Nothing Human Can Be Perfect: The Anemic Amendment Process

There is perhaps no more colorful figure in American political history than Theodore Roosevelt. Anyone who has read Candice Millard’s (2006) harrowing account of his journey down the Amazon, River of Doubt, can attest to his charisma and adventurism. This why when I discovered that Roosevelt (1888) published a biography of Gouverneur Morris, one of the lesser-known American Founders, I was intrigued. My interest was further piqued when I learned that he described Morris as brilliant but lacking in self-control. I couldn’t imagine what Morris had done to illicit that moniker from Roosevelt.