When civil commotion rages, no purity of character, no services, however exalted, can afford a secure shield from the shafts of calumny.
"On the other hand, the unbounded confidence the people have in your tried patriotism and wisdom, would exceedingly facilitate the adoption of any important alterations that might be proposed by a convention of which you were a member; and (as I before hinted) the president." [Sidenote: Convention at Philadelphia.] At the time and place appointed, the representatives of twelve states convened.

In Rhode Island alone a spirit sufficiently hostile to every species of reform was found, to prevent the election of deputies on an occasion so generally deemed momentous.

Having unanimously chosen General Washington for their president, the convention proceeded, with closed doors, to discuss the interesting and extensive subject submitted to their consideration.
On the great principles which should constitute the basis of their system, not much contrariety of opinion is understood to have prevailed.

But on the various and intricate modifications of those principles, an equal degree of harmony was not to be expected.

More than once, there was reason to fear that the rich harvest of national felicity, which had been anticipated from the ample stock of worth collected in convention, would all be blasted by the rising of that body without effecting the object for which it was formed.