One of the joys of reading Ron Chernow -- one of the joys of reading any great historian -- is learning new detail and nuance about long-ago great events. I've known for years what Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Adams thought of the Constitution. But I never really knew precisely where George Washington stood -- apart from the general view that he supported strong federal authority and stayed purposely aloof from the sturm und drang of the 1787 Convention.
So I am slowly (and, yes, belatedly) reading Chernow's masterful Washington -- A Life. And I just got to the part (page 539 in case you want to read along) where Chernow is addressing what Washington thought about the Constitution after it was drafted but before it was ratified. Chernow writes:
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