The Convention met agreeably to adjournment. Present as before.
On motion, Resolved, That the Reverend Mr. [James Francis] Armstrong be requested to open the business of the Convention every morning during their sitting with prayers.
The committee appointed yesterday, to form rules for the government of this Convention, made their report; which, being considered and amended, was agreed to as follows:
Rules for conducting business in the Convention of New Jersey.
I. The Convention shall be opened every morning with prayers.
II. When the President assumes the chair, the members shall take their seats.
III. The Minutes of the preceding day shall be read, and, if necessary, may be corrected.
IV. Every petition, memorial, letter, or other thing of the like kind, read in the Convention, shall be deemed as lying on the table for further consideration, unless any special order be moved thereon.
V. A motion made and seconded shall be repeated by the President; a motion shall be reduced to writing if the President or any two members require it; a motion may be withdrawn by the member making it before any decision is had thereon.
VI. A motion of postponement or amendment shall always be in order and considered as the previous question.
VII. If a question under debate contains several points, any member may have it divided.
VIII. No member speaking shall be interrupted but by a call to order by the President, or by a member through the President.
IX. No member shall be referred to in debate by name.
X. Every member, when he chooses to speak, shall rise and addressthe President; when two members chance to rise at the same time, the President shall name the person who is to speak first.
XI. Every member shall conduct himself with decency and decorum. The President himself, or by request, may call to order any member who shall transgress the rules; if the disorder be continued or repeated, the President may refer to him by name; the Convention may then examine and censure the member's conduct, he being allowed to extenuate or justify himself.
XII. Every member shall be in his place at the time the Convention stands adjourned to or within half an hour thereafter.
XIII. No member shall speak more than once in a debate until every member who chooses shall have spoken on the same.
XIV. The yeas and nays may be called and entered on the Minutes when any two members require it.
XV. A motion to adjourn may be made at any time and shall always be in order, and the question thereon shall be put without any debate.
On motion, Resolved, That the act of the legislature of this state, passed at Trenton, November 1, 1787, giving authority for the people thereof, by their delegates, to meet in Convention, to deliberate upon, and, if approved of by them, to ratify the Constitution for the United States, proposed by the General Convention held at Philadelphia, be read; whereupon the same was read by the secretary.
On motion, Resolved, That the Constitution for the United States of America, agreed to in Convention at Philadelphia, September 17, 1787, be also read; whereupon the same was read accordingly.
On motion, Resolved, That the usual time of the meeting of the Convention be at ten o'clock in the morning, and of adjournment at three o'clock in the afternoon.
On motion, Resolved, That the Federal Constitution be now read by sections, and, upon each section's being read, every member do make his observations on the same, if any he hath to make; that, after debating on such section, the question be taken whether any further debate be thereon had; and, if the said question be determined in the negative, that the Convention do then proceed in like manner to the next section until the whole be gone through; upon which the general question shall be taken, "Whether this Convention, in the name and in behalf of the people of this state, do ratify and confirm the said Constitution?"
The Convention adjourned till tomorrow morning ten o'clock.