The Constitution of the United States: A Brief Study of the Genesis, Formulation and Political Philosophy of the Constitution — John Shaqi
The Constitution of the United States: A Brief Study of the Genesis, Formulation and Political Philosophy of the ConstitutionBeck, James M. (James Montgomery)
History
The Constitution of the United States: A Brief Study of the Genesis, Formulation and Political Philosophy of the Constitution
Beck, James M. (James Montgomery)
Constitutional law -- United States; United States. Constitution
On September 17 the convention met for the last time. The document was
engrossed and laid before the members for signature. Of the fifty-five
members who had attended, only thirty-nine remained. Of those, a number
were unwilling to sign as individuals. While the members had not been
unconscious of the magnitude of their labours, they were quite
insensible of the magnitude of their achievement. Few there were of the
convention who were enthusiastic about this result. Indeed, as the
document was ready for signature, it became a grave question whether the
remnant which remained had sufficient faith in their own work to
subscribe their names, and if they failed to do so its adoption by the
people would have been impossible. It was then that Doctor Franklin
rendered one of the last and greatest services of his life. With
ingratiating wit and with all the impressiveness that his distinguished
career inspired, Franklin thus spoke:
"I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I
do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve
them. For having lived long I have experienced many instances of
being obliged by better information or fuller consideration, to
change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought
right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I
grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment and to pay more
respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most
sects in religion think themselves in possession of all truth, and
that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele, a
Protestant, in a dedication tells the Pope that the only difference
between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their
doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of
England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think
almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their
sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who in a
dispute with her sister, said: 'I don't know how it happens, sister,
but I meet with nobody but myself that's always in the right.'--_Il
n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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