This is not to say that all disputes were placated and that the dele-
gates were pleased with their handiwork. On the contrary, there was
much dissatisfaction and a general feeling that perhaps too much
had been compromised.

The venerable Benjamin Franklin, then 80 years old, acknowledged
that there was much in the constitution of which he disapproved,
but he said he was not sure that he would always disapprove them.
These were his words, among the wisest he ever uttered, on the Great
Compromise.

"For having lived long, " he said, "I have experienced many
instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller
consideration, to change opinions even on important sub-
jects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.
In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this constitution with all
its faults, if they are such; because I think a general govern-
ment necessary for us. I doubt, too, whether any other con-
vention we can obtain may be able to make a better constitu-
tion. 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. "
Then Franklin asked this question: "From such an assembly can
a perfect production be expected?"

He went on to say: "It therefore astonished 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 councils are confounded like those of the builders of Babel;
and that our states are on the point of separation, only to meet here-
after for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus, " he
said, "I consent to this constitution because I expect no better, and
because I am not sure that it is not the best.... "

Franklin ended his speech by appealing to those around him who
still, like himself, harbored some objections to the constitution, to
"doubt a little about (their) infallibility" and in unanimity put their
mines to the instrument.

There is, I think, as much to be learned about the art of politics —
about the science of people governing themselves — in the proceedings
at the Constitutional Convention as there is in the document that
was produced there. For one thing, there is the lesson to those of
us who may be inclined toward self-interest to protect the weak from
the strong, the small from the great.

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