THE DRAUGHT IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT
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:
"The penmanship of all three papers (the draught and the letter to the
Secretary of State and a previous letter to the Secretary December 8,
1818) is contemporaneous, and the letter of December 30 and the draught
were written with the same pen and ink. This may possibly admit of a
difference of opinion because the draught is in a somewhat larger
chirography than the letter, having been, as befitted its importance,
written more carefully. But the letter and the draught are written upon
the same paper, and this paper was not made when the Convention sat in
1787. There are several sheets of the draught and one of the letter, and
all bear the same watermark, 'Russell and Co. 1798.'" Vol. III, p. 16.
The draught, as before shown, contains a few verbal corrections, one or
two trivial erasures, two or three obviously necessary interlineations
but no alteration. That is to say it contains no alteration of
substance--nothing which indicates on the part of the writer an intent
to change or add to the substance of what he has written--there is no
additional provision interlined, no obscure expression amplified, no
omitted thought supplied--the corrections are one and all clerical. The
document, therefore upon its face does not appear to be a "rough
draught."
When the Secretary of State had written to Pinckney "I now take the
liberty of addressing you, to inquire _if you have a copy of the
Draught_ proposed by you, and if you can without inconvenience furnish
me at an early day, _with a copy of it_" and Pinckney replied that among
his notes and papers he had "found several rough draughts of the
Constitution" and that "I send you the one I believe was it," and with
the letter sent a document which obviously was not a rough draught, the
fair and reasonable interpretation of his language (apart from an intent
to defraud) is that he was sending what the Secretary of State had asked
for, viz., "a copy" of the "copy of the draught proposed by you" to the
Convention; and that what he meant to say was, "I send you 'a fair copy
made by myself of the one I believe was it.'"
What a rough draught is may be seen by referring to the literal reprint
of the Journal of Madison in the Documentary History of the Constitution
by the Department of State. It is something which requires an editor to
put the author's changes and amendments in their proper places. A
constructive piece of work as long as the Pinckney draught, must have
been cut, transposed, changed, added to over and over again. To be
intelligible it would require editing, and the Secretary had informed
Pinckney that he wanted the "copy" for publication, and that he wanted
it "at an early day": and no man would have parted with such an
important paper and confided the editing of it to some unknown clerk in
an executive department. In a word Pinckney did what any man similarly
circumstanced would have done, he kept the original paper in his
possession, and sent to the Secretary of State what he had asked for, "a
copy of it."
If we turn now to the printed copy of the draught and note the extent of
article 6, containing the enumeration of the powers of Congress, and the
extent of the second paragraph of article 8, setting forth the powers
and duties of the President, and if we remember that all this matter is
to be found in the Constitution, it becomes instantly apparent that
absorption of all these provisions by interlineation as suggested by
Madison was absolutely impossible. In a word the bridge which Madison
built breaks down. Therefore we must face the inexorable alternative:
either Pinckney gave to the Convention a draught substantially like
that in the State Department or he fraudulently fabricated that draught
after the Secretary of State had called upon him for a copy.