As the convention reaches the end of the first week of September, it seems, at least on the surface of things, that all their work is about to come undone. Luther Martin is convinced that the only way the American people will agree to this Constitution is to be hurried into it by surprise. Edmund Randolph of Virginia declares that yet another full convention be held – AFTER the states are given the opportunity to make amendments to the draft.
It seems like there is a movement to undo all that has been done.
What is left to hold the Convention together? Two men. Perhaps the only two men in all of American history to whom every citizen will listen…
Today, we debate and discuss the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which may, depending on how you read it, give the President the authority to make war, while Congress has not declared a war. Oddly enough, the delegates had exactly the same debate, which is why the Constitution gives Congress the power to DECLARE war and the expected the President to MAKE war… as long as the people approved…
Needing a bit of a break, most of the Delegates headed down to the shore of the Delaware River to take a ride on a steamship. Yes… a steamship. Twenty years before anybody ever heard of Robert Fulton. Is it possible that little adventure helped them to empower Congress to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts?”
Roughly a hundred years after the convention, Otto von Bismark will develop his political maxim of the “realpolitik.” He could have learned it from Rutledge, who, in response to Luther Martin’s call to accept the immorality of slavery, reminds the Convention that IF there is to be a Union, it WILL be with slavery. And if there is a Union WITH slavery, non-slave States… will make a whole lot of money…
Since June 11th, the Convention has been stuck on one question – will the representation in the proposed Senate be equal (one state, one vote), or proportional?
But now, the debates are becoming personal. James Madison will stoop to personal insults. Gunning Bedford (Delaware) will threaten to seek a foreign alliance. And Luther Martin will annoy everybody with his three-hour screed about States Rights and his body odor.
Through it all, General Washington knows that those he believes to be demagogues are on the verge of destroying everything.
When the dust settles on Monday, July 2, 1787, one more vote will be taken on the matter. This time, if the small States lose, the Convention will almost certainly break up. But how can they win? The numbers arrayed against them are too strong and too committed to the big State ideal of proportional representation.
There is not even a prayer that they can prevail, or at least… not lose again. There doesn’t seem to be any chance of saving the convention or avoiding the feared destruction of The United States of America.
With the clock ticking to the Independence Day celebrations, Ben Franklin will remind the delegates, that if He cares about the sparrow, that “without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel…”
Constitution Thursday 