John Francis Mercer

Robert Yates and John Lansing packed up in the second week of July and wrote to Governor Clinton that they could not consent to a system consolidating the states into one government, which left New York short of two delegates, its commission requiring to cast a vote, and left Hamilton in the room for two months as a man who could argue but not vote.

John Francis Mercer of Maryland left in August.

Luther Martin followed him in early September, having failed to get a declaration of rights attached to the plan, and went home to tell Maryland's legislature what he had seen.

And then, the members... went to the table, delegation by delegation, north to south, New Hampshire first, Georgia last, and signed.

Let us glance over the list of delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

I find, to begin with, that their average age was 43, which is not an extreme senectitude, and the ages range from Franklin, who was 81, to John Francis Mercer of Virginia, who was 28.

Among the older men who were conspicuous in the Convention were Franklin, with his more than 80 years, Washington, who was 55, Roger Sherman, who was 66, and Mason and Wythe of Virginia, who were both 61.

But when I looked to see who were the most active forces in that Convention, I found that the New Jersey Plan was brought forward by William Patterson, who was 42, that the Virginia Plan was proposed by Edmund Randolph, who was 34, while Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, whose plan played a large part in the making of the Constitution, was only 29.

The qualified veto, the president's alone, was then agreed to without a dissenting state.

In the whole summer, exactly one delegate stood up against the premise itself, John Francis Mercer of Maryland in August.

I disapprove of the doctrine that the judges, as expositors of the Constitution, should have authority to declare a law void.

I think laws ought to be well and cautiously made and then to be uncontrollable.

Presidential Testimonies George Washington I never mean, unless some particular circumstance should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.

Letter to John F. Mercer There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it, slavery, but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by the legislative authority, and this, as far as my suffrage will go, will not be wanting.

Letter to Robert Morris John Adams Great is truth, great is liberty, great is humanity, and they must and will prevail.

Thomas Jefferson The rightful power of all legislation is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and take none of them from us.