"
The delegates from Maryland were appointed by the General Assembly of
that State, and instructed "to meet such deputies as may be appointed
and authorized _by any other of the United States_, to assemble in
convention at Philadelphia, _for the purpose of revising the Federal
system_, and to join with them in considering such alterations and
further provisions," etc.--the remainder of their instructions being in
the same words as those given to the Georgia delegates.
The instructions given to the deputies of Delaware were substantially in
accord with the others--being almost literally identical with those of
Pennsylvania--but the following proviso was added: "So, always, and
provided, that such alterations or further provisions, or any of them,
do not extend to that part of the fifth article of the Confederation of
the said States, finally ratified on the first day of March, in the year
1781, which declares that, '_in determining questions in the United
States in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote_.'"
Rhode Island, as has already been mentioned, sent no delegates.
From an examination and comparison of the enactments and instructions
above quoted, we may derive certain conclusions, so obvious that they
need only to be stated:
1. In the first place, it is clear that the delegates to the Convention
of 1787 represented, not _the people of the United States_ in mass, as
has been most absurdly contended by some political writers, but _the
people_ of the several States, _as States_--just as in the Congress of
that period--Delaware, with her sixty thousand inhabitants, having
entire equality with Pennsylvania, which had more than four hundred
thousand, or Virginia, with her seven hundred and fifty thousand.
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