Sir, I see no wisdom in making this provision for future changes. You must give Governments time to operate on the People, and give the People time to become gradually assimilated to their institutions. Almost any thing is better than this state of perpetual uncertainty. A People may have the best form of Government that the wit of man ever devised, and yet, from its uncertainty alone, may, in effect, live under the worst Government in the world. Sir, how often must I repeat, that _change_ is not _reform?_ I am willing that this new Constitution shall stand as long as it is possible for it to stand; and that, believe me, is a very short time. Sir, it is vain to deny it. They may say what they please about the old Constitution,--the defect is not there. It is not in the form of the old edifice,--neither in the design nor in the elevation; it is in the _material_, it is in the People of Virginia. To my knowledge that People are changed from what they have been. The four hundred men who went out with David were _in debt_. The fellow-laborers of Catiline were _in debt_. The partizans of Caesar were _in debt_. And I defy you to show me a desperately indebted People, anywhere, who can bear a regular, sober Government. I throw the challenge to all who hear me. I say that the character of the good old Virginia planter,--the man who owned from five to twenty slaves, or less, who, lived by hard work, and who paid his debts,--is passed away. A new order of things is come. The period has arrived of living by one's wits; of living by contracting debts that one cannot pay; and above all, of living by office-hunting.