I doubt, too,
whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a
better constitution; for, when you assemble a number of men, to have
the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with
those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of
opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such
an assembly can a _perfect_ production be expected? It therefore
astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to
perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who
are waiting with confidence to hear, that our councils are confounded
like those of the builders of Babel, and that our States are on the
point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of
cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this
Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure
that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its _errors_ I
sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of
them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall
die. If every one of us, in returning to our Constituents, were to
report the objections he has had to it, and endeavour to gain
Partisans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally
received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects and great
advantages resulting naturally in our favour among foreign nations,
as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity.
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