William Jackson to John Quincy Adams (October 21, 1818)

Philadelphia, October 21st.,1818

Being desirous to render the reply, which I had the honor of making to your letter of the 16th instant, as satisfactory as the remote period and circumstances, to which it refers, will admit, I have conversed with Messrs. Butler and Ingersoll, who were Members of the Convention, and are now resident in this city.—They corroborate my recollection of the adjournment from friday the 14th of September 1787 to Monday the 17th, for the purpose of preparing the Constitution for signature—and Mr. Ingersoll adds that Dr. Franklin, Mr. G. Morris and himself were the Committee appointed on the 17th to draught the letter to Congress, and that no other business, besides signing the Constitution and that Letter, was transacted on that day.

That the Constitution of the United States, as agreed on by the Convention, was the result of numerous concessions to what was deemed the nearest approach to the general interest, is manifested by many of its provisions, and the brief notice of other Plans, that were not acted on, was a necessary consequence of the same conciliatory disposition. It was, indeed, cause of felicitation to the best men in that respectable Assembly, that its proceedings were conducted and closed in a spirit of unanimity and accommodation, honorable to individuals and highly beneficial to the Public.