Page View
Jensen, Merrill (ed.) / Ratification of the Constitution by the states: Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut
3 (1978)
IV. The election of convention delegates, 12 November 1787, pp. 405-455
Page 405
405 IV THE ELECTION OF CONVENTION DELEGATES 12 November 1787 The records of seventy-nine of the ninety-eight towns entitled to elect 175 delegates to the state Convention have been obtained and are printed below. Three towns did not act until 19 November, when Suffield and Woodstock elected delegates and Colebrook re- fused to do so. Most of the town clerks merely recorded the fact that delegates were elected, although Canterbury, Killingworth, Leba- non, and Stratford debated the Constitution, and in Woodstock there was a report of illegal voting. Some towns did more than elect delegates. Of the seven towns that voted to approve the Constitution, three (Danbury, Greenwich, and Ridgefield) instructed their delegates to vote to ratify it. Of the seven towns that voted to disapprove the Constitution, Simsbury, and possibly Lebanon and Willington, instructed their delegates to vote against ratification. Preston instructed its delegates to vote either way, depending on whether or not the state Convention acted on the town's detailed objections to the Constitution. Windham decided that it was not proper to "pass any vote" on the Constitution. A Norfolk com- mittee advised against written instructions and suggested that "the whole matters" be left to the town's delegates. Twenty-four of the seventy-nine towns adjourned their 12 No- vember meetings to a later date. For the most part, such adjourn- ments permitted them to continue debate, to hear committee reports on the Constitution, and to accept or reject committee reports on instructions to delegates. In a few instances, the town clerks did not make complete entries in the town records, particularly for adjourned meetings. Some towns also conducted other business. Such material has usually been deleted from the documents printed below.
Copyright 1978 Wisconsin Historical Society Press.| For information on re-use see: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright