1653. CONSTITUTION (The Federal), Amendments to.—[continued].
There are two amendments
only which I am anxious for: 1. A bill of rights, which it is so much the interest of
all to have, that I conceive it must be yielded.
The first amendment proposed by Massachusetts
[101]
will in some degree answer this end,
but not so well. It will do too much in some
instances, and too little in others. It will
cripple the Federal Government in some
cases where it ought to be free, and not restrain
it in some others where restraint would
be right. The 2d amendment which appears
to me essential is the restoring the principle
of necessary rotation, particularly to the Senate
and Presidency, but most of all to the last. * * * Of the correction of this article,
however, I entertain no present hope, because
I find it has scarcely excited an objection in
America. And if it does not take place ere
long, it assuredly never will.—
To E. Carrington. Washington ed. ii, 404.
Ford ed., v, 20.
(P.
May. 1788)
