The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCLXXXI

by Max Farrand

The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCLXXXI

ⅭⅭⅬⅩⅩⅩⅠ. Albert Gallatin in the House of Representatives.^[1]

June 19, 1798.

Mr. G[allatin] said he was well informed that those words had originally been inserted in the Constitution as a limitation to the power of laying taxes. After the limitation had been agreed to, and the Constitution was completed, a member of the Convention, (he was one of the members who represented the State of Pennsylvania) being one of a committee of revisal and arrangement, attempted to throw these words into a distinct paragraph, so as to create not a limitation, but a distinct power. The trick, however, was discovered by a member from Connecticut, now deceased, and the words restored as they now stand.^[2]

1. Annals of Congress, Fifth Congress, 2d and 3d Session, Ⅱ, 1976.
2. Quite probably the same as related in ⅭⅭⅬⅩⅨ above.