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title:“James Madison to Philip Mazzei”
authors:James Madison
date written:1788-10-8
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to this version:		https://consource.org/document/james-madison-to-philip-mazzei-1788-10-8/20130122082232/
last updated:Jan. 22, 2013, 8:22 a.m. UTC
retrieved:April 16, 2024, 1:28 p.m. UTC
transcription
citation:
Madison, James. "Letter to Philip Mazzei." The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. Vol. 3. Ed. Max Farrand. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911. Print.

James Madison to Philip Mazzei (October 8, 1788)

New York, Octr. 8th. 1788.
You ask me why I agreed to the constitution proposed by the Convention of Philada. I answer because I thought it safe to the liberties of the people, and the best that could be obtained from the jarring interests of States, and the miscellaneous opinions of Politicians; and because experience has proved that the real danger to America & to liberty lies in the defect of energy & stability in the present establishments of the United States. — Had you been a member of that assembly and been impressed with the truths which our situation discloses, you would have concurred in the necessity which was felt by the other members. . . .

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