Hello and welcome to Whistlestop a podcast of the presidency. I'm John Dickerson of CBS News.

Teacher, what cure is there that when given in two larger dose harms the patient?

Why every cure.

Even water to a parched man?

Most especially water, my son.

It's called hyponatremia.

Then we should conclude that the health of the body is contained in the dosage and not just in the remedy. Is that true? Quite so.

And is a healthy political body like a healthy

political body is like a healthy human body, any cure must be searched

for in the right proportion with balances and checks to keep it from on the

one hand providing too much cure, also called death, and on the other too little cure, and therefore endless fodder for

cable television pundits.

It is quite so. And master one last question, yes,

is mimicking the dialectical method of the meyutic inquiry pleasing to the year?

Like the hemlock, my child, it can be used to cure or to kill.

What does this have to do with the presidency?

Well, we'll get to that in a moment, but first a word from our sponsor.

This is the second episode on the Constitutional Convention.

Our whistle stop today is June 1st, 1787.

It's been seven days since the members of the Constitutional Convention started their work

rescuing the young nation from collapse.

They met in the State House among the quiet gray walls where the Declaration of Independence

...