rejected. The record says: “The first resolution ‘that a national government ought to be established,’ being taken up.”.... Mr. Ellsworth, seconded by Mr. Gorham, moves to alter it, so as to run that the government of the United States ought to consist, &c... This alteration he said, would drop the word national, and retain the proper title “the United States.” (Ibid. page 908) This motion was unanimously adopted by the Convention. (Ibid. page 909) That is, they unanimously rejected “the term national government,” and yet both Story and Webster build an argument on this term just as it had
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