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

by Max Farrand

ⅭⅩⅭⅤ. Benjamin Franklin to the Editor of the Federal Gazette.^[1]

To conclude, I beg I may not be understood to infer, that our general Convention was divinely inspired when it form’d the new federal Constitution, merely because that Constitution has been unreasonably and vehemently opposed; yet I must own I have so much Faith in the general Government of the World by Providence, that I can hardly conceive a Transaction of such momentous Importance to the Welfare of Millions now existing, and to exist in the Posterity of a great Nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenc’d, guided and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent & beneficent Ruler, in whom all inferior Spirits live & move and have their Being.—

1. Documentary History of the Constitution, Ⅳ, 567–571; printed in the Federal Gazette, April 8, 1788.