who, I am told, is disposed to patch up the old scheme of Government. This was not my opinion of him, when we chose him: he is as cunning as the Devil, and if you attack him, you ought to know him well; he is not easily managed, but if he suspects you are trying to take him in, you may as well catch an Eel by the tail.
XXXVa. George Washington: Diary.[1]
Monday, [June] 4.—Convention as on Saturday.
XXXVI. George Washington to La Fayette.[2]
Philadelphia, June 6th 1787.
It was, when I came here, and still is, my intention, to write you a long letter from this place before I leave it, but the hour is not yet come when I can do it to my own Satisfaction or for your information. I therefore shall wait till the result of the present meeting is more matured, and till the members who constitute it are at liberty to communicate the proceedings more freely before I attempt it.
You will I dare say, be surprized my dear Marquis to receive a letter from me at this place,—you will probably, be more so, when you hear that I am again brought, contrary to my public declaration, and intention, on a public theatre—such is the viscissitude of human affairs, and such the frailty of human nature that no man I conceive can well answer for the resolutions he enters into.
The pressure of the public voice was so loud, I could not resist the call to a convention of the States which is to determine whether we are to have a Government of respectability under which life—liberty, and property will be secured to us, or are to submit to one which may be the result of chance or the moment, springing perhaps from anarchy and Confusion, and dictated perhaps by some aspiring demagogue who will not consult the interest of his Country so much as his own ambitious views. What my be the result of the present deliberations is more than I am able, at present, if I was at liberty, to inform you, & therefore I will make this letter short, with the assurance of being more particular when I can be more satisfactory—
XXXVII. James Madison to Thomas Jefferson.[3]
Philada. June 6th. 1787.
The day fixed for the meeting of the Convention was the 14th.
