 of the rights and vulnerability of the minority either. Fresher in their memories was the way that Britain had pertinaciously ignored the rights of the minority, that is, the colonists. Washington and Franklin and Adams and Jefferson were all minorities in the recent past and now were part of the majority in this new American republic. They were ready to ensure that no legitimate minority in the future would be jeopardized by the majority in terms of their rights and security in their persons and property.