"
Here was the voice of compromise, and of that conciliatory spirit,
which alone can make union possible. If the people at large would show
the same indulgence toward each other, the experiment would be given
a trial. Assuredly, the members of the convention set them a good
example of toleration. "No man's ideas," said Hamilton, "are more
remote from the plan than my own are known to be; but is it possible
to deliberate between anarchy and convulsion on the one side and the
chance of good to be expected from the plan on the other?" "I consent,
sir, to this Constitution," said the aged Franklin, in a paper read
by his confrere, Wilson, "because I expect no better, and because I
am not sure it is not the best." He advised that opinions on the errors
of the document should never be carried beyond the walls of the
convention.
"If every one of us here," said he, "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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