In the second week of June 1787, the small states stopped losing votes politely. David Brearley proposed erasing every state boundary and redrawing America into 13 equal parts. William Paterson declared New Jersey would never confederate on proportional representation — “I would rather submit to a monarch, to a despot, than to such a fate” — and James Wilson answered that Pennsylvania would never confederate on anything else. This is the story of the counterstroke: the New Jersey Plan, 9 resolutions that stayed inside the congressional commission and quietly contained the seed of the supremacy clause. And it is the story of the most astonishing day of the summer — June 18th, when Alexander Hamilton, outvoted by his own delegation and silent for 3 weeks, held the floor for 6 hours to propose a senate for life, an executive for life, and the British constitution as “the best model the world ever produced”... and sat down to total silence. Praised by everybody, supported by none. Then Madison rises, takes the New Jersey Plan apart disease by disease, and names the rest of the summer: the great difficulty lies in representation.
Send us Fan Mail