A single incident fortunately preserved by William Pierce of Georgia will show how the obligation was regarded during the sitting of the Convention. It grandly displays the personal majesty of Washington, and the value which he set upon the secrecy of the Convention's deliberations. To a better appreciation of what took place it must be remembered that the Convention as a mark of respect for their great presiding officer established this rule: "When the House shall adjourn, every member shall stand in his place until the President pass him."
Mr. Pierce says:
"When the Convention first opened at Philadelphia, there were a number of propositions brought forward as great leading principles for the new Government to be established for the United States. A copy of these propositions was given to each Member with an injunction to keep everything a profound secret. One morning, by accident, one of the Members dropt his copy of the propositions, which being luckily picked up by General Mifflin was presented to General Washington, our President, who put it in his pocket. After the Debates of the Day were over, and the question for adjournment was called for, the General arose from his seat, and previous to his putting the question addressed the Convention in the following manner:—
"'Gentlemen: I am sorry to find some one Member of this Body, has been so neglectful of the secrets of the Convention as to drop in the State House a copy of their proceedings, which by accident was picked up and delivered to me this Morning. I must entreat, Gentlemen, to be more careful, lest our transactions get into the News Papers, and disturb the public repose by premature speculations. I know not whose paper it is, but there it is (throwing it down on the table), let him who owns it take it.' At the same time he bowed, picked up his Hat, and quitted the room with a dignity so severe that every Person seemed alarmed; for my part I was extremely so, for putting my hand to my pocket I missed my copy of the same Paper, but advancing up to the Table my fears soon dissipated; I found it to be the handwriting of another person. When I went to my lodgings in the Indian Queen, I found my copy in a coat pocket which I had pulled off that Morning. It is something remarkable that no Person ever owned the Paper." (3 Amer. Hist. Review, 324.)
The obligation of secrecy required that these two papers should not be lost—that they should not be left where they might fall into the hands of someone who would publish them, that they should not remain in the possession of a member; and the final determination of the Convention implied that these two papers should be delivered by the Committee of Detail into the hands of the Secretary of the Convention and be by him placed in the custody of Washington.
The second condition was time—the time within which the Committee's work must be done.
On Thursday, the 24th of July, the Convention appointed the Committee of Detail "for the purpose of reporting a Constitution," and on the 26th, referred to the Committee certain resolutions and "adjourned until Monday, August 6th, that the Committee of Detail might have time to prepare and report the Constitution." This adjournment gave to the Committee ten full days in which to prepare and complete their draught, two of which were Sundays. The committee moreover determined to furnish to each member of the Convention a printed copy. On Monday, the 6th of August, the Committee appeared in the Convention bringing with them the printed copies of the draught.
The draught contains about 3,600 words. A good printer in the olden days when there was not a typesetting machine in the world would have required (according to the computation of a present day printer) three days for doing the work, allowing therein a reasonable time for changes and corrections made in the proofs. It cannot be supposed that after the admonition of Washington, the Committee could be negligent in their selection of a printer. They would not carry their copy into a large printing office, if any such there was in Philadelphia, but would surely place it in the hands of some individual printer recommended to them as trustworthy by Wilson or Gouverneur Morris or some other delegate from Philadelphia, perchance by Franklin, the greatest printer in the world. In a word, the printing would not have been confided to a shop full of men but would have been given to one man and marked "confidential"; and it is safe to say that the copy must have been in the printer's hands by the close of the 7th day. Besides the typesetting, the proofs were to be examined, and the work scanned in the clearer light of printed matter by every member of the committee; and errors were to be corrected, and possibly changes made.
After these ten days of actual and constructive work the Committee appeared in the Convention bringing with them a draught containing fifty-seven articles and sections, and some 200 constitutional provisions. Some of these provisions had been prescribed by the 23 resolutions, and some had been suggested by the Articles of Confederation, but there were others declaratory of the inherent powers of a national sovereignty which had neither been directed by the Convention, nor were contained in the Articles of Confederation. No reflective person beginning the study of the Constitution can read Madison's Journal attentively through to the 26th of July without being astonished by the greater comprehensiveness and detail and breadth and completeness of the draught which the committee produced in a printed form on the morning of the 6th of August.
Besides the provisions in the draught which have passed into, and in a literal or modified form, have become parts of the Constitution, there was some work of the committee which must have involved consideration, discussion, and a waste of time. These hindrances left a perilously narrowed period within which a committee must draught the Constitution of the United States.