olleagues and likewise by
the Secretary, as Mr. Gerry delivered them.(40) These reasons were totally
different from those which he has published, neither was a single
objection which is contained in his letter to the legislature of
Massachusetts ever offered by him in convention.

Now, Mr. Gerry, as this is generally known to be the state of facts, and
as neither the reasons which you publish nor those retained on the
Secretary's files can be supposed to have the least affinity to truth, or
to contain the real motives which induced you to withhold your name from
the constitution, it appears to me that your plan was not judiciously
contrived. When we act without principle, we ought to be prepared against
embarrassments. You might have expected some difficulties in realizing
your continental money; indeed the chance was rather against your motion,
even in the most artful shape in which it could have been proposed. An
experienced hand would therefore have laid the whole plan beforehand, and
have guarded against a disappointment. You should have begun the business
with doubts, and expressed your sentiments with great ambiguity upon every
subject as it passed. This method would have secured you many advantages.
Your doubts and ambiguities, if artfully managed, might have passed, like
those of the Delphic Oracle, for wisdom and deliberation; and at the close
of the business you might have acted either for or against the
constitution, according to the success of your motion, without appearing
dishonest or inconsistent with yourself. One farther precaution would have
brought you off clear.

Instead of waiting till the convention rose, before you consulted your
friends at New York, you ought to have applied to them at an earlier
period, to know what objections you should make. They could have
instructed you as well in August as October.

With these advantages you might have past for a complete politician, and
your duplicity might never have been detected.

The enemies of America have always been extremely unfortunate in
concerting their measures. They have generally betrayed great ignorance of
the true spirit and feeling of the country, and they have failed to act in
concert with each other. This is uniformly conspicuous, from the first
Bute Parliament in London to the last Shays Parliament at Pelham.

The conduct of the enemies of the new constitution compares with that of
the other enemies above mentioned only in two parti