11. Resd. that a Republican Government and the territory of each State, except in the instance of a voluntary junction of Government and territory, ought to be guaranteed by the United States to each State.
12. Resd. that provision ought to be made for the continuance of Congress and their authorities and privileges, until a given day after the reform of the articles of Union shall be adopted, and for the completion of all their engagements.
13. Resd. that provision ought to be made for the amendment of the Articles of Union whensoever it shall seem necessary; and that the assent of the National Legislature ought not to be required thereto.
14. Resd. that the Legislative Executive and Judiciary powers within the several States ought to be bound by oath to support the articles of Union.
15. Resd. that the amendments which shall be offered to the Confederation by the Convention, ought at a proper time, or times, after the approbation of Congress to be submitted to an assembly or assemblies of Representatives, recommended by the several Legislatures to be expressly chosen by the people to consider and decide thereon.
157. George Mason on the Convention and its Aristocratic Tendencies (June, 1787)
George Mason to George Mason, Jr.
Records of the Federal Convention (Farrand), III, 32-33
Philadelphia, June 1, 1787.
... Virginia has had the honor of presenting the outlines of the plan upon which the convention is proceeding; but so slowly that it is impossible to judge when the business will be finished, most probably not before August—festina lente may very well be called our motto. When I first came here, judging from casual conversations with gentlemen from the different States, I was very apprehensive that, soured and disgusted with the unexpected evils we had experienced from the democratic principles of our governments, we should be apt to run into the opposite extreme and in endeavoring to steer too far from Scylla, we might be drawn into the vortex of Charybdis, of which I still think there is some danger,[152] though I have the pleasure to find in the convention, many men of fine republican principles. America has certainly, upon this occasion, drawn forth her first characters; there are upon this Convention many gentlemen of the most respectable abilities, and so far as I can discover, of the purest intentions. The eyes of the United States are turned upon this assembly, and their expectations raised to a very anxious degree....