The first short debate on this Resolution took place on June 5. In it Madison stated that he “thought this provision _essential_. The Articles of Confederation themselves were defective in this respect, resting, in many of the states, on the _legislative_ sanction only.” The resolution was then postponed for further consideration. On June 12, “The question was taken on the 15th Resolution, to wit, referring the new system to the people of the United States for ratification. It passed in the affirmative.” (5 _Ell. Deb._ 183.) This was all in the Committee of the Whole. On June 13, that Committee made their full report, in which the Randolph Resolution Number 15 was embodied in words as Resolution Number 19 of the report. On June 16, while the Convention was again sitting as a Committee of the Whole, the great struggle was on between the conflicting opinions as to how and in what proportion should be elected the future legislators who were to exercise the granted powers over Americans. On that day, the discussion centered on the relative merits of the Randolph _national_ proposals and a set of _federal_ Articles amending the existing Federal Constitution. In supporting Randolph, Wilson of Pennsylvania stated that “he did not fear that the people would not follow us into a _national_ government; and it will be a further recommendation of Mr. Randolph’s plan that it is to be submitted to _them_, and not to the _legislatures_, for ratification.” (5 _Ell. Deb._ 196.) On July 23, Resolution Number 19 came up for action. Remembering how insistent many of the delegates were that the _general_ government should be kept a purely _federal_ one, it is not surprising to find Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut opening the short debate with a motion that the Constitution “be referred to the legislatures of the states for ratification.” But it will also be remembered that the powers to be granted in the new Articles had not yet been settled. The _nationalists_ in the Convention, intent on having some _national_ Articles, knew that the proposed ratification must be by the people themselves, “felt and acknowledged by all” to be the only competent grantors of _national_ powers. Colonel Mason of Virginia “considered a reference of the plan to the authority of the people as one of the most important and essential of the resolutions. _The legislatures have no power to ratify it._ They are the mere creatures of the state constitutions, and cannot be greater than their creators.... Whither, then, must we resort? To the people, with whom all power remains that has not been given up in the constitutions derived from them. It was of great moment that this doctrine should be cherished, as the basis of free government.” (5 _Ell. Deb._ 352.)