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11th CONGRESS, 1st SESSION/
SENATE DOCUMENT 11–4
The Declaration of Independence was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment.
"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."
Alexander Hamilton, 1775
". . . a constitution, intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs."
John Marshall
At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked,
"What have you wrought?"
He answered,
". . . a Republic, if you can keep it."
