A pair of Constitutional quotes from two of America's earliest presidents...
(1) It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God. = George Washington, as quoted by Gouverneur Morris in Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 — 1787
(2) The Constitution on which our Union rests, shall be administered by me [as President] according to the safe and honest meaning contemplated by the plain understanding of the people of the United States at the time of its adoption - a meaning to be found in the explanations of those who advocated, not those who opposed it, and who opposed it merely lest the construction should be applied which they denounced as possible. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mesrs. Eddy, Russel, Thurber, Wheaton and Smith — 1801
One of the hallmarks of the Constitution is the stability of the government it provides for, a stability not many countries can boast.
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