, and judiciary, by oath, to maintain
that constitution. I do not pretend to decide, what would be the best
method of procuring the establishment of the manifold good things in
this constitution, and of getting rid of the bad. Whether by adopting
it, in hopes of future amendment; or, after it shall have been duly
weighed and canvassed by the people, after seeing the parts they
generally dislike, and those they generally approve, to say to them,
'We see now what you wish. You are willing to give to your federal
government such and such powers: but you wish, at the same time, to have
such and such fundamental rights secured to you, and certain sources of
convulsion taken away. Be it so. Send together your deputies again. Let
them establish your fundamental rights by a sacrosanct declaration, and
let them pass the parts of the constitution you have approved. These
will give powers to your federal government sufficient for your
happiness.' This is what might be said, and would probably produce a
speedy, more perfect, and more permanent form of government. At all
events, I hope you will not be discouraged from making other trials, if
the present one should fail. We are never permitted to despair of
the commonwealth. I have thus told you freely what I like, and what I
dislike, merely as a matter of curiosity; for I know it is not in my
power to offer matter of information to your judgment, which has been
formed after hearing and weighing every thing which the wisdom of
man could offer on these subjects. I own, I am not a friend to a very
energetic government. It is always oppressive. It places the governors
indeed more at their ease, at the expense of the people. The late
rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm, than I think it should
have done. Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen States in the course
of eleven years, is but one for each State in a century and a half. No
country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of power in
the hands of government prevent insurrections. In England, where the
hand of power is heavier than with us, there are seldom half a dozen
years without an insurrection. In France, Where it is still heavier, but
less despotic, as Montesquieu supposes, than in some other countries,
and where there are always two or three hundred thousand men ready to
crush insurrections, there have been three in the course of the three
years I have been here, in every one of which greater numbers