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
The Pinckney draught in the Department of State is written on unruled
paper larger than common foolscap, hand made, and with untrimmed edges.
The interlineations are few and trivial and clerical, the insertion of
an omitted word and the like. There are two exceptions to this. In
article 3 the draught says, "The House of Delegates shall consist of
---- to be chosen from the different States in the following
proportions: For New Hampshire ---- for Massachusetts ----" etc., etc.
But the names of the States are not set forth in the body of the
instrument as they stand in all editions, being written on the margin
and the place where they should have been inserted being noted by a
mark.
The second exception is in the last line of article 5. The subject of
the paragraph is the veto power; and the clause "all bills sent to the
President and not returned by him within ---- days shall be Laws,
unless the legislature, by their adjournment, prevent their return" was
originally written, "unless the legislature by their adjournment prevent
its return, in which case it shall not be the law." The words "its" and
"it" are erased with the pen and the words "their" and "they" written
over them and the article "a" and a final "s" are stricken out so that
the clause as corrected reads as printed.
In at least two particulars the draught is erroneously printed in almost
all editions. Pinckney did not write "Art. I," "Art. II," etc. Above the
first article of the draught in the middle of the line, is written
"Article 1." Over all the other articles, and likewise in the middle of
the line, are simply the arabic figures "2," "3," "4," etc., without the
word "article." The second particular, in which many printed copies are
erroneous, is in article 3. The printer has there run together two parts
of distinct sentences. The true reading is that each member of the House
of Delegates shall be "a resident in the State he is chosen for," the
sentence closing with the word "for." A new sentence then begins:
"Until a census of the people shall be taken in the manner hereinafter
mentioned, the House of Delegates shall consist of ---- to be chosen
from the different States in the following proportions," etc. But in
some we find that a delegate shall be "a resident of the State he is
chosen for until a census of the people shall be taken in the manner
hereinafter mentioned," which makes the intended provision senseless.
The first of the foregoing inquiries (p. 12 ante), Does the draught in
the State Department upon its face appear to be an author's draught, a
rough draught with his corrections, erasures, interlineations and
alterations, or does it appear to be an engrossed copy made by him of
another paper, has been answered decisively by Mr. Gaillard Hunt in his
edition of the Writings of Madison:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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