George Lee Turberville to James Madison (June 16, 1789)

Upon the Subject of amendments, altho I shou'd be happy to know what are thought essential & what are likely to be adopted by Congress—I assure you I am totally unsollicitous for any. where there is such responsibility—where the public Voice so thoroughly pervades every department of Government—& where age is made the qualification for Office it is to me very apparent that the interest of the Ruler & the people of the Representative & Constituent are the same—And beside when it is recollected (& it can never be forgotten) that the government originated with, & was the result of the reason & deliberation of—T1he People—is it possible that it can ever be converted into an oppression upon those people? for the aggrandizement & benefit of a few—without such a total depravity of manners such corruption—such pusillanimity takes possession of the people as shall fit them like the ancient Cappadocians for the exercise of Despotic government alone—and at Such a period shou'd it ever arrive (which may heavan prevent) The Constitution with all its amendments will be ineffectual to protect (us or) our posterity from the Evils which will inevitably await them.