"for he had the attorney's ability to make the best case for an imperfect client. He was not alone in making this transition: all the delegates at Philadelphia had adopted the final document in a spirit of compromise. They approached it as a collective work and championed it as the best available solution. What Jefferson said of George Washington could easily have applied to Hamilton: "He has often declared to me that he considered our new constitution as an experiment on the practicability of republic government . ."