The Journal Record of 14th September
Commentary
By this point, as Farrand frequently (and despairingly) notes, it appears that Secretary William Jackson had given up any hope of creating a complete record. The Official Journal's entry for 14th September reads, "The report from the Committee of revision, as corrected and amended yesterday, being taken up, was read, debated by paragraphs, amended, and agreed to as far as the first clause of the 10 section of the first article inclusive." Farrand includes in a footnote a slightly fully record of the day which was, however, compiled by Jackson from the notes of Madison and David Brearley. For this reason, Madison's Notes will be taken as the most complete and reliable primary source on the events of that session.
On one point, the editors quibble with the Journal's record, meagre as it is. Madison's Notes suggest that the usual procedure, by which articles as reported were voted on and agreed to, building up a document from scratch, had largely been abandoned. In this case, the editors have not created a working document: the great majority of motions appear to change the text, with very little voting on text as reported. The document, in other words, is either changed or left as it is.
Motion to reconsider the number of representatives was decided
on 14 September 1787
The Journal Record of 14th September
Research Assistants' Commentary (1787 Constitutional Convention)
Cite as: Grace Mallon, ‘The Journal Record of 14th September’ in Research Assistants' Commentary (1787 Constitutional Convention), Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 58.