8.) Committee of Detail: The Records of the Consututional Convention of 1787.vol 1 On-Line Library of Liberty

Committee of Detail↩⚓✪

For the first two months of its sessions the Convention had devoted itself mainly to the discussion of general principles, modifying and developing the resolutions Randolph had presented on behalf of the Virginia delegation. Late in July, the conclusions that had been reached were turned over to a

committee of five, known as the Committee of Detail, of which Rutledge was chairman and Wilson an important member. On July 26, the Convention adjourned for ten days to permit this committee to prepare a draft of a constitution. Among the Wilson papers in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania are various documents revealing the work of the Committee of Detail in different stages of its progress.35 These documents, taken with an [xxiii] important document found among the Mason papers,36 present clearly the work of the committee in preparing the draft of the constitution presented to the Convention on August 6.
In the present edition, all of these documents are brought together and placed in the Records between July 26 and August 6.