[89] seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the twelfth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names.[Followed by the signatures of “George Washington, President, and deputy from Virginia,” and the other delegates who signed it.]
This attachment to the instrument—a mere attestation of its authenticity, and of the fact that it had the unanimous consent of all the states then present by their deputies—not of all the deputies, for some of them refused to sign it—has been strangely construed by some commentators as if it were a part of the Constitution, and implied that it was “done,” in the sense of completion of the work.1
But the work was not done when the convention closed its labors and adjourned. It was scarcely begun. There was no validity or binding force whatever in what had been already “done.” It was still to be submitted to the states for approval or rejection. Even if a majority of eight out of thirteen states had ratified it, the refusal of the ninth would have rendered it null and void. Madison, who was one of the most distinguished of its authors and signers, writing after it was completed and signed, but before it was ratified, said: “It is time now to recollect that the powers [of the Convention] were merely advisory and recommendatory; that they were so meant by the States, and so understood by the Convention; and that the later have accordingly planned and proposed a Constitution, which is to be of no more consequence than the paper on which it is written, unless it be stamped with the approbation of those to whom it is addressed.”2
The mode and terms in which this approval was expressed will be considered in the next chapter.
