Tuesday, August 13, 2013

America's 'Two Most Distinguished Citizens' (Washington and Franklin) Meet Days Before They Join 53 Others in Writing our Constitution

I just finished reading Plain Honest Men by Professor Richard Beeman.  The below text appears on pages 35 and 36 in the 2010 Random House paperback edition.  It is a fantastic read that I highly recommend.

Beeman's work brilliantly catalogues the drafting of the U.S. Constitution from May to September of 1787.  It is the most authoritative, readable and vivid account of the debates, political posturing, and motivations behind the creation of a radical new form of government.

Below is a brief depiction of what happened when General Washington got to town and rushed off to meet with Dr. Franklin.  It was May 13, 1787, eleven years after the American Revolution.  55 delegates gathered in Philadelphia, America's largest city at the time, to draft the framework for a new government.  The Articles of Confederation and the Continental Congress  which had governed our country since the Revolution proved to be deeply flawed with no executive, no judiciary and requiring unanimous consent of the 13 states to get anything of substance accomplished.