Page:Debates in the Several State Conventions, v1.djvu/267

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1787.]
ADDITIONAL POWERS.
247

make peace" to the 14th clause; which passed unanimously in the negative.

Separate questions having been taken on the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 14th clauses of the 1st section, 7th article, as amended, they passed in the affirmative.

And the house adjourned till to-morrow, at 11 o'clock, A. M.

Saturday, August 18, 1787.

The following additional powers, proposed to be vested in the legislature of the United States, having been submitted to the consideration of the Convention, it was moved and seconded to refer them to the committee to whom the proceedings of the Convention were referred; which passed in the affirmative.

The propositions are as follow:—

"To dispose of the unappropriated lands of the United States.

"To institute temporary governments for new states arising therein.

"To regulate affairs with the Indians, as well within as without the limits of the United States.

"To exercise exclusively legislative authority at the seat of the general government, and over a district around the same, not exceeding square miles, the consent of the legislature of the state or states comprising such district being first obtained.

"To grant charters of incorporation in cases where the public good may require them, and the authority of a single state may be incompetent.

"To secure to literary authors their copyrights for a limited time.

"To establish a university.

"To encourage, by proper premiums and provisions, the advancement of useful knowledge and discoveries.

"To authorize the executive to procure and hold, for the use of the United States, landed property for the erection of forts, magazines, and other necessary buildings.

"To fix and permanently establish the seat of government of the United States, in which they shall possess the exclusive right of soil and jurisdiction.

"To establish seminaries for the promotion of literature, and the arts and sciences.

"To grant charters of incorporation.

"To grant patents for useful inventions.

"To secure authors exclusive rights for a certain time.

"To establish public institutions, rewards, and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, commerce, trades, and manufactures.

"That funds which shall be appropriated for the payment of public creditors shall not, during the time of such appropriation, be diverted or applied to any other purpose; and to prepare a clause, or clauses, for restraining the legislature of the United States from establishing a perpetual revenue.

"To secure the payment of the public debt.