Edmund Randolph, Letter of December 2, 1787
To his Excellency EDMUND RANDOLPH, Eſquire.
December 2, 1787.
Typed by the Text Creation Partnership from page images of the first printing, with its spelling and the long s (ſ). Dotted words hold letters the transcribers could not read (• a letter, 〈◊〉 a word), left as they marked them. How this text was made
SIR,
IT has been reported in various parts of the ſtate, that the reaſons which governed you in your diſapprobation of the propoſed Foederal Conſtitution, no longer exiſt; and many of the people of this Commonwealth have wiſhed to know what objections could induce you to refuſe your ſignature to a meaſure ſo flattering to many principal characters in America, and which is ſo generally ſuppoſed to contain the ſeeds of proſperity and happineſs to the United States.
We are ſatisfied, ſir, that the time is paſſed, when you might with propriety have been requeſted to communicate your ſentiments to the General Aſſembly on this ſubject; but, as you have been pleaſed to favor us wih your obſervations in private, and we conceive they would not only afford ſatisfaction to the public, but alſo be uſeful by the information and inſtruction they will convey, we hope, you can have no objection to enable us to make them public through the medium of the Preſs. We have the honor to be, with reſpectful eſteem, Sir, your moſt obedient ſervants,
M. SMITH, CHARLES M. THRUSTON, JOHN H. BRIGGS. MANN PAGE, jun.