330 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

You are proof of the people's wisdom in the exercise of their fran-
chise — and representative of their enlightened awareness that what
is to be done here, by you, for them, will become the proud product of
Marylanders in this century and the heritage of the next one hundred
years.

As authors of the constitution, you are challenged to write for free
men the supreme law — and to find in the fewest words the fullest
expression of free government. In a sense you are like those who
created the Mayflower Compact out of their imagination, or the Fun-
damental Orders of Connecticut out of their common sense, or the
Articles of Confederation out of a compulsion for sudden indepen-
dence, or the Constitution of the United States from the overpowering
logic that thirteen separate sovereignties could not long endure untied
to each other.

Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black described the Constitution as
"the basic charter of our government written in few words to define
governmental powers generally on the one hand and to define govern-
mental limitations on the other. " Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
viewed the Constitution as "an experiment, " while Chief Justice John
Marshall revered the Constitution as "a design to approach im-
mortality as nearly as human institutions can approach it. "

Whichever concept, interpretation or definition you choose or re-
ject, the worth of your work will be judged by history and tested by
time.

You are the forefathers of the future, and while you may be privi-
leged now to look ahead, you will not be privileged to look back once
you have sealed the document and given it to the people for their
approbation.

So look back now while you still may, for there is something to be
learned and much to be remembered. Survey our national heritage
for precedent that serves and tradition that inspires.

Remember the special genius of America for writing constitutions
and calling its ablest delegates to convention for that purpose.

Remember the miracle at Philadelphia where independence gave
birth to statesmanship, and where thirteen states united to create one
nation and one people under one constitution.

Remember the spirit of that historic confrontation where political
passion surrendered to logic and compromise.