Delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that drafted the U.S. Constitution considered and rejected proposals for a "legislative veto" designed to reconcile the states to the federal union. Edmund Randolph proposed that: "The National Legislature ought to be impowered [sic] . . . to negative all laws passed by the several States contravening in the opinion of the National Legislature the articles of Union." The provision became part of Alexander Hamilton's proposal for a new government based on national consolidation, all but eliminating state sovereignty.