and claim that they be substituted for the legal meaning of the words of the instrument. [Footnote 27: The Supreme Court say, "The instrument, when it came from their hands, (that is, the hands of the convention,) was a mere proposal, without obligation or pretension to it." "The people were at perfect liberty to accept or reject it; and their act was final."--_M'Cullock_ vs. _Maryland_,--4 _Wheaton_ 403-4.] [Footnote 28: The Supreme Court of the United States say: "The intention of the instrument must prevail: _this intention must be collected from its words_."--_Ogden_ vs. _Saunders_,--12 _Wheaton_, 332. "The intention of the legislature is to be searched for in the words which the legislature has employed to convey it."--_Schr. Paulina's Cargo_ vs. _United States_,--7 _Cranch_, 60.] [Footnote 29: "Elliot's Debates," so often referred to, are, if possible, a more miserable authority than Mr. Madison's notes. He seems to have picked up the most of them from the newspapers of the day, in which they were reported by nobody now probably knows whom. In his preface to his first volume, containing the debates in the Massachusetts and New York conventions, he says: "In the compilation of this volume, care has been taken to search into contemporary publications, in order to make the work as perfect as possible; still, however, the editor is sensible, from the daily experience of newspaper reports, of the present time, that the sentiments they contain may, in some instances, have been inaccurately taken down, and in others, probably too faintly sketched, fully to gratify the inquisitive politician." He also speaks of them as "rescued from the ephemeral prints of that day, and now, for the first time, presented in a uniform and durable form." In the preface to his second volume, which is devoted to the Virginia convention, he says the debates were reported by an able stenographer, David Robertson; and then quotes the following from Mr. Wirt, in a note to the life of Patrick Henry: "From the skill and ability of the reporter, there can be no doubt that the substance of the debates, as well as their general course, are accurately preserved." In his preface to the third volume, embracing the North Carolina and Pennsylvania conventions, he says: "The _first_ of the two North Carolina conventions is contained in this volume; the _second_ convention, it is believed, _was neither systematically reported nor printed_." "The debates in the Pennsylvania convention, that have been preserved, it appears, _are on one side only_; a search into the contemporary publications of the day, has been unsuccessful to furnish us with the other side of the question." In his preface to the fourth volume, he says: