Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 1.djvu/24

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xxii
introduction
 

Pinckney

The plan of government which Pinckney presented to the Convention on May 29 is not among the papers of the Convention, nor has any copy of it ever been found. Among the Wilson manuscripts in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, however, are an outline of the plan and extracts from the same.[1] These documents confirm and supplement another method of working, and make it possible to present a fairly complete restoration of the original text.[2]

Mason

A few notes and memoranda relating to the Federal Convention were found among the papers of George Mason, and were printed in 1892 by Miss K. M. Rowland in her Life of George Mason. They are not of much importance, except in so far as they throw a little further light upon Mason’s position in the Convention.

Committee of Detail

For the first two months of its sessions the Convention had devoted itself mainly to the discussion of general principles, modifying and developing the resolutions Randolph had presented on behalf of the Virginia delegation. Late in July, the conclusions that had been reached were turned over to a committee of five, known as the Committee of Detail, of which Rutledge was chairman and Wilson an important member. On July 26, the Convention adjourned for ten days to permit this committee to prepare a draft of a constitution. Among the Wilson papers in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania are various documents revealing the work of the Committee of Detail in different stages of its progress.[3] These documents, taken with an

  1. Printed in the American Historical Review, April, 1903, VIII, 509–511, and July, 1904, IX, 745–747. The identification of the extracts by Professor Jameson (Studies in the History of the Federal Convention of 1787, 128–132), without seeing the manuscripts themselves, is an interesting and suggestive piece of historical criticism.
  2. Appendix D.
  3. Through the courtesy of the librarian, Mr. John W. Jordan, the editor was permitted to examine and copy freely such parts of these papers as he desired.