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
As first written, before erasures and interlineations began, it stood as
follows:
"We the people of the States of New Hampshire etc. do agree
upon ordain and establish the following Frame of Government
as the Constitution of the United States of America
according to which we and our Posterity shall be governed
under the Name and Stile of the United States of America."
Wilson then amplified the first part of this draught, and the
amplifications well illustrate the bent of his mind toward details and
particulars; and he next reduced it by omitting the clauses which relate
to the government of ourselves and our posterity, and to the "Name and
Stile" of the future nation so that it reads as follows:
"We the People of the States of New Hampshire etc. already
confederated under and known by the Stile of the United
States of America do ordain declare and establish the
following Frame of Government as the Constitution of the
said United States."
Neither of these versions is the preamble reported by the Committee.
Each lacks the bold simplicity and comprehensiveness and directness of
Pinckney's: "We the People of New Hampshire" etc. "do ordain declare and
establish the following Constitution for the government of ourselves and
posterity."
The preamble is in words and structure a small thing. Two persons having
the tasks set them of preparing a preamble with that of Massachusetts
before them as material out of which each should be made, could hardly
avoid, one would think, evolving out of it two sentences which would be
in terms almost identical. But even in this small thing the different
traits and methods and style of the two men appear. Pinckney takes the
Massachusetts preamble and reduces it until he gets what he wants
without a superfluous word. Wilson cannot resist amplifying even while
he is condensing. When we get through with what is unquestionably
Wilson's work, the preamble for the Committee remained to be
written--unless it was already written in the Pinckney draught.
In the investigation of the charges of Madison against Pinckney it was
found that whenever the evidence was subjected to a rigorous examination
the case broke down. These draughts of Wilson and Randolph though not
intended as a charge against Pinckney may be treated as such--the charge
of appropriating Wilson's work and representing it to be his own.
Accordingly I have in like manner, examined the evidence and have again
found that it does not sustain the charge. A few illustrations will make
this plain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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