They had a lot to decide that summer of 1787 in Philadelphia. The Constitutional Convention was called for the 13 states to fix the Articles of Confederation. They weren’t working. Too many conflicts among the 13 independent states. A weak federal government with no ability to tax. Any changes had to be by unanimous vote. James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York knew it was a lost cause. They believed a new form of government was needed. So the plan was to get everyone in a room and figure out how to create The United States of America.
They had to deal with the basic issues we take for granted today. How would the people be represented? Should the executive be divided among three people? Or give the power to a single president? How do we elect a president? Should we have a independent judicial branch? James Madison arrived in Philadelphia early with what was called the Virginia Plan. It provided for two houses of congress, and separate executive and judicial branches. A system of checks and balances was established. They worked out the idea that representation in the House of Representatives would be based on state’s population, and the upper house, the Senate, would afford states equal representation of two senators. It was agreed that senators would be elected by state legislatures. That was changed in the early 1900s by a constitutional amendment.
Madison wanted the president elected by the legislature. Some delegates wanted governors to elect the president. There was concern by smaller states about direct election of the president by popular vote. Because communication was so slow in the late 1700s, they felt people would only vote for candidates in their local area giving bigger states an advantage. The electoral college was the compromise.
One thing they didn’t get right, and it haunts the country to this day, slavery. Twenty five of the fifty five delegates owned slaves. Ninety pert cent of the slaves lived in the south. The economy of the South was based on slave labor. Southern states said they would refuse to join the union if slavery was abolished. A committee was formed to come up with a compromise. It was agreed that Congress could ban international slave trade, but not for 20 years. Congress would also be able to tax slave trade on the international market. Then there was the question of how slaves would be counted. States with large slave populations wanted slaves counted as people to give them greater representation, but wanted them considered property if taxes would be imposed based on population. The Three-Fifths Compromise was reached. Each slave counted as three-fifths of a person.
After four months, on Monday, September 17, 1787 they came to agreement on the greatest form of government the world has ever seen. In four months, men from different parts of the country came together and got something done that changed the world. Think of the lessons our leaders today could learn. Ben Franklin was 81 years old and a delegate from Pennsylvania. He asked to give a short speech to the Convention before the final draft was signed. Franklin was too weak to deliver the speech himself. Fellow Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson read it for him.
Franklin wrote there were parts of the constitution of which he didn’t approve, but wasn’t sure he wouldn’t change his mind.
“For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.”
Franklin believed compromise and accommodation by reasonable people were the essence of representative government. What would he think about the behavior of the men and women who are running the country now? And the people running for president? I think he would be shocked and disappointed, and he would be right.
Candidates acting like baffoons stoke the fires of ideology driven by fear and mistrust. The country has suffered through bad politicans, ineffective government, and injustice down through our history. But we have always managed to find a solution, and make the country better. That’s what we face now. Citizens get the government they deserve. In a free society, we get to choose. We can’t blame anyone else. Franklin saw this at the dawn of the nation.
“I doubt too whether any Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does;”
Let’s not keep pointing out how wrong our political opponents are by belittling their ideas. But rather find common ground for the good of the people who elect candidates to get things done, solve problems, and make our lives better.
Franklin left the convention with this:
“On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.”
A wish for a new country we are still trying to make come true.
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