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The passage in brackets was inserted at this point by Rayner. The first portion,
"We had not yet penetrated to the mother principle, that 'governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute it.' Hence, our first constitutions had really no leading principles in them."
is from an earlier part of this letter to Samuel Kercheval. The second portion,
"Though we may say with confidence that the worst of the American constitutions is better than the best which ever existed before in any other country, and that they are wonderfully perfect for a first essay, yet every human essay must have defects. It will remain, therefore, to those now coming on the stage of public affairs, to perfect what has been so well begun by those going off it."
is from a letter to T. M. Randolph, Jr., 1787, ME 6:165. Although the two excerpts are not part of the original passage as written by Jefferson, we are inclined to agree with Rayner that they fit admirably well in the present argument.