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Editor's Note: Benjamin Franklin's voice was weak, so James Wilson read this speech for him on the final day of the Constitutional Convention, Monday, September 17, 1787. Franklin then moved for adoption of the Constitution. An octogenarian with an active mind, Franklin would again be elected president of Pennsylvania. He brought to the Convention his wise counsel and powers of conciliation.
Mr. President,
I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their...