QUERY: Questions on Ratification
DATE: Fri, 25 Apr 1997 07:51:10 EDT
After having looked in all the sources available to me, including the volumes to date of the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, I'm still without answers to two questions about the process. First, were the ratification electoral districts the same as those for elections to the lower house in every case? Charles Roll's older essay, "We, Some of the People" says in a footnote that delegate selection "was made either completely in the manner of, or pretty much along the lines of, the selection of representatives for the lower house of the legislature", but gives no source. Second, to what extent were the ratification personnel a recreation, under another name, of the sitting lower houses? I'm sure that both of these subjects have been covered somewhere--probably in some sections of the Documentary History that I've overlooked. Thanks in advance.
In Connecticut, the process of electing delegates to the ratification convention was similar, but not identical to the process of election representatives to the House of Representatives.
First, the elections were held at special town meetings called for the purpose, rather than the semi-annual freemen's meeting. There were no property restrictions on voting or attending a town meeting, so the franchise was technically more broad (about one-third of the adult men in CT could not meet property restriction to vote at a freemen's meeting.) [See Doc Hist, vol 3, pp. 363-8, 453-4n6] Even with the enlarged franchise, turnout was not unusually high. In 1787 about 14% of the adult men voted for Lt. Governor. Turnout was highest for representatives to the lower house, but there are no state-wide statistics. Contemporaries estimated that half the voters left after casting votes for representatives. I would guess that in the late 1780s about 25-30% of the adult men voted in CT. For the ratification convention, a few towns recorded votes cast on instuctions to delegates (it's hard to say if more voters were present for electing the delegates than approving instructions). In Lebanon, 17% of the adult men voted on insructions. In Killingworth about 19%. In Durham, 35% voted. In Farmington 23% voted on instructions. In Hamden 29% participated.
Otherwise the convention was similar to the state's house of representatives.
Each town sent the same number of delegates to the convention as representatives to the house (usually two delegates)--so the electoral districts were identical for the convention.
174 men were elected to attend the convention in January 1788. 67 served as representatives in the session (October 1787) immediately before the convention. Seats that might have otherwise been occupied by representatives were filled by other more prominent state officials including the governor, lt. governor, a former governor, 7 of the 12 members
of the upper house, 5 superior court justices, and 3 members of the state's congressional delegation. At leat 133, probably a few more (my database only consists of representatives in sessions with recorded roll call votes) had served in the lower house at some point between 1781 and 1787.
Hope this helps,
Steve Grossbart
sgrossb@utw.com
At 07:51 AM 4/25/97 EDT, you wrote:
> After having looked in all the sources available to me, including
>the volumes to date of the Documentary History of the Ratification of
the
>Constitution, I'm still without answers to two questions about the
>process. First, were the ratification electoral districts the same
as
>those for elections to the lower house in every case? Charles
Roll's
>older essay, "We, Some of the People" says in a footnote that
delegate
>selection "was made either completely in the manner of, or pretty
much
>along the lines of, the selection of representatives for the lower
house
>of the legislature", but gives no source. Second, to what extent were
the
>ratification personnel a recreation, under another name, of the
sitting
>lower houses? I'm sure that both of these subjects have been
covered
>somewhere--probably in some sections of the Documentary History that
I've
>overlooked. Thanks in advance.
For Virginia the convention delegates were elected from the districts for the House of Delegates, the lower house of the General Assembly. One noteworthy difference in personnel between the regular legislature and 1788 convention, however, is that officeholders such as judges, members of the Senate, of the executive council, etc., who might be ineligible for election to the House of Delegates were eligible for a election to the convention.
To David Sloan, re the question:
>After having looked in all the sources available to me, including,
>the volumes to date of the Documentary History of the Ratification of
the
>Constitution, I'm still without answers to two questions about the
>process. First, were the ratification electoral districts the same
as
>those for elections to the lower house in every case? Charles
Roll's
>older essay, "We, Some of the People" says in a footnote that
delegate
>selection "was made either completely in the manner of, or pretty
much
>along the lines of, the selection of representatives for the lower
house
>of the legislature", but gives no source. Second, to what extent were
the
>ratification personnel a recreation, under another name, of the
sitting
>lower houses? I'm sure that both of these subjects have been
covered
>somewhere--probably in some sections of the Documentary History that
I've
>overlooked.
May I suggest that you contact my colleagues John Kaminski and Richard Leffler, editors, as you well know, of the Documentary History of the Ratification Project. If anyone knows, they do. Their email addresses are:
jpkamins@facstaff.wisc.edu
leffler@facstaff.wisc.edu
Charles L. Cohen clcohen@facstaff.wisc.edu
Dept. of History
3211 Humanities Bldg.
455 N. Park St., Madison, WI 53706
608 263-1956 (office)
608 263-1800 (Dept.)
608 263-5302 (fax)