Whether we shall be so fortunate as to concur in measures calculated to remove these difficulties, and render our Government firm and energetic, remains to be proved. A change in our political System is inevitable; the States have wisely foreseen this, and provided a remedy. Congress have sanctioned it. The consequences may be serious, should the Convention dissolve without coming to some determination.—I dread even to think of the event of a convulsion, and how much the ineffectual assemblage of this body may tend to produce it. Our citizens would then suppose that no reasonable hope remained of quietly removing the public embarrassment, or of providing by a well-formed Government, for the protection and happiness of the People. They might possibly turn their attention to effecting that by force, which had been in vain constitutionally attempted.
I ought again to apologize for presuming to intrude my sentiments upon a subject of such difficulty and importance. It is one that I have for a considerable time attended to. I am doubtful whether the Convention will at first be inclined to proceed as far as I have intended; but this I think may be safely asserted, that upon a clear and comprehensive view of the relative situation of the Union, and its Members, we shall be convinced of the policy of concentering in the Federal Head, a compleate supremacy in the affairs of Government; leaving only to the States, such powers as may be necessary for the management of their internal concerns.
ⅭⅩⅩⅩ. James Madison to George Washington.[1]
New York, Octr. 14. 1787.
I add…a pamphlet which Mr. Pinkney has submitted to the public,[2] or rather as he professes, to the perusal of his friends;[3]
ⅭⅩⅩⅩⅠ. Edmund Randolph to the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.[4]
Richmond, Oct. 10. 1787.
The constitution which I enclosed to the general assembly in a late official letter, appears without my signature. This circumstance, although trivial in its own nature, has been rendered rather important to myself at least by being misunderstood by some, and misrepresented by others.—As I disdain to conceal the reasons
