ion, limited its business to "the sole and
express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation," and the
states of New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut copied this in the
instructions to their delegates.[24] The aim of the Convention, however,
from the very start was not amendment, but a complete rejection of the
system itself, which was regarded as incurably defective.

This view was well expressed by James Wilson in his speech made in favor
of the ratification of the Constitution before the Pennsylvania
convention.

"The business, we are told, which was entrusted to the late Convention,"
he said, "was merely to amend the present Articles of Confederation.
This observation has been frequently made, and has often brought to my
mind a story that is related of Mr. Pope, who, it is well known, was not
a little deformed. It was customary with him to use this phrase, 'God
mend me!' when any little accident happened. One evening a link-boy was
lighting him along, and, coming to a gutter, the boy jumped nimbly over
it. Mr Pope called to him to turn, adding, 'God mend me!' The arch
rogue, turning to light him, looked at him, and repeated, 'God mend you!
He would sooner make half-a-dozen new ones.' This would apply to the
present Confederation; for it would be easier to make another than to
amend this."[25]

The popular notion that this Convention in framing the Constitution was
actuated solely by a desire to impart more vigor and efficiency to the
general government is but a part of the truth. The Convention desired to
establish not only a strong and vigorous central government, but one
which would at the same time possess great stability or freedom from
change. This last reason is seldom mentioned in our constitutional
literature, yet it had a most important bearing on the work of the
Convention. This desired stability the government under the
Confederation did not possess, since it was, in the opinion of the
members of the Convention, dangerously responsive to public opinion;
hence their desire to supplant it with an elaborate system of
constitutional checks. The adoption of this system was the triumph of a
skillfully directed reactionary movement.

Of course the spirit and intention of the Convention must be gathered
not from the statements and arguments addressed to the general public in
favor of the ratification of the Constitution, but from what occurred in
the Convention itself. The discussions which took p