Professor Ed Larson Quoted in "The Court Loses Its Chief Pragmatist" -- The Atlantic

Professor Edward J. Larson is quoted in the Atlantic article, "The Court Loses Its Chief Pragmatist."  The article considers the upcoming retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. 

Excerpt from "The Court Loses Its Chief Pragmatist"

Squandering the public’s trust in the rule of law and the institutions of government is a threat to the union, as the Founders recognized. At the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, the two greatest advocates of a strong union, acted as what the historian Edward J. Larson, in Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership, calls “enlightenment pragmatists at heart,” changing their positions on several issues in order to ensure the ratification of a strong and flexible Constitution that would allow Americans to resolve their differences peacefully and democratically. 

The complete article may be found at The Atlantic