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
In his "Note to the Plan," Madison specifies some of the "details,
expressions and definitions" which were framed in the Convention, the
"results of critical discussions" that "could not have been anticipated"
by Pinckney. "Examples" of these "similarities" and "identities" he
says, "may be noticed in article VIII, which is remarkable also for the
circumstance that whilst it specifies the functions of the President, no
provision is contained in the paper for the election of such an
officer." These are all the specifications of provisions or of language
plagiarised from the Constitution by Pinckney which Madison has filed.
Specifying nothing else, we may assume that the plagiarisms contained in
article VIII. were the plagiarisms which dwelt in his own mind and upon
which he rested his conclusions.
These specific charges of plagiarism may be struck down by a single
blow:--
_Not one of the provisions contained in Pinckney's article VIII was
framed in the Convention, and all were brought before the Convention by
the draught of the Committee of Detail. All the provisions of the
Constitution which were framed by the Convention were framed
subsequently to the 6th of August and belong to the 3d and 4th germinal
periods. All the provisions which are contained in the draught of the
Committee of Detail were framed before the 6th of August and existed
before the constructive work of the Convention began._
When the sequence of events is observed the matter is cleared and the
"phenomenon" of Madison becomes a simple link in the chain of events.
Pinckney presented his draught to the Convention on its first business
day before there had been a single "critical discussion." The Convention
immediately referred the draught to the Committee of the Whole, which
made it accessible to every member of the Convention. When a committee
was appointed to draught a Constitution, the draught of Pinckney was
taken from the Committee of the Whole and referred to the Committee of
Detail. The committee found in the draught matter which they needed and
they used it as the basis of their own draught as any committee would
have done. And thus the draught of the Committee of Detail became the
vehicle by means of which these provisions and expressions of Pinckney
were carried into the Constitution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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