the constitution - Delaware Online

What
S E P T.
Q&A
Q. How were delegates to the Constitutional
Convention chosen?
A. They were appointed by the legislatures of the different
States.
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C O N S T I T U T I O N
D AY
FUN FACTS
HOW MANY
WORDS?
The Constitution has 4,543
words, including the signatures, but not the certificate on the interlineations;
and takes about half an
hour to read. The
Declaration of
Independence has 1,458
words, with the signatures,
and takes about 10 minutes to read.
Q. Which state did not send delegates
to the Constitutional Convention?
A. Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
SAFE KEEPING
Q. Why has our Constitution been classed as “rigid”?
A. The term “rigid” is used in opposition to “flexible”
because the provisions are in a written document which cannot be legally changed with the same ease and in the same
manner as ordinary laws. The British Constitution, which is
unwritten, can, on the other hand, be changed overnight by
act of Parliament.
really means
Q. Who were the oldest and
youngest members of the
Constitutional Convention?
A. Benjamin Franklin, of
Pennsylvania, then 81; and
Jonathan Dayton, of New
Jersey, 26.
Q. Why is a member of the
House of Representatives
referred to on the floor as
“the gentleman from New
York,” for example, instead of by
FRANKLIN
name?
A. It is a custom in all large deliberative bodies to avoid the
use of the personal name in debate or procedure. The original
purpose of this was to avoid any possible breach of decorum
and to separate the political from the personal character of each member.
Q. About how large was the
population of Philadelphia?
A. The census of 1790 gave it
28,000 people; including its
suburbs, about 42,000.
Q. What is the real story
behind Thanksgiving?
A: A proclamation by
President George Washington
and a congressional resolution
established the first national
WASHINGTON
Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 26,
1789. The reason for the holiday
was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.
Q. Who was called the: “Father of the Constitution”?
A. James Madison, of Virginia. No other delegate was better
prepared for the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and no
one contributed more than Madison to
shaping the ideas and contours of
the document, or to explaining
its meaning.
Q. What was W. E.
Gladstone’s famous
remark about the
Constitution?
A. The British liberal politician said as follows: “As the
British Constitution is the most
subtle organism which has proceeded from the womb and long
gestation of progressive history, so
MADISON
the American Constitution is, so far as
I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given
time by the brain and purpose of man.”
SOURCE: www.archives.gov
The time of the rule of kings was in decline,
and in the newly formed ‘United States’ the
Founding Fathers made sure that, for generations
to come, the power would be with the people
By John Sweeney
Editorial Page Editor
English monarchs had a tough go
of it in the 17th century. One lost his head
after a dispute with Parliament led to a civil
war. A second one was chased out of office almost 40 years later in another dispute.
Religious differences were the proximate
cause of both upheavals. However, a deeper
cause was the growing power struggle between the monarchy and
THE ORDER
Parliament over who
IN WHICH
would rule. Both deTHE STATES
posed monarchs were
descendants of King
RATIFIED THE
CONSTITUTION James I, the man the
popular translation of
DELAWARE
the Bible was named
Pennsylvania
after. King James beNew Jersey
lieved in the divine right
of kings. In other words,
Georgia
his power came from
Connecticut
God.
Massachusetts
Slowly the idea took
Maryland
hold that the real authorSouth Carolina
ity to govern came from
New Hampshire
the people as a whole.
Virginia
After all, the members
New York
of Parliament repreAfter George Washington sented the people in
had been inaugurated as
their districts. As Parliapresident, North Carolina
ment’s power grew, so
and Rhode Island
ratified.
did the authority of the
people they represented,
especially in disputes with the king.
By the time the Constitution was written in
1787, these ideas had moved to America and
were taken up by many of the Founding Fathers. James Wilson was one of them. Wilson
had represented Pennsylvania in both the
Continental Congress that led to the Declaration of Independence and at the Constitutional
WHO ACTUALLY PENNED IT
Jacob Shallus, the assistant clerk of the Pennsylvania State
Assembly, actually penned the final papers of the
Constitution, though his name does not appear on
the document or in any papers
pertaining to its preparation.
In the financial memoranda
there is an entry of $30 for
“clerks employed to transcribe
& engross.” It wasn’t until
1937, on the occasion of the
150th anniversary of the
Constitution that his identity
was determined after a long
and careful search of collateral
public documents. Shallus probably never realized the importance
of the work he had done. Having
died in 1796, the Constitution had not yet come to be the
firmly established set of governmental principles it is today.
Above, “Man Behind the Quill, Jacob Shallus” by Arthur Plotnik
BEHIND THE SCENES:
INFLUENCES ON THE CONSTITUTION
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While most people know James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and John
Dickinson were invaluable to the creation of the U.S. Constitution, three
other men had a profound influence as well.
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Convention. He pushed for a greater role for
ordinary people in the government the Constitution was creating. He argued, for example,
for the direct election of the president by voters.
