Compromise and Consensus
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Senate confirmation. There were other questions: how should the new
constitution be presented to the States and the people? Should it be submitted to the State legislatures? Should it be submitted to special State
conventions, popularly elected? Could it go into effect if ratified by less
than all the States? Eager to establish the Constitution on a popular base,
but to recognize as well the residual sovereignty of the States, the delegates decided to submit the Constitution to State ratifying conventions
chosen by the people. The Constitution would go into effect as soon as
nine States ratified it.
In reaching decisions and compromises on all these and many other
important matters, the Convention relied heavily on key committees to
resolve issues that were not addressed on the floor or had been left undecided, to hammer out the details, and to put the Constitution in writing. On July 26, the Convention adjourned until August 6 so the Committee of Detail could prepare a report. This committee consisted of five
delegates: Rutledge of South Carolina, Randolph of Virginia, Gorham of
Massachusetts, Wilson of Pennsylvania, and Ellsworth of Connecticut—
all of whom had been active in the Convention debates. These delegates
were expected to work out, in the space of ten days, all these difficult concerns. From August 6 to September 10, the Convention considered this
report in detail. A Committee of Style, consisting of Johnson of Connecticut, Hamilton of New York, Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, Madison of Virginia, and King of Massachusetts, was chosen on September 8
to put the new Constitution into final literary form.
Compromise and Consensus
With astonishing speed the Committee on Detail, headed by James Wilson, and the Committee on Style, headed by Gouverneur Morris, succeeded in putting together what we now know as the seven articles of the
original Constitution of the United States. Wilson’s committee arrived
at acceptable agreements concerning the election of the executive (the
President), the length of his term, impeachment, appointment of Federal judges and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, terms and functions of United States senators, and means of ratifying the proposed constitution.