“I am not a blind admirer (for I saw its imperfections) of the Constitution to which I have assisted to give birth; but I am fully persuaded it is the best that can be obtained at this day, and that it is it or disunion before us. When the defects of it are experienced, a constitutional door is open for amendments.”
There is nothing evasive about this, but those who now repeat such sentiments are suspected of treason by fools, and of a lack of patriotism by unthinking conservatives. On February 7, 1788, Washington wrote to Lafayette and said:
“Should the Constitution which is now offered to the people of America be found on experiment less perfect than it can be made, a constitutional door is left open for its amelioration.”
We have made that experiment. Have we found the Constitution perfect? Where is that “constitutional door,” and why do we not open it?
Writing from Mount Vernon in October, 1787, to Henry Knox, Washington said:
“Is there not a constitutional door open for alterations and amendments? Is it not likely that real defects will be as readily discovered after as before trial? Will not our successors be as ready to apply the remedy as ourselves, if occasion should demand it? To think otherwise will, in my opinion, be ascribing more love of country, more wisdom and more virtue to ourselves than I think we deserve.”
Dear Shade of Washington! You may have been inspired, but you were not able to foresee the bigotry, the ignorance and the cowardice of your descendants. In the language of Cicero, “we are so tied to certain beliefs that we are bound to defend even those we do not approve.” We are like the fools Montaigne describes, “who do not ask whether such and such a thing be true, but whether it has been so and so understood.” We know that the Constitution is full of errors, but all that we ask is that we may be given the wisdom so to interpret it as to suffer as few discomforts from its perpetual operation as possible. In the language of Seneca, we believe in “not only a necessity of erring, but we have a love of error.”
One more of the innumerable quotations of like purport from George Washington will be sufficient. On November 10, 1787, he wrote from Mount Vernon to Bushrod Washington and said:
“The people (for it is with them to judge) can, as they will have the advantage of experience on their side, decide with as much propriety on the alterations and amendments which are necessary as ourselves. I do not think we are more inspired, have more wisdom or possess more virtue than those who will come after us. The power under the Constitution will always be with the people.”
I have been a fairly zealous student of American history, yet I have never seen these quotations from the writings of George Washington in print outside of the huge compilation of his documents and letters to be found in well-ordered reference libraries. Certain it is that our school children are not taught that such characters as Washington doubted the absolute perfection of the Constitution. Certain it is that not one man in ten thousand in the United States ever has had an opportunity to consider our Constitution in the light of the facts presented in this paper and in the one which preceded it.