Franklin on humility

Words for our time too

On the last day of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin requested permission to address the delegates. Their work was nearly done; all that remained was the signing. A few had suggested they would not sign; the document the convention devised did not satisfy them. Franklin urged them to reconsider.

Ill health prevented Franklin from standing long; on this occasion as on others during the convention he had written out his comments and asked fellow Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson to read them to the gathering.

“Mr. President,” said Franklin, addressing George Washington. “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 opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady who in a dispute with her sister said ‘I don’t know how it happens, Sister, but I meet with nobody but myself that’s always in the right — Il n’y a que moi qui a toujours raison.’

“In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this constitution with all its faults, if they are such, because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther 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 councils 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 partizans 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. 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 the government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this constitution (if approved by Congress and confirmed by the conventions) 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 objections 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.”

Franklin allowed a few moments for his words to sink in. Then, just in case not everyone was persuaded, he cannily closed with a formula that would hide the holdouts. “Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present the 17th. of September etc. — In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names.”

And so the Constitution, with the unanimous approval of the states present (Rhode Island had boycotted the convention), was sent to the states for the approval of their people. The refusal of three delegates to sign wasn’t allowed to mar the picture of concord.