The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-05-30
Who Wrote tho Consultation.

Who Wrote tho Constitutlonf
The following communication, which
We copy from the May number Of the
Southern Magazine. will be read with deep
interest by every South Carolinian:
TO the Editor Of tho Southern Maoasins.
SIR: Having read with much interest
| recent communication in daily psper
on the subject of the authorship OF the
United States Constitution, I have care
fully examined the journals of the great
Convention which framed and adopted
that illustriOus contract and form OF 60
vernment; and have verified the correct
ness OF the. statements adduced in that
article, viz: l. That the original brief
draft or plan Of Federal Constitution
was, on 29th May, 1887, presented to the
Convention by that distinguished lawyer
Charles Pinckney, Of South Carolina.
2. That the complete report of the pre-
sent Constitution of the United States
was written and, on 9Th August, 1887,
submitted to the Convention by the
chairman of q special committee, the
eminent statesman and jnrist, John Rut-
ledge, of South Carolina, who had been
Chief Justice under the old Confedera-
tion, and who had, in the first Conven-
tion of the colonies (held in New York,
in October, 1765, and called the "Stamp
Act Congress-, ~ written the celebrated
memorial to Parliament, and afterwards
the Constitution of South Carolina, OF
which separate sovereign State he was
President from 1773 to 177S. and was af-
terwards, in 1895, Chief Justice of the
United States. The descendants Of
those two distinguished statesmen have
claimed for South Carolina, that her
we'll known Interpretation, (being that OF
it's author as we'll as that of the great
statesmen Calhoun, Med fife, Preston,
Hamilton, and others of South Carroll
mas ablest men, is to be considered like
that, also, of Jefferson and Madison) and
to be accepted as the true construction.
This is matter OF great Importance to
the South, and particularly to South Ca
rolina, where it has always been con-
tended that the author of the Conntitu-
tion must have known more of the true
meaning OF its own production than any
other man, and where his friends and
defendants well know that he always
claimed the perfect right of any State of
this Confederacy of Republics to leave
the partnership in the same manner as
each had entered it, viz. by the action
OF the primortlial organic Convention of
the people OF each separate State,
wherein alone the true sovereignty re-
Sides being the supreme constitution
making government-making power. The
separate primordial conventions of the
States of New York, Virginia and Rhode
Island, in adopting aud ratifying the
United States Constitution, expressly de-
clared that they reserved to themselves
the right to re'assume the powers dele
gated whenever they should be perverted
to the injury of their people"-in other
words, the absolute right of secession,
which was thus first asserted and main.
tained by the State of New York as her
reserved and sovereign right.
In regard to the authorship of the
Constitution, it is indeed remarkable
fact that this most important queetion
should have been SO completely neglect
ed and ignored, and that credit should
never have been given to the distin-
guished Rutledge, Of South Carolina,
for the composition and completion of
the most admirable form and system of
government (beforo it's recent destrnc.
tion) that was ever devised by the wis
dom OF man; while the author OF the
Declaration Of Independence hos been
almost deified for that mere declaration
OF liberty aud separation from the
mother country-a paper certainly far
inferior to his other great declaration of
the sovereign rights Of the States con-
tanned in his celebrated Kentucky reso-
lutions of 1883. The authorship of
the United States Constitution has been
usually, and without consideration, at.
tributed to Madison, who was styled 'sthe
father af the Constitutions" which de-
signation has led to the belief that this
great production had been composed and
written by him, whercns the truth is,
that (as shown by the journals of the
convsntion) he was not even upon the
committee which framed and reported
the Constitution, but was (as himself de-
clares) 30 constantly occupied in writing
his own journal and commentaries that
he had not time even to participate, to
any extent. in the debates of the Con-
vention. The title of ''father of the
Constitution" was bestowed upon Mr..
Madison for the following reasons: l.
Because he had first proposed the calling
of the Convention to frame that instru-
ment 2. Because he had 80 earnestly
and industriously advocated it in his
ah1a pu IN fhok n 4 ;~ot III - ~r1.J.