onest language and say, the minority will be in danger from the
majority. And is there an assembly on earth, where this danger may not
be equally pretended? The truth is, that our proceedings will then be
consentaneous with the interests of the majority, and so they ought
to be. The probability is much greater, that the larger states will
disagree, than that they will combine. I defy the wit of man to invent a
possible case, or to suggest any one thing on earth, which shall be for
the interests of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, and which
will not also be for the interest of the other states.*

* Here terminate the author's notes of the 'earlier debates
on the confederation,' and recommences the MS. begun by him
in 1821.

These articles, reported July 12, '76, were debated from day to day, and
time to time, for two years, were ratified July 9, '78, by ten states,
by New-Jersey on the 26th of November of the same year, and by Delaware
on the 23rd of February following. Maryland alone held off two years
more, acceding to them March 1, '81, and thus closing the obligation.

Our delegation had been renewed for the ensuing year, commencing
August 11; but the new government was now organized, a meeting of the
legislature was to be held in October, and I had been elected a member
by my county. I knew that our legislation, under the regal government,
had many very vicious points which urgently required reformation, and
I thought I could be of more use in forwarding that work. I therefore
retired from my seat in Congress on the 2nd of September, resigned it,
and took my place in the legislature of my state, on the 7th of October.

On the 11th, I moved for leave to bring in a bill for the establishment
of courts of justice, the organization of which was of importance. I
drew the bill; it was approved by the committee, reported and passed,
after going through its due course.

On the 12th, I obtained leave to bring in a bill declaring tenants in
tail to hold their lands in fee simple. In the earlier times of the
colony, when lands were to be obtained for little or nothing, some
provident individuals procured large grants; and, desirous of founding
great families for themselves, settled them on their descendants in fee
tail. The transmission of this property from generation to generation,
in the same name, raised up a distinct set of families, who, being
privileged by law in the perpetuation of their we