Maryland
Maryland.
An Act for the Appointment of, and conferring Powers in Deputies from this State to the fœderal Convention.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the Honorable James McHenry, Daniel of Saint Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll, John Francis Mercer and Luther Martin Esquires, be appointed and authorised on behalf of this State, to meet such Deputies as may be appointed and authorised by any other of the United States to assemble in Convention at Philadelphia for the purpose of revising the Fœderal System, and to join with them in considering such Alterations and further Provisions as may be necessary to render the Fœderal Constitution adequate to the Exigencies of the Union and in reporting such an Act for that purpose to the United States in Congress Assembled as when agreed to by them, and duly confirmed by the several States will effectually provide for the same, and the said Deputies or such of them as shall attend the said Convention shall have full Power to represent this State for the Purposes aforesaid, and the said Deputies are hereby directed to report the Proceedings of the said Convention, and any Act agreed to therein, to the next session of the General Assembly of this State.
| By the Senate May 26. 1787.[1] | By the House of Delegates |
|
|
| By Order J. Dorsey Clk. | Read and Assented to |
| True Copy from the Original | By Order Wm Harwood Clk. |
|
True Copy from the Original |
|
W. Smallwood.
Attendance of Delegates.
The following list of delegates to the Federal Convention, with the available data of their attendance, has been compiled from the Records.[2] The sources of information are so readily found that
- ↑ The delegates had been previously elected by the legislature, April 23-May 22. “The assembly had voted to pay the delegates as delegates in congress were paid.” (Steiner, Life and Correspondence of James McHenry, 98 note 1.)
- ↑ Although the number of delegates who were at any time present in Philadelphia amounts to fifty-five, the average attendance at the sessions was decidedly smaller. The editor estimates the average attendance at forty or less. In his History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788 (Vol. Ⅰ, p. 34) H. B. Grigsby states that that body consisted of one hundred and seventy members. He adds: “It was more than four times greater than the Convention which formed the Federal Constitution when that body was full, and it exceeded it, as it ordinarily was, more than six times.”
