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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.

I doubt, too, whether any other 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. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?

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.

Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad.

Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die.

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.

as

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, well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors. 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.

On the whole, sir, I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the convention who may still have objection 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.

AMERICA

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty,
Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills,
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet Freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to thee,
Author of Liberty,

To thee we sing;

Long may our land be bright With Freedom's holy light; Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King.

Our glorious Land to-day,
'Neath Education's sway,
Soars upward still.

Its halls of learning fair,
Whose bounties all may share,
Behold them everywhere
On vale and hill!

Thy safeguard, Liberty,
The school shall ever be, -
Our Nation's pride!
No tyrant hand shall smite,
While with encircling might
All here are taught the Right
With Truth allied.

Beneath Heaven's gracious will The star of progress still

Our course doth sway;

In unity sublime

To broader heights we climb,

Triumphant over Time,

God speeds our way!

Grand birthright of our sires,
Our altars and our fires

Keep we still pure!

Our starry flag unfurled,
The hope of all the world,

In Peace and Light impearled,
God hold secure!

S. F. SMITH

OUR NATION NOT FOR SALE

[graphic][merged small]

"MILLIONS for Defense,

but not one cent for tribute!" expressed the sentiment of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, envoy to France in 1797, when French agents told him that pay would be expected if France were to consider the grievances of the United States.

It looked at that time as though there must be war with France and Pinckney's defiant words expressed the feeling of every true American. In fact, war had actually begun

when Napoleon Bonaparte came into power and promptly made peace.

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