A Republic…If You Can Keep It
Today is Constitution Day, the date where we recognize the document approved in Philadelphia on this date in 1787. As well told by Catherine Drinker Bowen in her classic book “Miracle at Philadelphia”, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met in secrecy…even keeping the meeting hall windows closed during a stifling summer to avoid anyone outside listening in. After all, we had the failed Articles of Confederation, so truly there was pressure to create a governing system that would work, only a few years after the end of the Revolutionary War.
But it has been pointed out that there are a few things we may not know about that document. For example, a number of those we call “Founding Fathers” never signed the document. Thomas Jefferson, for example…he was away in Paris serving as the colonies ambassador to France at the time.
Pennsylvania is spelled wrong…it may have been named for William Penn, but there’s only one N in the “penn” part on the Constitution.
As we discussed on KXEL Live & Local not long ago, there is nothing that says how many justices will be on the Supreme Court. There are also no rules about who gets to vote, which required various suffrage movements for women and people of college, and amendments to the document.
Speaking of which, some 11,600 proposed amendments have been made, but only 27 have been ratified…that’s a success rate of less than one quarter of one percent…statistically, zero.
Yes, Benjamin Franklin was there, quite elderly for the time. His health was failing and he had to be carried to and from the meetings and needed help signing the document. But, as the story goes, when the signing was completed and the secrecy was over, Franklin was leaving and was asked by an outsider what they came up with. He famously said, “A Republic…if you can keep it.”
And we are still trying today.
