| From the
GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL (Letterbook)
Dates: 1787-1793
Description: *
Accession No.: 4009
MSA No.: S 1075-9
Location: 2/26/2/24
GOV to General Assembly, Nov. 8 1789
we find J.E. Howard sending the Assembly the proposed amendments to the
federal Constitution (soon to become the Bill of Rights).
Among all the MARYLAND STATE PAPERS, we do not find a letter of transmittal
from G. Washington, his secretary, or the US Secretary of State sending the
GOV that or the other documents Howard mentioned in his letter. Nor are
there the documents themselves.
Chapter VI, 1789 from the Session Laws of the Archives of Maryland On Line
http://msaweb/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000204/html/am204--3
65.html
is the ratification of the amendments, but does not mention transmittal of
their actions to the federal government.
The Letterbooks do not contain a copy of Howard's transmittal of the law, but
M3030 (SPECOL unidentified) =
NARA Microfilm Publications #338 Certificates of Ratification of the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights...
has Howard's letter of January 15, 1790 sending a transcription of the law,
with annotations about passage and certification.
It also shows the Secretary of the President sending and specifying
Howard's letter plus the law to the US Secretary of State for
certification. No additional documents (such as the federal draft enacted
by MD) is mentioned.
The EVENING SUN of November 27, 1990 quotes Dr. Papenfuse as stating MD's
copy of the federal draft is notin State hands. He reviewed some of the
facts above for Carl Schoettler (see SC 1456-1746 0/10/7/18).
CONCLUSION:
The federal copy sent for MD's consideration was given to the General
Assembly. Like most submittals to the legislature (petitions, letters,
etc), the copy was not preserved among the official records, other than
such transcriptions as appear in the Journal or Laws (laws only in this
case).
I see no evidence that the draft woudl have/should have been returned to
the federal government.
The document might certainly be extant if it fell into the hands of a
legislator and has been passed down/sold, etc to the present day, but is
not part of a permenant records collection in our custody.
FURTHER NOTE
M523 with the Rapport Report is not available as a xidex in the Search
Room. There is apparently no "copy negative", either. We continue the
search for same here and at other institutions, but doubt it has any
additional information.
I have given over all copies to Emily who will place them in the TOPIC FILE
and provide copies for you.
R.J. Rockefeller, PhD
Director of Reference Services |
