the Senate to choose judges, while the other half wanted the president to do it. Luther Martin supported Senate appointment because he thought that body's members would defend the interests of the individual states. Nathaniel Gorham suggested a compromise—appointment by the president with the "advice and consent of the Senate". While the meaning of "advice and consent" was still undefined, the proposal gained some support. On July 21, Madison offered an alternative compromise—the president would appoint judges but the Senate could veto an appointment by a two-thirds majority. This proposal would have made it very hard for the Senate to block judicial appointments. Madison's proposal failed to garner support, and the delegates ended by reaffirming that the Senate would appoint judges. On July 21, Wilson and Madison tried unsuccessfully to revive Madison's Council of Revision proposal. While judges had a role in reviewing the constitutionality of laws, argued Gorham, mixing the policy judgments of the president with the legal judgments of a court would violate separation of powers. John Rutledge agreed, saying "judges ought never to give their opinion on a law till it comes before them". Amendments and ratification The delegates recognized that a major flaw with the Articles of Confederation was that any constitutional amendment required unanimous approval of the states. On July 23, the convention endorsed the need for a different way of amending the Constitution, but it was not prepared to vote on specifics. It also discussed how the completed Constitution would become law. Oliver Ellsworth and William Paterson argued that state legislatures should ratify the Constitution to align with precedent under the Articles of Confederation and because the legislatures represented the will of the people. Nathaniel Gorham argued that state legislators would reject the Constitution to protect their own power. George Mason believed that state legislatures lacked the authority to ratify the new Constitution because they were creations of the state constitutions. Mason argued that only the people acting through specially called state conventions could authorize a new government. Madison agreed with Mason. He considered the Articles of Confederation to be a mere treaty among the states, but a true constitution could only be adopted by the people themselves. By a vote of nine to one, the delegates voted to submit the Constitution to state ratifying conventions. First draft The Convention adjourned from July 26 to August 6 to await the report of the Committee