Writing the Constitution: Miracle in Philadelphia
Spring 1787. The American revolution had been won, but no one seemed to know how to govern the new nation. There was no chief executive, no agreement on taxes, or even how they should be collected. The country was teetering on the edge of anarchy. Something clearly had to be done, and quickly. What happened next is nothing short of a miracle. Historian Jay Cost tells the incredible story.
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Script:
Spring 1787. The American Revolution had been won.
But there was no peace.
Because there was essentially no government. There were states. But they weren’t united. Not even close.
There was no mechanism to collect taxes.
No way to provide for the national defense.
The nation was living on the edge of anarchy.
George Washington understood this. So did James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. So did many others.
Something clearly had to be done. And fast.
The word went out across the land. A new Constitutional Convention was called for. When Washington announced he would be there, the meeting gained instant credibility.
Fifty-five men from twelve states arrived in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft the framework of a national government. There was no guarantee that they would succeed. And even if they did, there was no guarantee that the American people would accept their plan.
Failure was a real possibility. And everybody knew it.
The different interests of the states were just too pronounced—over trade, taxes, and slavery to name just three of a dozen points of conflict.
Yet, they all knew that they had to succeed. Or there would be no country—just a loose collection of individual territories sharing the same continent, easy prey for the European powers.
Not only was America’s future
