Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/301

291 its faults, if they are ſuch; becauſe I think a general government neceſſary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a bleſſing, if well adminiſtered; and I believe farther, that this is likely to be well adminiſtered for a courſe of years, and can only end in deſpotiſm, as other forms have done before it, when the people ſhall become ſo corrupted as to need deſpotic government, being incapable of any other. I doubt, too, whether any other convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better conſtitution. For when you aſſemble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wiſdom, you inevitably aſſemble with thoſe men, all their prejudices, their paſſions, their errors of opinion, their local intereſts, and their ſelfiſh views. From ſuch an aſſembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore aſtoniſhes me, Sir, to find this ſyſtem approaching ſo near to perfection as it does and I think it will aſtoniſh our enemies, who are waiting with confidence, to hear that our councils are confounded, like thoſe of the builders of Babylon, and that our ſtates are on the point of ſeparation, only to meet hereafter for the purpoſe of cutting each other's throats.

Thus I conſent, Sir, to this conſtitution, becauſe I expect no better, and becauſe I am not ſure that this is not the beſt. The opinions I have had of its errors, I ſacrifice to the public good. I have never whiſpered a ſyllable of them abroad. Within theſe walls they were born; and here they ſhall die. If every one of us, in returning to our conſtituents, were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavour to gain partiſans in ſupport of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby loſe all the ſalutary effects and great advantages reſulting naturally in our favour among foreign nations, as well as