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
A second deviation from the instructions given by the Convention relates
to the payment of the Executive. The 12th resolution says that the
Executive is "to receive a fixed compensation for the devotion of his
time to the public service to be paid out of the public treasury." The
Pinckney draught (art. 8) says that the President "shall receive a
compensation which shall not be increased or diminished during his
continuation in office" and stops there. The draught of the Committee
(art. X sec. 2) says "He shall, at stated times receive for his services
a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during
his continuance in office," and stops there. In a word we find here
Pinckney's language with a word or two of amplification, and a little
correction (the kind of deviation which one may expect to find in the
revision of a statute or legal document) and we find (as in Pinckney)
the important word "fixed" omitted, and the not "increased or
diminished" clause of Pinckney inserted, and the provision stopping as
Pinckney stops, without the concluding words of the resolution "to be
paid out of the public treasury." There is here too much resemblance to
Pinckney and too little adherence to the 12th resolution to leave a
doubt as to where the Committee's provision came from.
A more notable instance relates to the appointing and treaty-making
power of the Senate. The 14th resolution declares that the judges of the
"Supreme tribunal shall be appointed by the second branch" _i.e._ the
Senate. But the draught of the Committee says (art. IX), "The Senate of
the United States shall have power to make treaties, and appoint
Ambassadors and judges of the Supreme Court." How came the Committee to
invest the Senate with power to make treaties and appoint ambassadors
when no such authority was conferred by the resolutions and no such
determination had been reached in the Convention? Pinckney's draught
answers the question, (art. 7) the Senate, it says, shall have the sole
and exclusive power "to make treaties; and to appoint ambassadors and
other ministers to foreign nations, and judges of the Supreme Court."
Here the Committee placed the whole treaty-making power and the
diplomatic intercourse with foreign nations entirely in the hands of the
Senate and for no other reason than that Pinckney had already done so.
Such an extension of their work beyond their authority could not have
suggested itself. Evidently when adapting Pinckney's work to their own
purposes they neglected to strike out "treaties" and "ambassadors."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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