The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCLXXXIX
The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCLXXXIX
ⅭⅭⅬⅩⅩⅩⅨ. Gouverneur Morris in the United States Senate.[1]
There are some honorable gentlemen now present, who sat in the Convention which formed this Constitution. I appeal to their recollection, if they have not seen the time when the fate of America was suspended by a hair? my life for it, if another convention be assembled, they will part without doing anything. Never, in the flow of time, was there a moment so propitious, as that in which the Convention assembled. The States had been convinced, by melancholy experience, how inadequate they were to the management of our national concerns. The passions of the people were lulled to sleep; State pride slumbered; the Constitution was promulgated; and then it awoke, and opposition was formed; but it was in vain. The people of America bound the States down by this compact.
- ↑ Annals of Congress, Seventh Congress, First Session, Ⅰ, 40.