The Mystery of the Pinckney DraughtNott, Charles C.
History
The Mystery of the Pinckney Draught
Nott, Charles C.
Constitutional history -- United States; Pinckney, Charles, 1757-1824
I have spoken of the sentence, "The citizens of each State shall be
entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several
States" as the most felicitous sentence in the Constitution, which
passed through the Committee of Detail, the Committee of Style, and the
Convention without the change of a single word. But in the Articles of
Confederation the provision stood in this prolix form:
"The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse
among the people of the different States in this union, the free
inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives
from Justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of
each State shall have free ingress and egress to and from any other
State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce,
subject to the same duties, impositions and restrictions as the
inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restriction shall
not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into
any State, to any other State of which the owner is an inhabitant."
That the work was Pinckney's we know, for the provisions set forth in
articles 12 and 13 of his draught are described in the Observations.
But though the work of Pinckney was built of the thoughts, phrases and
provisions of other men, the structure was his own; and in its details
as in its general design, he never failed in his intent that the new
republic which he was trying to found should be a nation, and that its
government should have all the powers, duties, responsibilities and
authority essential and incidental to nationality. The thought may have
been in other minds but another draughtsman by a slight change of
expression might have warped the idea and left it of no avail. It is
this comprehensive generality of treatment and expression which I am now
inclined to hold was Pinckney's greatest contribution to the
Constitution. Indeed if Marshall had laid his hand on Pinckney's
shoulder and said, "Young man, so frame your constitution that I shall
be able to interpret it according to the necessities of the Republic
and in harmony with the general requirements of our nationality,"
Pinckney would not have needed to change a single line.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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