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II.
THE MARYLAND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
CALLS A STATE CONVENTION
23 November-1 December 1787
Introduction
Scheduled to meet in Annapolis on 5 November 1787, the House of
Delegates attained a quorum on 14 November and the Senate on 22
November. Both houses turned to consider the Constitution on 23 No-
vember. On that day the Senate read a 28 September letter from Con-
federation Congress Secretary Charles Thomson which enclosed the
report of the Constitutional Convention consisting of (1) the 17 Sep-
tember letter of George Washington, president of the Convention, to
the president of Congress, (2) the Constitution signed by the Conven-
tion delegates, and (3) the two resolutions of the Convention. (See
Appendix III [RCS:Md., 806-19] for this report.) Another enclosure
was the 28 September resolution of Congress recommending that the
states call conventions to consider the Constitution. (For the text of
the resolution, see CDR, 340, or CC:96, p. 241.) The Senate then sent
Thomson's letter and its enclosures to the House of Delegates which
also read them on 23 November.
On the same day the House of Delegates adopted a resolution by a
vote of 28 to 22, requesting that Maryland's delegates to the Consti-
tutional Convention-James McHenry, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer,
Daniel Carroll, John Francis Mercer, and Luther Martin-attend the
House on 29 November to report on the Convention's proceedings.
The Maryland act of 6 May 1787 appointing delegates to the Conven-
tion had required the delegates "to report the proceedings of the said
convention, and any act agreed to therein, to the next session of the
general assembly" (Appendix II, RCS:Md., 805). On 29 and 30 Novem-
ber four of the five Convention delegates reported to the House of
Delegates. (Apparently only Mercer failed to report.) Earlier the dele-
gates had sent a copy of the Convention's report to Governor William
Smallwood. On 24 November Governor Smallwood turned over this
version of the report to the Maryland Senate. (For more on the possible
printing of the Constitution sent to Governor Smallwood, see "The
Publication and Circulation of the Constitution in Maryland," 22 Sep-
tember-December [RCS:Md., 6].) (For commentaries on the House
of Delegates' resolution requesting that the state's Convention dele-
gates appear before the House, see William Tilghman to Tench Coxe,
25 November, and Richard Curson to Horatio Gates, 28 November
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