that each colony send at least thirty. The whole number
in Congress will be at least 390. Each Congress to sit and to choose a
president by the following method. When the delegates are met, let a
colony be taken from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after which,
let the whole Congress choose (by ballot) a president from out of the
delegates of that province. In the next Congress, let a colony be
taken by lot from twelve only, omitting that colony from which the
president was taken in the former Congress, and so proceeding on till
the whole thirteen shall have had their proper rotation. And in order
that nothing may pass into a law but what is satisfactorily just not
less than three fifths of the Congress to be called a majority-- He
that will promote discord, under a government so equally formed as
this, would have joined Lucifer in his revolt.

But as there is a peculiar delicacy, from whom, or in what manner, this
business must first arise, and as it seems most agreeable and
consistent, that it should come from some intermediate body between the
governed and the governors, that is, between the Congress and the
people. Let a CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE be held, in the following manner,
and for the following purpose.

A committee of twenty-six members of Congress, viz. two for each
colony. Two Members from each House of Assembly, or Provincial
Convention; and five representatives of the people at large, to be
chosen in the capital city or town of each province, for and in behalf
of the whole province, by as many qualified voters as shall think
proper to attend from all parts of the province for that purpose; or,
if more convenient, the representatives may be chosen in two or three
of the most populous parts thereof. In this conference, thus
assembled, will be united, the two grand principles of business
KNOWLEDGE and POWER. The members of Congress, Assemblies, or
Conventions, by having had experience in national concerns, will be
able and useful counsellors, and the whole, being empowered by the
people, will have a truly legal authority.

The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame a
CONTINENTAL CHARTER, or Charter of the United Colonies; (answering to
what is called the Magna Carta of England) fixing the number and manner
of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly, with their date
of sitting, and drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between
them: (Always remembering, t