The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution of the United States, May-September 1787. Volume 1Madison, James
History
The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution of the United States, May-September 1787. Volume 1
Madison, James
Constitutional law -- United States; Constitutions -- United States; United States. Constitution
M^r Elseworth. The capital objection of M^r Wilson, "that the minority
will rule the majority" is not true. The power is given to the few to
save them from being destroyed by the many. If an equality of votes had
been given to them in both branches, the objection might have had
weight. Is it a novel thing that the few should have a check on the
many? Is it not the case in the British Constitution the wisdom of which
so many gentlemen have united in applauding? Have not the House of
Lords, who form so small a proportion of the nation a negative on the
laws, as a necessary defence of their peculiar rights ag^{st} the
encroachm^{ts} of the Commons. No instance of a Confederacy has existed
in which an equality of voices has not been exercised by the members of
it. We are running from one extreme to another. We are razing the
foundations of the building, when we need only repair the roof. No
salutary measure has been lost for want of _a majority of the States_,
to favor it. If security be all that the great States wish for the
1^{st} branch secures them. The danger of combinations among them is not
imaginary. Altho' no particular abuses could be foreseen by him, the
possibility of them would be sufficient to alarm him. But he could
easily conceive cases in which they might result from such combinations.
Suppose that in pursuance of some commercial treaty or arrangement,
three or four free ports & no more were to be established would not
combinations be formed in favor of Boston--Philad^a & some port of the
Chesapeak? A like concert might be formed in the appointment of the
Great officers. He appealed again to the obligations of the federal pact
which was still in force, and which had been entered into with so much
solemnity; persuading himself that some regard would still be paid to
the plighted faith under which each State small as well as great, held
an equal right of suffrage in the general Councils. His remarks were not
the result of partial or local views. The State he represented
(Connecticut) held a middle rank.
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