CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS. [Samuel Jones proposed the following amendments.] Res. 8. "Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that persons aggrieved by any judgment, sentence or decree of the supreme court of the United States, with such exceptions, and under such regulations, as the Congress shall make concerning the same, ought, upon application, to have a commission, to be issued by the president of the United States, to such learned men, as he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the senate appoint, not less than seven, authorising such commissioners, or any seven or more of them, to correct the errors in such judgment, or to review such sentence, and decree as the case may be, and to do justice to the parties in the premises." Resolve 9. "Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that the jurisdiction of the supreme court of the United States, or of any other court to be instituted by the Congress, ought not, in any case, to be increased, enlarged, or extended by any fiction, collusion, or mere suggestion."
CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS. The secretary continued reading the fourth and fifth articles, without interruption. —To the second clause of article sixth, Mr. Lansing proposed the following amendment.— "Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that no treaty ought to operate so as to alter the constitution of any state; nor ought any commercial treaty to operate so as to abrogate any law of the United States."
CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS. To the third clause of article sixth, Mr. M. Smith moved the following addition.— "Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that all the officers of the United States ought to be bound by oath or affirmation, not to infringe the constitution or rights of the respective states."
CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS. Relative to the right of declaring war.4 "Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that the Congress ought not to have the power or right to declare war, without the concurrence of two thirds of the members of each house." Moved by Mr. Tredwell.
CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS. After the constitution had been gone thro', Mr. M. Smith moved for the following amendment to clause 17, of sec. 8, art. 1. "Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that the right of the Congress to exercise exclusive legislation over such district, not exceeding ten miles square, as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, shall not be so exercised as to exempt the inhabitants of such district from paying the same taxes, duties, imposts and excises, as shall be imposed on the other inhabitants of the state where such district may be, nor shall it be so exercised as to prevent the laws of the state and all process under those laws from extending to such district, in all cases of crimes committed without the district, or in cases of contracts made between persons residing within such district, and persons residing without it. Nor shall it be so exercised as to authorize any inhabitant of the said district to bring any suit in any court, which may be established by the Congress within the same, against any citizen or person, not an inhabitant of the said district. And it is understood that the stipulations in this constitution, respecting all essential rights shall extend as well to this district, as to the United States in general. Resolved further, as the opinion of this committee, that the right of exclusive legislation with respect to such place as may be purchased for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, and dock-yards and other needful buildings, shall not be construed to authorize the Congress to make any law to prevent the laws of the states in which they may lie, from extending to such places in all civil and criminal matters, except as to such persons, as shall be in the service of the United States, nor to them with respect to crimes committed without such places.
CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS. To clause respecting the power of regulating commerce. "Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that nothing in the said constitution contained, shall be construed, to authorise Congress to grant monopolies, or erect any company with exclusive advantages of commerce." Moved by Mr. M. Smith.
1CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS. Mr. Lansing then read, and presented to the committee, a bill of rights, to be prefixed to the constitution.