7.) McHenry to Mason: The Records of the Consututional Convention of 1787.vol 1 On-Line Library of Liberty

McHenry↩⚓✪

Quite the best of these are the notes of James McHenry, of Maryland.27 McHenry started out with the evident intention of taking somewhat extensive notes, and he adds not a little to our information of Randolph’s speech in presenting the [xxi] Virginia Resolutions on May 29. On account of his brother’s illness, he left Philadelphia on June 1, and remained away during June and July, but in August he returned to the Convention and to his note-taking with all the enthusiasm of the beginner.
The records became more and more brief as time passed, but they are valuable because they are, for the latter part of the Convention’s work, almost the only material we have besides the Journal and Madison’s Debates.

Pierce↩⚓✪

The notes of William Pierce of Georgia, which were first printed in the Savannah Georgian in 1828,28 add somewhat to our information of the proceedings of the first few days of the sessions. The character sketches of his fellow-members in Convention, which accompany these notes,29 are not only interesting, but are also helpful in portraying the delegates as they appeared to a contemporary.

Paterson↩⚓✪

The notes of William Paterson, of New Jersey,30 were evidently taken solely for his own use. While they are of little help in studying the general proceedings of the Convention, they are of great assistance in following Paterson’s own line of reasoning, and in particular in studying the development of the resolutions Paterson presented on June 15, commonly called the New Jersey Plan. This is here given in its various stages of construction.31

Hamilton↩

Alexander Hamilton’s notes were found among the Hamilton Papers in the Library of Congress.32 They are little more than brief memoranda and, like those of Paterson, are of importance not so much in determining what others thought or said as in tracing the development of the writer’s own reasoning.

Pinckney↩⚓✪

The plan of government which Pinckney presented to the Convention on May 29 is not among the papers of the Convention, nor has any copy of it ever been found. Among the Wilson manuscripts in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, however, are an outline of the plan and extracts from the same.33 These documents confirm and supplement another method of working, and make it possible to present a fairly complete restoration of the original text.34

Mason↩

A few notes and memoranda relating to the Federal Convention were found among the papers of George Mason, and were printed in 1892 by Miss K. M. Rowland in her Life of George Mason. They are not of much importance, except in so far as they throw a little further light upon Mason’s position in the Convention.