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Ordered That the ratifications of the constitution of the United States transmitted to Congress be
referred to a comee .4 to examine the same and report an Act to Congress for putting the said
constitution into operation in pursuance of the resolutions of the late federal Convention.
[Note 4: 4 According to indorsement and the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190,
p. 197, the committee consisted of Mr. Edward Carrington, Mr. Pierpont Edwards, Mr. Abraham Baldwin, Mr.
Samuel Allyne Otis and Mr. Thomas Tudor Tucker. It reported July 8, 1788. See July 9, 14, 28 and September
13, 1788.]
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So it was resolved as follows
2Whereas
the Convention assembled in Philadelphia pursuant to the resolution of Congress of the 21st .
of Feby . 1787 did on the 17th . of Sept of the same year report to the United States in Congress
assembled a constitution for the people of the United States, whereupon Congress on the 28 of the same
Sept did resolve unanimously "That the said report with the resolutions and letter accompanying the
Summary
As can be seen, the final agreed upon resolution on the organization of the new government under the
new Constitution was little changed from what the committee report of July 8, 1788 had
recommended. The schedule was simply delayed one month in hopes that all of the states would have
ratified by that delayed time frame, and the place for commencing first proceedings under the new
Constitution, which had not been stated earlier, was decided as being the then current seat of Congress,
Federal Hall in Manhattan, New York. The first business conducted by the new Congress, in
establishing the new government, was an election of presiding officers for the new Senate and House of
Representatives, followed by the counting of votes for President and Vice President on April 6th of
1789 before a joint session of Congress. George Washington was confirmed as the President elect, and
John Adams was confirmed as Vice President. John Adams was sworn in first, and George Washington
was innaugurated April 30, 1789 on the balcony of Federal Hall. He was sworn in by Chancellor of
New York Robert Livingston, who administered the oath of office. Livingston, being the highest
judicial officer in the state of New York, was chosen to administer the oath for the reason that the
Justices of the federal supreme court had not yet been appointed, and could not be appointed until the
President was sworn in to his office.
As an added note, if you noticed that I did not capitalize "supreme court," you may have thought that I
erred in that regard, but the reason for my not doing so is that it was not capitalized in the Constitution.
Article III Section 1 states that, "The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme
Court.." As can be seen, "supreme" was not capitalized, and the only reason why "Court" was
capitalized was because of a style agreement wherein all nouns in the Constitution were to be
capitalized. Thus, the proper terminology is "supreme court," and therefore supreme court was not
intended to be a given name. It would appear that it became first capitalized within the Judiciary Act of
1789, as it starts out being the "supreme court" in Chapter XX Section 1, and changes to "Supreme
Court," for no apparent reason, in Section 4 and beyond.