Miracle At Philadelphia

In May 1787, 55 delegates met at the Pennsylvania State House, during a brutal heat wave, to discuss what would become known as Constitution for the United States. The ranks included living legends like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, along with younger, relatively unknown delegates like Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, whose fame would come later. At the time, their exact purpose was unclear; they were charged only with reforming the existing Articles of Confederation. The Articles, in effect since 1781, had severe defects, leaving the federal government without the power to tax or regulate commerce. The various states largely did as they wished, and were in frequent conflict. George Washington was still haunted by the difficulty he’d had in keeping together a Continental Army when each state regarded itself as the highest authority. For Washington, “with independence, America had indeed achieved a continental dimension and must learn to govern itself accordingly” (7). Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s wartime aide, had already spent years advocating for a stronger central authority. Even for those who agreed with Hamilton, it seemed as though reforms could only go through Congress, where the interests of powerful states would hold sway.

At a conference in Annapolis to adjudicate a Maryland-Virginia dispute over navigation rights to the Potomac River, Madison and Hamilton took the opportunity to point out the absurdity of each state making its own rules for commerce. Around the same time, an anti-tax uprising in western Massachusetts suggested the need for a broader federal authority to impose order when the states were unable or unwilling to do so. Congress accordingly authorized the meeting, proving its own inadequacy when many of its members left to participate in the Convention instead. Delegates drifted into Philadelphia a few at a time, and Rhode Island refused to send anyone. James Madison of Virginia arrived several days early, ready to test out ideas he had long been preparing after poring through Thomas Jefferson’s personal library. Madison also understood the task at hand was to prepare a document that the individual states would then ratify. At Philadelphia, Madison joined his fellow Virginian and longtime associate George Washington, each of them rendered solemn with the seriousness of the task before them.

George Washington arrived in Philadelphia at the end of May and paid a call to the aged but still revered Benjamin Franklin, world-renowned scientist and philosopher. Franklin’s ideas for the Constitution would prove out of step with general opinion, but his presence lent enormous gravitas to the proceedings. Virginia’s and Pennsylvania’s delegates were the earliest to arrive, so they had the most time to prepare and share plans. Missing were Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, two of the fieriest voices for independence in 1776, who were both suspicious of plans to overhaul the Articles. The Convention also coincided with a meeting of the Society of Cincinnati, a veterans’ organization to which Washington belonged, and struck some present as “the nucleus of an American aristocracy or of a Cromwellian military government” (20). Washington stayed with fellow Convention delegate Robert Morris, unintentionally learning that his reputation as the richest man in the city concealed his severe indebtedness. The Convention had a rule of secrecy, which was difficult to enforce with so many luminaries traveling openly into the middle of a large city. Even as the Convention progressed, attendance was spotty as delegates periodically went to attend to business at home. At the outset, many states issued prefatory proclamations, with Virginia warning of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers if they failed to address the crisis of governance. As the first and largest colony, Virginia hoped to lead by example.

Finally achieving a quorum on May 25, Washington was unanimously named president of the Convention, a position he accepted with his characteristic grace and modesty. As president, he took no part in the debates until the very end, preferring to lead by example: “In his silence lay his strength. His presence kept the Federal Convention together, kept it going, just as his presence had kept a straggling, ill-conditioned army together throughout the terrible years of war” (29). Madison was the preeminent notetaker—while others kept their own journals, Madison’s are by far the most comprehensive, although their existence remained unknown for another 30 years.

At the beginning of the Convention, many of the states insisted upon their own sovereignty, and so there seemed no way to mitigate any conflict over territory, trade, or representation in Congress. More delegates arrived, including Rufus King, a young Massachusetts lawyer who had already made a name for himself by helping to ban slavery in the Northwest Territories (now Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota). Delegates agreed to speak one at a time, to stay silent while others were speaking, not to speak excessively, to pass measures by a majority of state delegations, and to allow reconsideration of previous topics by majority affirmation. The first major speaker was Edmund Randolph of Virginia, who stunned the convention with a series of resolutions that completely overhauled the Articles of Confederation. He proposed a “new national government, with a national executive, a national judiciary and a national legislature of two branches; the ‘first branch’ (the representative) to be elected by the people; the ‘second branch’ (the senators) to be elected by the first branch” (38). Known as the Virginia Plan, this proposal laid the foundation for the ensuing debates, and provided an early sketch of some of the Constitution’s major features. The Virginia Plan helped shift the subject of the debates from whether to revise the Articles to whether to form an entirely new union.

The Virginia Plan’s proposed legislature provided a way to test the larger question of governmental power. It prompted a debate over whether the government should be “federal,” designed around the voluntary union of the states, or “national,” with a central government superior to the states. Among the greatest champions of a national government was Gouverneur Morris, who insisted that the national government must be able to govern individuals directly without the barrier of the state, or else sovereignty would be hopelessly divided. Many, such as Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, were fearful that too much democracy would be unstable, especially in the wake of Shays’ Rebellion, and so favored the states choosing national representatives rather than the people. Others like James Wilson of Virginia believed that an insufficiently representative government would turn the people against it. The Convention approved the Virginia Plan’s call for a bicameral legislature, in part because “in these first days of the Convention, the small-state men were not ready, not organized for resistance” (48), which they would offer later. The Convention also approved the supremacy of federal law over that of the states, although enforcement remained unclear. The city was bustling at the time of the Convention, a hub of international commerce and artistic creativity. It was also full of flies and mosquitos, and one could find prisoners charged with clearing the streets of animal carcasses and human waste. Delegates repaired to local taverns, often consuming massive amounts of wine, as the city’s watchmen and bells called out every hour on the hour, through the entire night.