[204] December 20, 21. Ibid. 23, 24. [205] Passed December 23. Ibid. 29. [206] They removed from it October 2, 1788, on a notice from the Mayor of the city that repairs were to be made. [207] See _ante_, Vol. I. pp. 358-361. [208] See the conversation reported by Madison, Elliot, V. 374. [209] Elliot, V. 409, 410. See _post_, as to the power of the President to assemble and adjourn Congress. [210] Mr. Justice Story has stated in his Commentaries (§ 829), that this clause came into the Constitution in the _revised_ draft, near the close of the Convention, and was silently adopted, without opposition. This is a mistake. The clause was contained in the draft of the committee of detail, and was modified as stated in the text, on the 7th of August, after a full debate. Elliot, V. 377, 383-385. CHAPTER X REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF DETAIL, CONTINUED.--THE POWERS OF CONGRESS.--THE GRAND COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION RESPECTING COMMERCE, EXPORTS, AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. In the examination which has thus far been made of the process of forming the Constitution, the reader will have noticed the absence of any express provisions concerning the regulation of commerce, and the obtaining of revenues. A system of government had been framed, embracing a national legislature, in which the mode of representation alone had been determined with precision. The powers of this legislature had been described only in very general terms. It was to have "the legislative rights vested in Congress by the Confederation," and the power "to legislate in all cases for the general interests of the Union, and also in those to which the States were separately incompetent, or in which the harmony of the United States may be interrupted by the exercise of individual legislation."