On the last day of the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787 Benjamin Franklin was too weak and infirm to deliver a speech to the delegates so he wrote it out and asked Delegate James Wilson of Pennsylvania to read it to the Convention. In it he told the convention:
“Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion think themselves in possession of all truth and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said ‘I don’t know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that’s always in the right — Il n’y a que moi qui a toujours raison.’”
Earlier that hot Philadelphia summer when the Convention had reached an impasse between the competing interests of the larger and smaller states Franklin had likened their proceedings to that of a two-headed snake. One head had determined to pass by the right side of the stem of a bush in its path. The other sought to pass on the left. Neither head would retreat nor give way to the other. Thus paralyzed the snake came to be captured and met its end.
Were he writing today, Dr. Franklin might address the same sentiments to the Congress and President of the Republic. Like the Church of Rome the Republicans of the House and the Senate are convinced that their economic doctrine is infallible. On the other hand, the Democrats, like the Church of England are equally convinced that they are never in the wrong.
Like Franklin’s snake their progress in addressing the nation’s financial progress is brought to a halt by the obstinacy of the two partisan doctrines as each refuses to retreat or give way to the other while the economic welfare of every American man, woman, and child hangs in the balance.