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AND THE

FEDERAL CONSTITUTION

Proceedings of the State Constitutional
Convention, and Proceedings of the State
Legislature with Respect to the Amend-
ments Proposed by the United States Con-
gress on September 25, 1789, March 4, 1794
and December 9, 1803

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PUBLICATION 1078

For sale by the

Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C

Price 10c

FOREWORD

Perhaps all students of the subject will agree that the archives of the various States have not been as completely examined in respect of our Constitutional history as they should be. The researches of Miss Bland in the archives of Georgia, which were carried on from November 9 to November 18, 1936, have thrown new light on the policy and procedure of that State during early decades.

There was a very special reason for an examination of the relevant archives of Georgia. Three States out of fourteen failed to ratify the first ten amendments to the Constitutionthe Bill of Rights. These were Connecticut, Georgia, and Massachusetts; and very little-indeed, almost nothing at all— has heretofore been known of the history in Georgia of those proposals of 1789. That story is now told, insofar as the official records disclose it.

Not only those proceedings, but also those relating to the Constitution itself and to the eleventh and twelfth amendments, are included in this paper. In perusing it one cannot but be struck with the solidarity of Georgian attitude during the period in question; no dissent is found; the Georgia Convention ratifies the Constitution unanimously; the Legislature deems amendments to the fundamental charter premature in 1789; it was, of course, natural that the eleventh amendment should be particularly acceptable to the State defendant in the suit of Chisholm; but there appears also the same ready assent to the twelfth amendment which had been so controversial when it was proposed in the Congress of the United States. And one must also remark upon the promptness of the procedure. The Constitution, proposed in September, was ratified in the early days of the following January. While the records of 1789 are not so complete as might be desired, inaction seems to have been the definitive decision within about three months from the resolution of Congress; the eleventh

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III

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