Source & Citation Info

title:	“Notes on Debates by John Dickinson”
authors:	John Dickinson
date written:	1787-6-19

permanent link to this version:	https://consource.org/document/notes-on-debates-by-john-dickinson-1787-6-19/20130122080925/
last updated:	Jan. 22, 2013, 8:09 a.m. UTC
retrieved:	April 20, 2024, 3:16 a.m. UTC

transcription citation:	Dickinson, John. "Notes on Debates by John Dickinson." Supplement to Max Farrand's The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. Ed. James H. Hutson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. 96. Print.
manuscript source:	Autograph Document, Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Notes on Debates by John Dickinson (June 19, 1787)

Objection to N. J. Plan

1. One Branch of Legislation which unsafe as Counsils not enough matured and will prevent a Deposit of necessary power.

2. All new states must be admitted on the same principle which is dangerous.

3. Supplies depend on Requisitions and Coercion.

4. Quotas to be settled in an unequal Manner.

The great Defect of antient and modern Confederations was and is that the necessary Legislation of the Nation did not operate with sufficient Energy. Let this be prevented and the Legislation be allowed to operate in all proper Cases.

We should consider the great states have something to part with as well as the smaller. The only question is on what terms we shall agree.

Objection to Report

1. Representation in both Branches founded on Numbers—unreasonable and dangerous.

2. Doubtful Indefinite Expressions which give a power to legislate in all Cases.

3. The Executive lodged in a single person. No Instance of its being ever done with safety. The insurmountable Difficulty of effecting a Junction of Government and Territory between two states. What becomes of the Espirit de Corps?