The US Constitution: A Pocket Reference w/Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendments, Declaration of Independence, History of the Constitution, Questions ... Quotes, and Free Download for 10 works
Whilst the last members were signing [the Constitution],  Doctor FRANKLIN, looking towards the President's  chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be  painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters  had found it difficult to distinguish in their art, a rising, from  a setting, sun. I have, said he, often and often, in the course  of the Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as  to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without  being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at  length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising, and  not a setting sun. --Benjamin Franklin (1787)The free system of government we have established is  so congenial with reason, with common sense, and with a  universal feeling, that it must produce approbation and a desire  of imitation, as avenues may be found for truth to the  knowledge of nations. --James Madison (1826)If in the opinion of the People, the distribution or  modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular  wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way  which the Constitution designates. But let there be no  change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may  be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by  which free governments are destroyed. --George Washington (1796)