The Creation of A Nation
The first words of the Preamble of the Constitution, "We, the people of the United States ... do ordain and establish" . . . were almost as revolutionary as the Revolutionary War itself. For the first time in history, the radical idea that a government rests upon the consent of the people was made a political fact.
In 1786, three years after the Revolutionary War had ended, thoughtful men in most of the independent states had become concerned about the failures of their improvised government. The Articles of Confederation were proving to be weak and ineffective during time of peace. Following the victory, relations between states worsened as each state jealously asserted its independence and self-interests. There was a real danger that the Confederation might be dissolved, leaving 13 struggling sovereign states, each driven by fear and suspicion to raise its own army, defend its borders, and ultimately to reenact the bloody history of European states.
In May 1787, a total of 55 remarkable men, representatives from all original 13 states except Rhode Island, assembled in Philadelphia, and in less than four months wrote a Constitution that has lasted for more than 215 years. Of these 55 men, over half were lawyers, 29 had attended college. They included George Washington, who chaired the meeting, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin.
All did not go smoothly at first. After five weeks and much heated discussion, they had not agreed on a single word. They were about to adjourn and abandon the purpose for which they had met when Benjamin Franklin addressed George Washington:
"Mr. President, the small progress we have made in five week's close attention and continual reasoning with each other, our different sentiments producing as many noes as ayes, is, me thinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of human understanding. How has it happened, sir, that we have not once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men, and if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who built it'. I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial, local interests, our project will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword to future ages. I, therefore, beg leave to move that hereafter prayers be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business."
From that moment the Constitution unfolded like a scroll. These 55 men produced a document that solved a remarkable number of political problems that had plagued men and nations throughout history, a document that John Adams called, and history has proven, 'the greatest single effort of deliberation that the world has ever seen'.