John Conyers actually said...
I believe Thomas Jefferson gave the most persuasive advice on the topic of Constitutional meaning when he wrote in a letter to Justice William Johnson on June 12, 1823, On every question of construction let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed our of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.
12/01/1997