1664. CONSTITUTION (The Federal), Approval of.—[further continued].
I approved, from the
first moment, of the great mass of what is in
the new Constitution; the consolidation of the
government; the organization into Executive,
Legislative, and Judiciary; the subdivision of
the Legislative; the happy compromise of interests
between the great and little States, by
the different manner of voting in the different
Houses; the voting by persons instead of
States; the qualified negative on laws given
to the Executive, which, however, I should
have liked better if associated with the Judiciary
also as in New York; and the power
of taxation. I thought at first that the latter
might have been limited. A little reflection
soon convinced me it ought not to be.—
To F. Hopkinson. Washington ed. ii, 586.
Ford ed., v, 76.
(P.
March. 1789)
