Richard Henry Lee to Francis Lightfoot Lee (September 13, 1789)

Your letter of the 8th Ulto. has lain long unanswered because I have been absorbed about the Amendments of the Constitution. They have at length passed the Senate, with difficulty, after being much mutilated and enfeebled—It is too much the fashion now to look at the rights of the People, as a Miser inspects a Security, to find out a flaw—What with design in some, and fear of Anarchy in others, it is very clear, I think, that a government very different from a free one will take place eer many years are passed.