Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 3.djvu/64

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
60
records of the federal convention
 

dolph, or this, sir, to you, as a resignation of the office which i was deputed to sustain in the convention—


LXIV. W.R. Davie to James Iredell.[1]

Philadelphia, July 17, 1787.

The two great characters you inquire after move with inconceivable circumspection. This hint will satisfy you. Their situations, though dissimilar, are both peculiar and delicate.

I shall not stay until the business is finished. I am sorry it will be out of my power. As soon as the general principles are established I shall set out.


LXV. James Madison to Thomas Jefferson.[2]

Philada. July 18. 1787.

The Convention continue to sit, and have been closely employed since the Commencemt. of the Session. I am still under the mortification of being restrained from disclosing any part of their proceedings. As soon as I am at liberty I will endeavor to make amends for my silence, and if I ever have the pleasure of seeing you shall be able to give you pretty full gratification. I have taken lengthy notes of every thing that has yet passed, and mean to go on with the drudgery, if no indisposition obliges me to discontinue it. It is not possible to form any judgment of the future duration of the Session. I am led by sundry circumstances to guess that the residue of the work will not be very quickly despatched. The public mind is very impatient for ye event, and various reports are circulating which tend to inflame Curosity. I do not learn however that any discontent is expressed at the concealment; and have little doubt that the people will be as ready to receive as we shall be able to propose, a Government that will secure their liberties & happiness.


LXVa. Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser.

July 19, 1787.

So great is the unanimity, we hear, that prevails in the Convention, upon all great federal subjects, that it has been proposed to call the room in which they assemble—Unanimity Hall.[3]

  1. McRee, Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, II, 165.
  2. Documentary History of the Constitution, IV, 236.
  3. This same item appeared in several other newspapers a day or two later.