vision for future changes. You
must give Governments time to operate on the People, and give the People
time to become gradually assimilated to their institutions. Almost any
thing is better than this state of perpetual uncertainty. A People may
have the best form of Government that the wit of man ever devised, and
yet, from its uncertainty alone, may, in effect, live under the worst
Government in the world. Sir, how often must I repeat, that _change_ is
not _reform?_ I am willing that this new Constitution shall stand as
long as it is possible for it to stand; and that, believe me, is a very
short time. Sir, it is vain to deny it. They may say what they please
about the old Constitution,--the defect is not there. It is not in the
form of the old edifice,--neither in the design nor in the elevation; it
is in the _material_, it is in the People of Virginia. To my knowledge
that People are changed from what they have been. The four hundred men
who went out with David were _in debt_. The fellow-laborers of Catiline
were _in debt_. The partizans of Caesar were _in debt_. And I defy you
to show me a desperately indebted People, anywhere, who can bear a
regular, sober Government. I throw the challenge to all who hear me. I
say that the character of the good old Virginia planter,--the man who
owned from five to twenty slaves, or less, who, lived by hard work, and
who paid his debts,--is passed away. A new order of things is come. The
period has arrived of living by one's wits; of living by contracting
debts that one cannot pay; and above all, of living by office-hunting.

Sir, what do we see? Bankrupts,--branded bankrupts,--giving great
dinners, sending their children to the most expensive schools, giving
grand parties, and just as well received as anybody in society! I say
that, in such a state of things, the old Constitution was too good for
them,--they could not bear it. No, Sir; they could not bear a freehold
suffrage, and a property representation. I have always endeavored to do
the People justice; but I will not flatter them,--I will not pander to
their appetite for change. I will do nothing to provide for change. I
will not agree to any rule of future apportionment, or to any provision
for future changes, called amendments to the Constitution. Those who
love change,--who delight in public confusion, who wish to feed the
cauldron, and make it bubble,--may vote if they please for future
changes. But by what spell, by what