THE MYSTERY OF THE PINCKNEY DRAUGHT

BY CHARLES C. NOTT

FORMERLY

Chief Justice of the United States Court of Claims

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1908


Copyright, 1908, by
The Century Co.

Published, November, 1908.


TO
CEPHAS BRAINERD
OF THE NEW YORK BAR
A sound Lawyer and a long-tried Friend

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Statement of the Case 3

II. The Draught in the State Department 16

III. Of the Issue of Fraud 23

IV. Madison as a Witness 29

V. Madison as an Advocate 40

VI. The Position Taken by Madison 58

VII. The Plagiarisms 65

VIII. The Improbabilities 85

IX. The Observations 105

X. The Silence of Madison 143

XI. The Wilson and Randolph Draughts 158

XII. The Committee's Use of the Draught 206

XIII. What Became of the Draught 225

XIV. What Pinckney Did for the Constitution 243

XV. Conclusions on the Whole Case 257

XVI. Of Pinckney Personally 278

Appendix

Mr. Charles Pinckney's Draught of a Federal Government 295

Draught of the Committee of Detail 306

Index 325

THE MYSTERY OF THE PINCKNEY DRAUGHT

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

When I began the studies which have resulted in this book someone asked me what I was doing, and I chanced to answer that I was looking into the mystery of Pinckney's draught of the Constitution. Afterwards I received a letter from Professor J. Franklin Jameson in which he spoke of the uncertainties attending the draught as "mysteries"; and later I found that Jared Sparks, back in 1831, had been engaged in the same study and had used the same term. With two such scholars as Professor Jameson and Mr. Sparks recognizing the knowable but unknown element which we call mystery, I retain the term which I chanced to use.

"A true mystery, instead of ending discussion, calls for more." "What constitutes a mystery is the unknown which is certainly connected with the known. A mystery therefore is unfinished knowledge."[1]

At the opening of the Convention which framed the Constitution, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina presented a draught of a constitution that was referred to the Committee of the Whole. This draught was not a subject of notice or comment by any speaker or writer of the time. One might infer from the silence of all records and writers that it was the fanciful scheme of an individual which exercised no influence whatever on the Convention and did not contribute a single line or sentence to the Constitution.

On the adjournment of the Convention its records and papers were placed under seal and the obligation of secrecy was set upon its members. When ultimately the seals were broken and the package was opened, more than thirty years afterwards, the draught of Pinckney was not found. John Quincy Adams then Secretary of State applied to Pinckney for a copy; and he on the 30th of December 1818, sent to the Secretary of State the duplicate or copy of the draught now in the Department of State. The document was published and remained