1656. CONSTITUTION (The Federal), Amendments to.—[further continued].
How the good [in the new
Constitution] should be secured and the ill
brought to right was the difficulty. To refer
it back to a new Convention might endanger
the loss of the whole. My first idea was that
the nine States, first acting, should accept it
unconditionally, and thus secure what in it was
good and that the four last should accept on the
previous condition, that certain amendments
should be agreed to; but a better course was
devised of accepting the whole and trusting
that the good sense and honest intentions of
our citizens would make the alterations which
should be deemed necessary. Accordingly, all
accepted, six without objection and seven with
recommendations of specified amendments.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 79.
Ford ed., i, 109.
(1821)
