Rufus King to Jeremiah Wadsworth (December 23, 1787)

DECEMBER 23, 1787

RUFUS KING TO JEREMIAH WADSWORTH

. . . [Mason] is now united with Patrick Henry in an attempt to prejudice the system, by suggesting to the proposed Convention a mode of effecting amendments. I understand that the Speaker of their Senate and the Speaker of the Representatives are to be authorized to open a Correspondence with the several States on the subject of the Constitution; to propose to them that their Conventions should suggest amendments and that a second Convention should be assembled at Philadelphia for the purpose of reconsidering the system, examining the proposed amendments, and reporting a revised Plan to be submitted for ratification to the State Conventions. This was the Plan of Governor Randolph in the federal Convention, but the idea met with an almost unanimous Disapprobation in that Assembly. . . .