For four months in the sweltering summer of 1787, delegates from the then-13 states sat in the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall, see below) in Philadelphia and wrote the blueprint and rule book for our federal government. They included such founding superstars as George Washington (who was unanimously elected president of the convention), Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. Two giants of the period missed out on the convocation because they were our first ministers to two of the greatest world powers at the time -- Thomas Jefferson in France and John Adams in Great Britain. The members of the convention signed the final draft of their work on September 17th. Ironically, they were sent to Philadelphia only to try to improve the ineffectual Articles of Confederation, but once they got there, they decided the Articles were fatally flawed and decided to start from scratch.
One of my favorite stories about the Constitutional Convention is this one, about Franklin, on that same September 17th -- 234 years ago today:
One of my favorite stories about the Constitutional Convention is this one, about Franklin, on that same September 17th -- 234 years ago today:
On the final day, as the last delegates were signing the document, Franklin pointed toward the [carved] sun on the back of the Convention president's [Washington's] chair. Observing that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising sun from a setting sun, he went on to say: "I have often ... in the course of the session ... looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun."
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, well worth a visit:
