As we know, the “people” of America _themselves_ are identified by the word “conventions” in this Fifth Article, just as they are identified by the same word in the Seventh Article. As we know, _we ourselves_--the posterity of the “people” of the Preamble--are identified by this word “conventions” in the Fifth Article, just as we are identified in the Tenth Amendment as the most important reservee thereof by the word “people.” Wherefore our interest in this motion of Gerry and its overwhelming defeat is only exceeded by our absolute amazement, for the last five years, at the universal ignorance of the fact that it _was_ defeated and of the fact that _we_ are mentioned in the Fifth Article as the only competent makers of any new Articles which either directly interfere or grant power to interfere with our individual freedom. We do not know, and to an extent we do not care, what was the purpose of Gerry. Gerry was always an opponent of a Constitution which vested _national_ power in a general government. He was an advocate of the continued complete independence of each state and its government and of a mere _federal_ union of states with a purely _federal_ constitution. He was also always a consistent Tory in his mental attitude as to the relation of human being to government. If he had been successful in striking out any mention of ourselves, the “people” or “conventions,” leaving only the mention of the state legislatures, with their existing ability to make _federal_ Articles, it would have been impossible that any further _national_ power (beyond the grants of the First Article) be vested in the general government or taken from each state government, as only we ourselves could make _national_ Articles like the First. We surmise that a mixture of his Tory mental attitude and his opposition to a general national government (which minimized the importance and diminished the independent sovereignty of each state government) prompted his motion. That his motion was overwhelmingly defeated is the only important fact for us American citizens. We shall not forget it even if our leaders and our “constitutional” thinkers forget it and ignore it.