"In whatever country Jews have settled in any great number, they have lowered its moral tone; depreciated its commercial integrity; have segregated themselves and have not been assimilated;have sneered at and tried to undermine the Christian religion upon which that nation is founded, by objecting to its restrictions;have built up a state within the state; and when opposed havetried to strangle that country to death financially, as in the case of Spain and Portugal.
"If you do not exclude them from these United States,in their Constitution, in less than 200 years they will have swarmedhere in such great numbers that they will dominate and devour the land and change our form of government, for which we Americans have shed our blood, given our lives our substance and jeopardized our liberty.
"If you do not exclude them, in less than 200 yearsour descendants will be working in the fields to furnish themsubstance, while they will be in the counting houses rubbing theirhands. I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude Jews for alltime, your children will curse you in your graves.”
—Benjamin Franklin
1787, at The Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Recorded by Charles Coteworth Pinckney
In his diary
Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787