M^r Read. He sh^d have no objection to the system if it were truly national, but it has too much of a federal mixture in it. The little States he thought had not much to fear. He suspected that the large States felt their want of energy, & wished for a Gen^l Gov^t to supply the defect. Mass^{ts} was evidently labouring under her weakness and he believed Delaware w^d not be in much danger if in her neighbourhood. Delaware had enjoyed tranquillity & he flattered himself w^d continue to do so. He was not however so selfish as not to wish for a good Gen^l Gov^t. In order to obtain one the whole States must be incorporated. If the States remain, the representatives of the large ones will stick together, and carry everything before them. The Executive also will be chosen under the influence of this partiality, and will betray it in his administration. These jealousies are inseparable from the scheme of leaving the States in existence. They must be done away. The ungranted lands also which have been assumed by particular States must also be given up. He repeated his approbation of the plan of M^r Hamilton, & wished it to be substituted in the place of that on the table. M^r Madison agreed with Doc^r Johnson, that the mixed nature of the Gov^t ought to be kept in view; but thought too much stress was laid on the rank of the States as political societies. There was a gradation, he observed from the smallest corporation, with the most limited powers, to the largest empire with the most perfect sovereignty. He pointed out the limitations on the sovereignty of the States, as now confederated their laws in relation to the paramount law of the Confederacy were analagous to that of bye laws to the supreme law within a State. Under the proposed Gov^t the powers of the States will be much farther reduced. According to the views of every member, the Gen^l Gov^t will have powers far beyond those exercised by the British Parliament, when the States were part of the British Empire. It will in particular have the power, without the consent of the State Legislatures, to levy money directly on the people themselves; and therefore not to divest such _unequal_ portions of the people as composed the several States, of an _equal_ voice, would subject the system to the reproaches & evils which have resulted from the vicious representation in G. B.