A miracle

On October 24, 1781, Madison wrote to Jefferson his latest report on the Constitutional Convention. In that particularly long letter, I enjoyed reading this excerpt:

Hence was embraced the alternative of a Government which instead of operating, on the States, should operate without their intervention on the individuals composing them: and hence the change in the principle and proportion of representation.

This ground-work being laid, the great objects which presented themselves were

1. to unite a proper energy in the Executive and a proper stability in the Legislative departments, with the essential characters of Republican Government.

2. to draw a line of demarkation which would give to the General Government every power requisite for general purposes, and leave to the States every power which might be most beneficially administered by them.

3. to provide for the different interests of different parts of the Union.

4. to adjust the clashing pretensions of the large and small States.

Each of these objects was pregnant with difficulties. The whole of them together formed a task more difficult than can be well concieved by those who were not concerned in the execution of it. Adding to these considerations the natural diversity of human opinions on all new and complicated subjects, it is impossible to consider the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle.[Emphasis added.]

Miracle indeed! Bless the Age of Enlightenment for producing the epoch changing accomplishment that summed up in the birth of America!

Here's to the next Renaissance on the long road of reason to complete the revolution America's Founders started.