[1390] See vol. i, 428, of this work.
[1391] It was, however, among the last items proposed to the Convention, which had been at work more than three months before the "contract clause" was suggested. Even then the proposal was only as to new States. The motion was made by Rufus King of New York on August 28. Gouverneur Morris objected. "This would be going too far," he said. George Mason of Virginia said the same thing. Madison thought "a negative on the State laws could alone secure the effect." James Wilson of Pennsylvania warmly supported King's motion. John Rutledge of South Carolina moved, as a substitute for King's proposition, that States should not pass "bills of attainder nor retrospective laws." (Records, Fed. Conv.: Farrand, ii, 440.) This carried, and nothing more appears as to the contract clause until it was included by the Committee on Style in its report of September 12. (Ib. 596-97.) Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts strongly favored it and even wanted Congress "to be laid under the like prohibitions." (Ib. 619.) The Convention refused to insert the word "previous" before "obligation." (Ib. 636.)
In this manner the provision that "no state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts" was inserted in the Constitution. The framers of that instrument apparently had in mind, however, the danger of the violation of contracts through depreciated paper money rather than the invalidation of agreements by the direct action of State Legislatures. (See speech of William R. Davie in the North Carolina Convention, July 29, 1788, ib. iii, 349-50; speech of James McHenry before the Maryland House of Delegates, Nov. 29, 1787, ib. 150; and speech of Luther Martin before same, same date, ib. 214; also see Madison to Ingersoll, Feb. 2, 1831, ib. 495.)
Madison best stated the reason for the adoption of the contract clause: "A violations [sic] of Contracts had become familiar in the form of depreciated paper made a legal tender, of property substituted for money, of Instalment laws, and of the occlusions of the Courts of Justice; although evident that all such interferences affected the rights of other States, relatively Creditor, as well as Citizens Creditors within the State." (Ib. 548.) Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth explained briefly that the clause "was thought necessary as a security to commerce." (Letter to the Governor of Connecticut, Sept. 26, 1787, ib. 100.)
[1392] Chappell, 67.
[1393] Harris, 130.
[1394] Harris, 131.
[1395] Feb. 27, 1795, Annals, 3d Cong. 1st and 2d Sess. 838-39.
[1396] Ib. 844-45. The silence of Jackson at this time is all the more impressive because the report of the Attorney-General would surely be used by the land companies to encourage investors to buy. Both Jackson and Gunn were present when King offered his resolution. (Annals, 3d Cong. 1st and 2d Sess. 846.) Jackson declined to vote on the passage of a House bill "making provision for the purposes of treaty" with the Indians occupying the Yazoo lands. (Ib. 849-50.)
[1397] Smith, 174.