PAINE "CONSTITUTION"

"I see by the papers that you have had a Convention to remodel the Constitution--I very soon saw that the Constitutionalists would overthrow the Constitution by rashly using that power entrusted to their moderation--The spirit of the Constitution required prudence, and the Actors substituted temper and party in the room of it and thereby subjected the legislation of every year to the caprice of election day-- "I wish most anxiously to see my much loved America--it is the Country from whence all reformations must originally spring--I despair of seeing an Abolition of the infernal traffic in Negroes--we must push that matter further on your side of the water--I wish that a few well instructed Negroes could be sent among their Brethren in Bondage, for until they are enabled to take their own part nothing will be done-- " P.372, "To Benjamin Rush, March 16, 1790," THOMAS PAINE, COLLECTED WRITINGS (1955)