l meaning
should be carried into effect, its legal meaning would nevertheless
remain the same; for no judicial tribunal could lawfully allow the
parties to it to come into court and allege their dishonest intentions,
and claim that they be substituted for the legal meaning of the words of
the instrument.

[Footnote 27: The Supreme Court say, "The instrument, when it came from
their hands, (that is, the hands of the convention,) was a mere
proposal, without obligation or pretension to it." "The people were at
perfect liberty to accept or reject it; and their act was
final."--_M'Cullock_ vs. _Maryland_,--4 _Wheaton_ 403-4.]

[Footnote 28: The Supreme Court of the United States say:

"The intention of the instrument must prevail: _this intention must be
collected from its words_."--_Ogden_ vs. _Saunders_,--12 _Wheaton_, 332.

"The intention of the legislature is to be searched for in the words
which the legislature has employed to convey it."--_Schr. Paulina's
Cargo_ vs. _United States_,--7 _Cranch_, 60.]

[Footnote 29: "Elliot's Debates," so often referred to, are, if
possible, a more miserable authority than Mr. Madison's notes. He seems
to have picked up the most of them from the newspapers of the day, in
which they were reported by nobody now probably knows whom. In his
preface to his first volume, containing the debates in the Massachusetts
and New York conventions, he says:

"In the compilation of this volume, care has been taken to search into
contemporary publications, in order to make the work as perfect as
possible; still, however, the editor is sensible, from the daily
experience of newspaper reports, of the present time, that the
sentiments they contain may, in some instances, have been inaccurately
taken down, and in others, probably too faintly sketched, fully to
gratify the inquisitive politician." He also speaks of them as "rescued
from the ephemeral prints of that day, and now, for the first time,
presented in a uniform and durable form."

In the preface to his second volume, which is devoted to the Virginia
convention, he says the debates were reported by an able stenographer,
David Robertson; and then quotes the following from Mr. Wirt, in a note
to the life of Patrick Henry:

"From the skill and ability of the reporter, there can be no doubt that
the substance of the debates, as well as their general course, are
accurately preserved."

In his preface to the third volume, embracing the North C