14,060

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necessary for us. I doubt, too, whether any other conven-

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tion we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitu-

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tion. For when you assemble a number of men, to have the

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advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble

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with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their

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errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish

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views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be

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expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this

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system approaching so near to perfection as it does....

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Thus, I consent to this Constitution, Sir, because I expect

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no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the

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best.

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"On the whole, Sir," he said, "I cannot help

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expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who

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may still have objections to it, would, with me on this

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occasion, doubt a little of his own infallibility — and to

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make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instru-

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ment."

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When one's memory spans as many decades as did

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Doctor Franklin's — and as does mine — it is a little

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hard to maintain a stance of infallibility, of perfect