Volume CLXXVI • No. 1

The Federal Ledger

Est. 1776 • Digital Archive of the Republic

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Address • 1787

Franklin's Closing Speech to the Convention

Benjamin Franklin
Franklin's Closing Speech to the Convention
Facsimile — via Wikimedia Commons

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On the final day of the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787, the 81-year-old Franklin asked James Wilson to read his speech for him. He confessed he did not entirely approve of the Constitution but urged every delegate to sign — because no better was likely, and because doubt of one's own infallibility was a virtue.

I confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present, but, Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.
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