Dr. Rush. Abbé Raynal has attributed the ruin of the United Provinces [Netherlands] to three causes. The principal one is, that the consent of every State is necessary; the other, that the members are obliged to consult their constituents upon all occasions. We lose an equal representation; we represent the people. It will tend to keep up colonial distinctions. We are now a new nation. ... If we vote by numbers, liberty will be always safe. Massachusetts is contiguous to two small Colonies, Rhode Island and New Hampshire; Pennsylvania is near New Jersey and Delaware; Virginia is between Maryland and North Carolina. ... Montesquieu pronounces the confederation of Lycia the best that ever was made; the cities had different weights in the scale. ... I would not have it understood that I am pleading the cause of Pennsylvania; when I entered that door, I considered myself a citizen of America.
G. Hopkins [Rhode Island]. A momentous question; many difficulties on each side; four larger, five lesser, four stand indifferent. Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, make more than half the people.
... It can't be expected that nine Colonies will give way to be governed by four. The safety of the whole depends upon the distinctions of Colonies.
Dr. Franklin. I hear many ingenious arguments to persuade us that an unequal representation is a very good thing. If we had been born and bred under an unequal representation, we might bear it; but to set out with an unequal representation is unreasonable. It is said the great Colonies will swallow up the less. Scotland said the same thing at the union.
August 2. "Limiting the bounds of States, which by charter, &c. extend to the South Sea."
Sherman thinks the bounds ought to be settled. A majority of States have no claim to the South Sea. Moves this amendment to be substituted in place of this clause, and also instead of the fifteenth article;—"No lands to be separated from any State, which are already settled, or become private property."
Chase [Maryland] denies that any Colony has a right to go to the South Sea.
Harrison [Virginia]. How came Maryland by its land, but by its charter? By its charter, Virginia owns to the South Sea. Gentlemen shall not pare away the Colony of Virginia. Rhode Island has more generosity than to wish the Massachusetts pared away. Delaware does not wish to pare away Pennsylvania.