In the spring and summer of 1787, a contingent of lawyers, businessmen, and other highly regarded state representatives met at the Pennsylvania State House to fine-tune the parameters of the shaky federal government that was established by the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first stab at a framework for government. Known as the Constitutional Convention, this meeting was perhaps the most momentous occasion in the short history of the United States following the end of the Revolutionary War.
Even in the absence of founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who were serving ambassadorships in Europe, the gathering boasted a formidable collection of the nation’s leaders, including James Madison of Virginia, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and the elderly but still razor-sharp Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania.
As described in The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, many of the 55 delegates carried with them a raft of ideas and some combination of deft oratory skills and a forceful personality to push others to action. As such, there was no shortage of passionate speeches and threats issued over clashing values, although it proved to be more of a challenge to find calmer voices willing to nudge the rest toward compromise, and an additional challenge to pull the oft-debated and revised proposals into a document with language that would stand the test of time.
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