I learn with chagrin, my dear friend, that you have found your compatriots divided; that two opinions split the General Assembly of Representatives about equally, so that when one of the two factions wants to propose a law which does not please the other, the latter withdraws and in this manner deprives the legislature of its activity, which can only proceed with two-thirds of its members; furthermore, that one group wants to preserve your wise constitution, while the other wants to change it, and destroy the precious unity of the legislative body which distinguishes Pennsylvania from the other United States. This latter group wants to take away the election of the executive council from the people, and render your legislation roughly equivalent to that of several of your republics, which, according to the English prejudices, still too common in America, have followed the example of the high and low chambers, and have two legislative bodies who name the governor and the executive council. They give as a motive for this last article that rural voters, knowing only their neighbors, only name candidates who are poorly educated and incapable of business, as if the members who they still must elect for the two chambers of the legislature (or you would no longer have a republic) would not be similarly unqualified, and by extension so would those whom the latter would choose for the executive council. As if in a nascent republic whose interests are known and discussed incessantly by every individual, good sense alone would not conduct affairs better than all the political wisdom of city dwellers. This is especially so given that only a third of the council is reelected each year, and the other remaining two-thirds guide and instruct the newly elected, who in following years will do the same service to the successors of the former. I do not condemn the executive council being elected out of the legislature; the constitution would have the advantage of being even more simple, and the people's influence over the administration would be the same, since this legislature is elected by them for a limited time. But I would lament the procedure followed in Virginia, where the legislature must dismiss two members of the executive council every year, not by seniority but indiscriminately. The power can thus remain continuously in the same hands. The result is a kind of humiliation and shame for those who are not kept, and hatred against those whom they suspect to be the cause; and each member, fearing to be one of the two dismissed, basely submits to the wills, and soon the whims, of each of the gentlemen in the legislature. The term of office should at least be fixed and irrevocable, unless judged for misconduct in office.
Furthermore, my friend, in this world where everything should be governed by wisdom and consequently by virtue, but where everything is governed in the last analysis by force and intelligence, or rather cunning, it is very difficult to establish anything solidly enough so that the one or the other does not overturn it. Man's imagination and desires never stop; under oppression, he aspires only for independence, and as soon as he is free he wants to oppress. Doubtless in America you already have a budding aristocracy, and an inequality of fortunes. Whatever the laws, in reality the rich man rules over those to whom, in order to enjoy his wealth, he must distribute some of it. The way to prevent this disproportion is the first and perhaps the only problem which a legislator must resolve.
O my friend! Forgive this miserable inhabitant of the Old World for reminding you of these trivial ideas; do not believe that he compares his wisdom to yours. Attribute his temerity solely to his extreme desire to know that men are happy with you, and by your actions. Solon said that he did not give the Athenians the best possible laws, but the best which they could receive. Doubtless no one can know better than you of what laws your country is capable, and how to establish them there in the most lasting manner. Your absence, I fear, has caused enlightenment to regress in your country, and your return will reestablish its progress. I hope that the soundness of your advice, your eloquence and the personal consideration which you have had for so long, and that you merit so well by gathering all men to you; that these qualities will bring together all sides.