The Spirit Of Humility

The American Constitutional Convention was an extraordinary experiment in an attempt to determine, as Alexander Hamilton put it in Federalist No.1, "whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force." This is the challenge that today confronts the newly emerging democracies. If the American experiment may be regarded as successful, if it is a model to be emulated, the reason must be found in the causes of the American Revolution. As John Adams observed, " The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, their duties and obligations."