1651. CONSTITUTION (The Federal), Adopt and amend.—[further continued] .
I should deprecate with you, indeed, the meeting of a new convention.
I hope they will adopt the mode of
amendment by Congress and the Assemblies,
in which case I should not fear any dangerous
innovation in the plan. But the minorities
are too respectable not to be entitled to some
sacrifice of opinion in the majority; especially,
when a great proportion of them would be
contented with a bill of rights.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. ii, 506.
Ford ed., v, 53.
(P.
Nov. 1788)