VII. RHODE ISLAND CONVENTION (FIRST SESSION)

them of the absolute Necessity of the Constitution being [adopted].
That he will have the same Candor for those who advocate the Consti-
tution as he asked for those who are against it-as those who advocate
it are also on the side of the People
May [24th]                   36
Not                          32
Mr. CHAMPLIN
[Vote on the place of meeting]
East Greenwich               34
Newport                      35
1. See amendment 3 adopted by the Convention (RCS:R.I., 979).
2. "A Friend to the State of Rhode-Island" stated: "Will Congress suffer a single re-
fractory State to embarrass its great, necessary national measures?" (Newport Herald, 18
February, RCS:R.I., 726).
3. The second amendment reported to the Convention, which was not adopted, reads
"There shall be one representative for every thirty thousand free inhabitants, including
those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding all slaves and Indians, until the
whole number of representatives amount to two hundred, after which, that number shall
be continued or increased as Congress shall direct, but shall not be diminished."
4. See amendment 4 adopted by the Convention (RCS:R.I., 979).
5. See amendment 5 adopted by the Convention (RCS:R.I., 979-80).
6. The first North Carolina Convention (21 July to 4 August 1788) proposed a bill of
rights and twenty-six structural amendments. The fifteenth amendment, in part, states:
". . . But the judicial power of the United States shall extend to no case where the cause
of action shall have originated before the ratification of this constitution, except in dis-
putes between states about their territory; disputes between persons claiming lands under
the grants of different states, and suits for debts due to the united states" (CC:821).
These amendments, dated 2 August 1788, were printed several times: as a two-page broad-
side, as a four-page broadside (Evans 21341), in the North Carolina Convention Journal
(Evans 21337), and in the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina ...
(Evans 22037). In Rhode Island, the amendments were reprinted in the United States
Chronicle on 18 September 1788. A copy of the two-page broadside, signed by the Con-
vention president and secretary, which was sent to Rhode Island's governor is in the
volume labeled Papers Relating to the Adoption of the Constitution at the Rhode Island
State Archives.
7. See Convention Debates (Foster), 5 March, note 10 (RCS:R.I., 948).
8. See amendment 16 adopted by the Convention (RCS:R.I., 980).
9. See amendment 17 adopted by the Convention (RCS:R.I., 981).
10. The reference is to the second article of the Association of the First Continental
Congress (20 October 1774). See Convention Debates, 3 March 1790, note 15 (above).
11. Foster seems to have written "No. Carolina," but the reference is probably to the
seizure of "a cargo of near three hundred slaves ... sent out of the Colony [of South
Carolina] ... [under] the second article of the Association" (John Drayton, Memoirs of
the American Revolution ... [2 vols., Charleston, 1821], I, 182). As to North Carolina, the
state had acted on the slave trade even before the First Continental Congress had adopted
the Association. On 27 August 1774 the First Provincial Convention of North Carolina
had resolved "That we will not import any slave or slaves, or purchase any slave or slaves,
imported or brought into this Province by others, from any part of the world, after the

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