'At eighty-one, Franklin was too feeble to address the convention on its handiwork, and so a friend read for him the following words: "I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the people if well-administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to to be well administered for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other."
From the book Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson by Gore Vidal (Yale University Press, 2003).
Vidal goes on to add: 'Now, two centuries and sixteen years later, Franklin's blunt dark prophecy has come true: popular corruption has indeed given birth to that Despotic Government which he foresaw as inevitable at our birth'.
Thanks to Stewart for this one.
Update 23-01-04: Some typos have been corrected in the Vidal quote.
Posted by Joe at January 21, 2004 12:16 AMGosh.
He was an amazingly clever chap, don't you think? I wonder how long he thought it would last?
Posted by: Lisa at January 21, 2004 02:49 AMA few decades, I'm sure. ;-)
Posted by: DJ at January 21, 2004 11:17 AMThey've done well then!
Posted by: Joe at January 21, 2004 09:58 PMI thought Orwell was extremely prophetic in his description of civilian control in the 80s but Franklin goes one further in succinctly predicting the sorry outcome of human nature - greed and indifference - that allows those granted power the awesome freedom to wield it as they wish with lies, falsifications and twisted rhetoric as their righteous rigmarole.
Posted by: martin at January 22, 2004 10:53 AMAnd on the topic of Orwell, I found the president's stance(s) on Iraq in his State of the Union address to be marvelous examples of doublespeak. This should become a required text in polisci classes.
Posted by: DJ at January 26, 2004 03:17 PMI must go and find the text to his State of the Union address. I've heard about the resounding applause he got for mentioning a lot of the temporary powers regarding homeland security were expiring this coming year - was somewhat taken aback by that from what I read. I also read somewhere that he made a reference to drugs/cheating in sport. I hadn't realised sport was such an integral part of the union that it needed a jab from the Pres. to get its house in order.
Posted by: Joe at January 29, 2004 11:16 AM