and permanent common interest with it, ought to share in all its rights and privileges." "In several of the states," said Madison, "a freehold is now the qualification. Viewing the subject in its merits alone, the freeholders of the country would be the safest depositories of republican liberty. In future times, a great majority of the people will not only be without property in land, but property of any sort. These will either combine under the influence of their common situation, in which case the rights of property and the public liberty will not be secure in their hands, or, what is more probable, they will become the tools of opulence and ambition; in which case there will be equal danger on another side." + Franklin reasoned against the restriction from the nobleness of character that the possession of the electoral franchise inspires. "The idea of restraining the right of suffrage to the freeholders," said Rutledge, "would create division among the people, and make enemies of all those who should be excluded." # The movement of Morris toward a freehold qualification gained no vote but that of Delaware; and the section as reported was unanimously approved. Each state was therefore left to fix for itself within its own limits its conditions of suffrage; but where, as in New York and Maryland, a discrimination was made in different elections, the convention applied the most liberal rule adopted in the state to the elections of members of congress, accepting in advance any extensions of the suffrage that in any of the states might grow out of the development of republican institutions. Had the convention established a freehold or other *Gilpin, 1252; Elliot, 386, 387. Gilpin, 1254; Elliot, 388. |