[93] "Mr. Martin was educated for the Bar, and is Attorney general for the State of Maryland. This Gentleman possesses a good deal of information, but he has a very bad delivery, and so extremely prolix, that he never speaks without tiring the patience of all who hear him. He is about 34 years of age."--Pierce's Notes, _Am. Hist. Rev._, iii., 330. M^r Wilson, could not admit the doctrine that when the Colonies became independent of G. Britain, they became independent also of each other. He read the declaration of Independence, observing thereon that the _United Colonies_ were declared to be free & independent States; and inferring that they were independent, not _individually_ but _Unitedly_ and that they were confederated as they were independent, States. Col. Hamilton assented to the doctrine of M^r Wilson. He denied the doctrine that the States were thrown into a State of Nature. He was not yet prepared to admit the doctrine that the Confederacy, could be dissolved by partial infractions of it. He admitted that the States met now on an equal footing but could see no inference from that against concerting a change of the system in this particular. He took this occasion of observing for the purpose of appeasing the fears of the small States, that two circumstances would render them secure under a National Gov^t in which they might lose the equality of rank they now held: one was the local situation of the 3 largest States Virg^a Mass^{ts} & P^a. They were separated from each other by distance of place, and equally so, by all the peculiarities which distinguish the interests of one State from those of another. No combination therefore could be dreaded. In the second place, as there was a gradation in the States from V^a the largest down to Delaware the smallest, it would always happen that ambitious combinations among a few States might & w^d be counteracted by defensive combinations of greater extent among the rest. No combination has been seen among the large Counties merely as such, ag^{st} lesser Counties. The more close the Union of the States, and the more compleat the authority of the whole: the less opportunity will be allowed to the stronger States to injure the weaker. Adj^d. WEDNESDAY JUNE 20. 1897. IN CONVENTION. M^r William Blount from N. Carolina took his seat. 1^{st} propos: of the Report of Com^e of the whole, before the House.