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Related Sources | Federalist#9 | Henry, "Against the Federal Constitution" | Federalist Papers | Constitution |rhetorical outline

Benjamin Franklin, "On the Constitution," 1787

 Mr. President:—  
1.1
 I confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present; but, sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it; for, having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.  
1.2
 It is therefore that, the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment of others.  
1.3
 Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them, it is so far error.  
1.4
 Steele, a Protestant, in a dedication, tells the Pope that the only difference between our two churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrine is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never in the wrong.  
1.5
 But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who, in a little dispute with her sister, said: "But I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right." "Je ne trouve que moi qui aie toujours raison."  
   
2.1
 In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults—if they are such;—because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.  
2.2
 I doubt, too, whether any convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution; for, when you assemble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views.  
2.3
 From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?  
2.4
 It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our counsels are confounded like those of the builders of Babel, and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another’s throats.  
   
3.1
 Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best.  
3.2
 The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good.  
3.3
 I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad.  
3.4
 Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die.  
3.5
 If every one of us, in returning to our constituents, were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partisans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects and great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign nations, as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity.  
3.6
 Much of the strength and efficiency of any government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion, on the general opinion, of the goodness of that government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors.  
3.7
 I hope, therefore, for our own sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake of our posterity, that we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution, wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the means of having it well administered.  
   
4.1
 On the whole, sir, I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the convention who may still have objections to it would with me on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and, to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.  
 
Rhetorical History Sources on Franklin
History and Biography
Isaacson, Walter Benjamin Franklin : An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Morgan, Edmund Sears Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale UP, 2002.
Waldstreicher, David Runaway America : Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution. New York: Hill & Wang, 2004.
Rhetorical Criticism
Andrews, James R. "The Rhetoric of a Lobbyist: Benjamin Franklin in England, 1765-1775." Central States Speech Journal 18 (1967):
Gravlee, G. Jack, and James R. Irvine. "Franklin Reexamined: A Rejection of Parliamentary Manipulation." Southern Speech Communication Journal 48 (1983):
Henry, David D. "Concern for Consensus." Quarterly Journal of Speech 47 (1961): 239-243.