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Show 114 ~'II£ FEDERAIJ CONVENTION. choose a President whenever the ri ~rht of choice shall de~ volve upon them, b fore the fourlh day of March uext following, then the Vicc-J>residcnt shall act as President, n~ in the case of the death or other constitutional {liHaL ili ty of the President. rrhe person having the greatest number of votes ns Vice-President, shnJl be tho Vice-P resident, if sncb number be a mnjorit.y of the whole nnmber of Electors nppoinlcd, and if no perRon hn.ve a mfljori ty, then from the two hi ghest nnmhers 011 the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-Pre:ident; 1'\ quomm for the pnrpose sha11 consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and !\ majorily of the whole number shall be necessary 1o a rhoice. But no penwn consti tutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be el igible to tlw.t of Vicc-Prcsi,1ent of the Uni ted States. The fir.·t ten of the preceding amendments were proposed at the first session of the first Cong ress of the United Stutes, 25th September, 178n, and were finally rnLificd by the constitutional number of SLates, on the 15th dny of Decembet·, 17~)1 . The eleventh amendment was proposcu at the first session of the third Congress, 5Lh ~larcl1, 17 94, and was declared in n. message ft·om the President of the UniLcd States to hoth honses of Congress, dated 8th Jannnry, 1 7fl , to hnve been aclopted by the constitut ion al numl>cr of Slates. The twelfth amendment was proposed at t.he first 8ession of the eighth Congress, 12th Decem her, 1 03, and was nnopted by the Consti t.ulional number of States in 1804, Of'cording to a public notice th ereof by the Secretary of State, dated 25th September, of the same year. CJIAPTER III. TIU~ S'l'AT l~ CONVENTIONS. 1,rrF. foll owing chapter contains all the debates on the suhjc•ct of slavery, in the Conve ntions of the seve ral Stales to ratify the Com;t itution, that have been preserved. Of the Con r entions of V errn on t, Del a ware, Maryland, and Georgia, nottc \VC rc reported, or, if reported, have ucvcr brcn pnbli hcd. I n P 'lln sylvania, the only spccehcs presrrvcd nrc tho ·e of tl mnes Wi I son, n. mcml>e t· of tho Federal Convention, n.nu Thomas McKenn. rr hc only all usion in these speeches to the q11 cst.ion of slavery wn.s Ly Mr. Wilson, cxprcssiug his gmtilicati on thn. t, after twenty years, Congress would have power to prohi uit the slave trade, ami that thus slavery would fi nally die out of iL ·elf. No debates were preservc <.l of the N cw I Iu.mpshi rc Conv ntion, save a mct:c fragment of a. speech by tToshna AtherLon, rcprol> n.tlltg the slrtve trade. I t docs not appear, however, whether he o pposccl the Co11stitu Lion on that gt·ound, or s~tppo rt c d it becn.nse it provided a way for its fi nal extinctiOII. W c therefore do not co py it. . In some States the debates arc volnmi11 ous, and yet ve ry 1t.Llle, comparatively, on the subject of slavery. We havo auned to give all that waH said , pr·o and con, leaving the rcador to form his own opinions. EXTRACTS FROM THE DEBATES I N THE CONVENTION OF MA S SACHUSE'l'T S. Fcbr?lary 4-, l 7 . Hcv. Mr. Hack us said-Mr. President, I have said very little in this honorable Convention · but I now beg leave to offer a few thoughts upon som~ (115) |
