The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CLXV

by Max Farrand

ⅭⅬⅩⅤ. Robert Morris to a Friend.^[1]

January, 1788.

This paper has been the subject of infinite investigation, disputation, and declamation. While some have boasted it as a work from Heaven, others have given it a less righteous origin. I have many reasons to believe that it is the work of plain, honest men, and such, I think, it will appear. Faulty it must be, for what is perfect? But if adopted, experience will, I believe, show that its faults are just the reverse of what they are supposed to be. As yet this paper is but a dead letter. Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Georgia have adopted it. We wait impatiently the result of their deliberations in Massachusetts. Should that State also adopt it, which I hope and believe, there will then be little doubt of a general acquiescence.

1. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, II, 191–192.