University of Virginia Library

1696. CONSTITUTION (The Federal), Preservation of.—[further continued].

I do, with sincere zeal,
wish an inviolable preservation of our present
Federal Constitution according to the true
sense in which it was adopted by the States;
that in which it was advocated by its friends,
and not that which its enemies apprehended,
who therefore became its enemies.—
To Elbridge Gerry. Washington ed. iv, 268. Ford ed., vii, 327.
(Pa., 1799)