Throughout the convention, and, indeed,
afterward, Wilson was the most prominent
advocate for the people to be sovereign, for
the government to recognize that the people ultimately ruled. This view won out in
a way we often overlook. The delegates
sent the newly written Constitution to
the then-ruling Confederation Congress
not to approve, but to distribute to the
states. However, the state legislatures
were not given the chance to vote up
or down on ratification. They were to
hold state conventions. The people
were to elect those delegates. So, in
effect, a version of “We the People”
ratified the Constitution.
This version, of course, was
limited. Women, slaves and poor
men could not vote. However, the
effort was the world’s most democratic vote to that time.
JAMES WILSON
Wilson, in his draft of the preJames Wilson (1742-1798) is
amble to the Constitution wrote,
probably the most influential Founding
“We the People of and the States of
Father you’ve never heard of. He was one
New Hampshire, Massachusetts
of the first members of the U.S. Supreme
…” He crossed out the word “and”
Court. He was one of six men who signed
to downplay the role of the state
both the Declaration of Independence
and to emphasize not the elected
and the Constitution. He influenced
and appointed officials of the
Thomas Jefferson in the writing of the
states, but the people. Gouverneur
Declaration. Wilson was probably second
Morris, another Pennsylvania deleonly to Madison in shaping the
gate, took that a step further. Morris
Constitution and he was the first and
wanted a stronger national governmost eloquent proponent that the new
ment, with less power to the states.
government should be based on the
His job was to polish the Constitution’s
will of the people and not some distant
prose and he could not have stated it
power made up of the rich and powmore powerfully: “We the People of the
erful. So why is he largely unknown?
United States …”
Probably because of the way he
died, rather than the way he lived.
He spent and borrowed money
to excess. Since he didn’t have
any to pay back, he was
thrown into debtor’s prison.
Wilson was the only
Supreme Court justice to
be jailed and he died a
debtor.
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5
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DELAWARE’S CONTINGENT: “Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States” by
Howard Chandler Christy. Delaware’s contingent: 1) John Dickinson (who actually was not at the convention because of illness); 2) Jacob Broom (purposely obscured by Christy because there is no known
image of Broom); 3) Gunning Bedford Jr.; 4) Richard Bassett; 5) George Read.
ONLINE QUIZ AND INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC
Test how much you’ve learned about THE CONSTITUTION at delawareonline.com/didyouknow
Who wrote the Constitution? The official
answer is that it was a committee, the
“Committee of Detail.” Committees are notorious for being unable to write readable
reports. So the job was given to Gouverneur
Morris (1752-1816), a Pennsylvania delegate
known for his peg leg, quick wit and encounters with the ladies. He was charged with
shaping and smoothing the awkward, legalistic wording of the resolutions into something average citizens could understand.
His masterpiece was the preamble. The
most significant contribution was the opening: He used “We the People” instead of
what many delegates wanted: “We the
States.” Over time, those three words
would take on a new meaning, one
that makes every American a part of
the whole nation. That is quite a legacy
for a conservative
playboy.
During World War II, the
original copy of the
Constitution was moved
for safekeeping to the
famous federal gold
depository at Fort Knox,
Kentucky. In 1951, the
Constitution pages were
hermetically sealed with
helium gas in glass cases
housed in the U.S. National
Archives in Washington.
Today, all four pages are
displayed behind protective glass framed with titanium. The cases contain
argon gas and are kept at
67 degrees, with a relative
humidity of 40 percent.
FRANKLIN’S
HEALTH
Although Benjamin
Franklin’s mind
remained active,
his body was
deteriorating.
He was in constant pain
because of gout
and having a stone
in his bladder, and he
could barely walk. He
would enter the convention hall in a sedan
chair carried by four
prisoners from the
Walnut Street jail in
Philadelphia.
OMITTANCE?
The word “democracy”
does not appear once in
the Constitution.
SAFETY
There was a proposal at
the Constitutional
Convention to limit the
standing army for the
country to 5,000 men.
George Washington sarcastically agreed with this
proposal as long as a stipulation was added that no
invading army could number more than 3,000
troops.
JOHN LOCKE
Some revolutionaries fight
with firearms. John Locke (1632-1704) fought
with words and ideas and had a bigger effect.
Locke was a 17th-century English philosopher
whose ideas about liberty and the power of
the people would fire the minds of America’s
Founding Fathers 100 years later. He lived in a
time when people were put to death for their
religious beliefs. His writings on toleration
would counter those views and directly influence the religious liberty clause in the First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He lived
at time when rulers believed in the divine
rights of kings. He developed powerful arguments that the people were sovereign, that
the power to govern came from the people’s
approval. This idea greatly influenced
Jefferson in writing the Declaration of the
Independence as well as the authors of the
Constitution.
TYPOS
Of the typographical errors
in the Constitution, the
mispelling of the word
“Pensylvania” above the
signers' names is probably
the most glaring.
INDEPENDENCE
HALL
The Pennsylvania State
House (where the
Constitutional Convention
took place) was where
Washington was appointed the Continental Army’s
commander in 1775 and
where the Declaration of
Independence was signed
in 1776.
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