“With respect to the new Government, nine or ten States will probably have accepted by the end of this month. The others may oppose it. Virginia, I think, will be of this number. Besides other objections of less moment, she [Virginia] will insist on annexing a bill of rights to the new Constitution, i.e. a bill wherein the Government shall declare that, 1. Religion shall be free; 2. Printing presses free; 3. Trials by jury preserved in all cases; 4. No monopolies in commerce; 5. No standing army. Upon receiving this bill of rights, she will probably depart from her other objections; and this bill is so much to the interest of all the States, that I presume they will offer it, and thus our Constitution be amended, and our Union closed by the end of the present year.”

He was so RIGHT (no pun intended).

Wish we had numbers 4 & 5.

It would have been great if after passing the 9th and 10th Amendments (based on a concept that if it is not specifically in the Constitution, the government can not do it) the government would have adhered to it.

1. Socialism is the state religion.
2. The MSM is the state press.
3. Commercial law has replaced common law.
4. Unions and guilds in the fields of law, banking, medicine, communications, production, and transportation exert tremendous power over the legislature, executive, courts, and ultimately the military. Monopolies are protected and subsidized by the government.
5. No standing army? The total number of people employed by US military and police WORLDWIDE is in the millions. The US has over 6000 military bases and installations within the US, and over 1000 around world. The national army was to have a term of no more than 2 years, and was made up of state militias who returned home. Heck, the US Congress doesn't even declare war any more -- the military is already in 191 countries right now.

We've come a long way, Tom...