Saturday, October 12, 2013

One Hundred and Fifty Lawyers Assembled in Debate


  
 
   When Congress met at Annapolis in December, 1783, ratification of the Treaty of Paris was on the agenda. The treaty was endorsed by ministers in Paris on September 3, 1783. The treaty would end the war with England if a minimum of nine states ratified it.

   Representatives of only seven states were present in Annapolis. Urgent letters were sent to the various states requesting their attendance. Debates occurred on December 26th and 27th, despite the absence of the required number of representatives of the Confederation.
 
   Ministers in Paris gave Congress 67 days to ratify; if ratification failed by the time stipulated, the treaty would be void. The question arose that perhaps seven states could ratify the treaty, that the limited time stipulation required a departure from the rules. During the debate over the rules, Monroe, Gerry, Howel, Ellery and Jefferson urged caution on ratification without the required minimum of nine states.
 
   England knew the articles of confederation and would demand no less than nine states to ratify, and would object if only seven states ratified the treaty. If ratification occurred late but was otherwise legally correct, the several states would be placed on better ground for their intention and conduct. The lateness could be explained by harsh winter weather and difficulties of transportation.

   A motion that seven states were sufficient to ratify was defeated. Massachusetts supported it.  Pennsylvania and Virginia opposed it. Jefferson, in his memoirs, wrote:

    Our body was little numerous but very contentious. Day after day was wasted on unimportant questions. A member, one of those afflicted with the morbid rage of debate, of an ardent mind, prompt imagination and copious flow of words, who heard with impatience any logic which was not his own, sitting near me on some occasion of a trifling but wordy debate, asked me how I could sit in silence, hearing so much false reasoning, which a word would refute? I observed to him, that to refute indeed was easy, but to silence impossible; that in measures brought forward by myself, I took the laboring oar, as was incumbent on me; but that in general, I was willing to listen; that if every sound argument or objection was used by someone or other of the numerous debaters, it was enough; if not, I thought it sufficient to suggest the omission, without going into a repetition of what had been said by others: that this was a waste and abuse of time and patience of the House, which could not be justified. And I believe, that if the members of deliberative bodies were to observe this course generally, they would do in a day, what takes them a week; and it is really more questionable, than may at first be thought, whether Bonaparte’s dumb legislature, which said nothing and did much, may not be preferable to one which talks much, and does nothing.

    I served with General Washington in the legislature of Virginia, before the revolution, and, during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point, which was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves.

    If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is, to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour? That one hundred and fifty lawyers should do business together, ought not to be expected. But to return again to our subject.

   The treaty was ratified by nine states without dissent on January 14, 1884, and sent by courier to Paris.

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