body; names of persons and characters came perpetually before them; and much business was constantly on hand which would have been embarassed if it had gone to the public before it was finished. It was likewise best for the convention for forming the Constitution to sit with closed doors, because opinions were so various and at first so crude that it was necessary they should be long debated before any uniform system of opinion could be formed. Meantime the minds of the members were changing, and much was to be gained by a yielding and accommodating spirit. Had the members committed themselves publicly at first, they would have afterwards supposed consistency required them to maintain their ground, whereas by secret discussion no man felt himself obliged to retain his opinions any longer than he was satisfied of their propriety and truth, and was open to the force of argument. Mr. Madison thinks no Constitution would ever have been adopted by the convention if the debates had been public. No chaplain was chosen for the convention at any period of its session, although Dr. Franklin proposed one, as has been reported, after the convention had been some time sitting.…
In the recent “History of the Convention for Framing the Constitution,” published by order of the government in connection with the “Secret Journal,” there is a draft of a Constitution said to have been presented by Charles Pinckney. It is remarkable for containing several important features in exact accordance with the Constitution as it was passed. This is the more strange, as some of these very points grew out of the long debates which followed the presentation of the draft.
Mr. Madison seems a good deal perplexed on the subject. He says Charles Pinckney presented a draft at the beginning of the session, that it went to a committee with other papers, and was no more heard of during the convention. It was not preserved among the papers on the files of the convention. When the above-mentioned history was published, Mr. J.Q. Adams was Secretary of State, and prepared the manuscript for the press. He wrote to Mr. Pinckney for a copy of his draft, and received from him that which was printed. How it happened that it should contain such particulars as it does, Mr. Madison cannot tell; but he is perfectly confident that they could not have been contained in the original draft as presented by Mr. Pinckney, because some of them were the results of subsequent discussions. Mr. Madison supposes that Mr. Pinckney must at the time have added certain points as the convention proceeded, particularly such as he approved, and as he thought would make his draft more perfect, and that this altered draft had lain by him till
