The man who venerates any work of human origin is an ass. His asininity is exactly in degree with the smallness of the objects selected for his veneration. The man who humbly lowers his eyes in contemplation of a political constitution proclaims a lack of mental breadth fitted to comprehend humanity or to understand the plain lessons of history, and he has insulted the one entity worthy of veneration—the Maker of the Universe.
In a preceding article I proved that the framers of the Constitution distrusted the people almost to the point of hatred, and that they deliberately planned to design a document which would give them the semblance of popular rule but none of its substance. This is an unquestioned historical fact. Its declaration may seem startling to those who are confronted with the unvarnished truth for the first time, but they will find it refreshing to study the real history of those days, rather than ignorantly to worship demigods who never existed.
Immutable laws cannot be coexistent with progress. We should study the past, not for the purpose of supinely imitating it, but with a view of profiting by its mistakes. That government is best which avoids the pitfalls of the past, exists for those who live today, and erects no barriers for the generations that will follow.
For the benefit of those who still cling to the belief that constitutional wisdom had its birth with Washington and his compatriots, I take the liberty of quoting a few extracts from letters written by the Father of his Country before and after the constitutional convention had finished its labors. These utterances of Washington are trite and easily understood, and since their authenticity is unquestioned, they possess as much of inspiration as any wisdom coming from him or his colleagues.
These extracts are contained in letters written by Washington to leading men of that period, urging them to give their support to the adoption of the new Constitution, and he pinned his faith to one argument, as you shall see. I commend to all idolaters of that document a careful reading of Washington’s opinion of it, and his advice to them.
Shortly before the convention met he wrote a letter to John Jay, bearing the date of March 10, 1787. The convention assembled May 14 of that year. In that letter Washington said:
“Notwithstanding the boasted virtue of America, it is more than probable we shall exhibit the last melancholy proof that mankind are not competent to their own government without the means of coercion in a sovereign.”
There is no occult meaning hidden in these words. Washington had no faith in the capacity of the people to govern themselves, and did not hesitate to say so. In this, as I proved in a preceding article, he was in accord with the overwhelming majority of the delegates who composed that convention. The question I desire to ask is this: Was Washington inspired when he wrote those lines to John Jay, and if not, when did his inspiration begin?
Let us see what he wrote after the convention had finished its work. On January 12, 1788, he wrote to Mr. Charles Carter as follows: