Posted on 09/13/2005 11:13:47 PM PDT by strategofr
On September. 17, 1787, as members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the founding document of the United States of America, Dr. Benjamin Franklin turned to a few of his fellow members. Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art in their art a rising sun from a setting sunone, he noted. “"I have often and often in the course of Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that [image of a sun] behind the Ppresident without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”"
The sun did rise upon America, and it continues to rise. The “"miracle”" of unanimity in Philadelphia has borne awe-inspiring fruit. Balances struck at the time for the sake of political convenience established a system of working checks and balances. A national government of enumerated powers, a national government respecting the authority of local government, a national government strong enough to protect the people but bound to respect the law –-- that is the product of all the negotiation and infighting in Philadelphia during 1787.
The Constitution is, quite simply, the finest document ever devised by man. It is brilliant in its structure: the House of Representatives, elected directly by the people, its allocation of representatives based on population; the Senate, elected by state legislatures, with equal representation for each state; both houses of Congress circumscribed in their ability to infringe upon the freedoms of the states and the people. The Ppresidency is a masterwork of compromise –-- a powerful executive maintaining defense, and with the partial ability to check the legislature, yet subject to re-election every four years by the people through the mechanism of the eElectoral cCollege. The judiciary’s role, largely restricted to deciding outcomes based upon the Constitution and the laws to be passed, has not the ability to check the other two branches –-- if it did, the subtle balance between popular sovereignty and a structure of checks would be entirely subordinated to the will of the judiciary.
The Constitution is as clear a document as any yet written. Yes, it contains lofty language –-- promoting “"the general Welfare,”" for example –-- but it is largely a document of specifics. The Constitution is not poetry, open to all forms of interpretation; it is not a literary piece designed to reflect individual whims. The Constitution is, first and foremost, a governmental document, as legal and understandable as the Judiciary Act of 1789. It does not mutate over time; it does not reflect what we wish it to be. It is what it is. It requires no embellishment.
In its operation, the Constitution has allowed Americans the freedom to maximize human happiness. Instead of the constant strife associated with competing states under the Articles of Confederation, a national government was empowered to create a true Union. Still, the states and localities remained the locus of governmental power. While creating an experimental republic the size of which the world had never seen, the founders recognized that most issues deserve to be solved at the local level. The Constitution demonstrates respect for the people on three levels: as members of a nation, as members of a community, and as individuals. The beauty of the Constitution remains its steadfast dedication to empowering the people, through their duly elected and deliberative representatives, to do their will.
No, the Constitution is not a perfect document. Amendments to the Constitution have been necessary, and have done great good for the document itself. But again, the ffounders realized that changes would be necessary for this great empire of liberty to adapt to changing times. Those changes would be embodied in the amendment process, a process whichthat has abolished slavery, given women the right to vote, and protected freedom of speech, religion and the press, among other necessary and virtuous developments.
The American sun rises and sets with the Constitution. As Dr. Franklin also pointed out on September. 17, the Constitution itself is but a document –-- it relies on the people to give it truth and life. The Constitution, Franklin stated, “"can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.”"
As the checks and balances restricting federal usurpation fall away, as the American people become more and more dependaent on a national government, will the promise of the rising sun sink into the sea of time? Only time will tell. Americans were given the greatest mechanism for the protection of freedom in human history on September. 17, 1787. The choice to maintain that mechanism remains –-- as it always has –-- in our hands.
The "sunrise" comment has NOTHING to do with how painters represent the sun. Instead, it concerns the chair in which George Washington sat, as he presided over the Constitutional Convention. It is a high-backed chair with a half-sun on the horizon carved in the top cross piece.
I know that not just because I have seen that chair, but also because of this experience: When I worked for the Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution, I attended two local conventions on behalf of the Commission. I was loaned a copy of that chair, which itself was one hundred years old, having been made for the Centennial. I allowed people to sit in that chair, and took their photographs for them.
The quote is likewise inaccurate. Here is exactly what Franklin said to Washington, as the delegates were signing the final document on 17 September, 1787: "I have long wondered, sir, whether the sun on the back of your chair is a rising sun or a setting sun. I know now, sir, that it is a rising sun."
Shapiro could easily have checked this quote and its circumstances on the Internet. I really dislike inaccuracy about the writing and ratification of the Constitution.
Congressman Billybob
Happy birthday to the wonderful document on which are nation was based. The 3/5 of a person thing was very bad, as was the electoral college, but for the time its amazing.
Many thanks for your corrections.
And it was written by slave holding white men. So I guess that negates everything. Give us back to England.
Virginia was the California of its day in that it had, by far, the greatest population of the original 13 states. Making black slaves worth only 3/5 of a white person helped restrict Virginia's power.
The Constitution is as clear a document as any yet written. Yes, it contains lofty language –-- promoting “"the general Welfare,”" for example –-- but it is largely a document of specifics. The Constitution is not poetry, open to all forms of interpretation; it is not a literary piece designed to reflect individual whims. The Constitution is, first and foremost, a governmental document, as legal and understandable as the Judiciary Act of 1789. It does not mutate over time; it does not reflect what we wish it to be. It is what it is. It requires no embellishment.It never hurts to be reminded of this.
-Eric
Our constitution is one of the greatest reasons I'm proud to be an American. I keep a pocket sized one hanging up at work, in my car, at home, et.
You should have heard John Corzine on Fox & Friends this morning. He tried to push the "living, breathing" argument. E.D. was polite, but she did not encourage him to continue.
"It never hurts to be reminded of this."
I'm with you.
"I keep a pocket sized one hanging up at work, in my car, at home, et."
I use the Appendix of Bork's Tempting of America. Best explication of said document ever written.
I agree the Declaration is the best.
The Constitution only covers powers and responsibilities. The only part that really concerns rights is the BOR, added as somewhat of an afterthought.
But the Declaration is full of commentary about the nature of free men. And the government that serves them. There is a moral and ethical component to it that is absent from the Constitution. It is really, almost, Locke's "On Civil Government" reduced to a shorter form.
Jefferson was brilliant. Possibly the most brilliant man who ever lived.
Without the Declaration of Independence, there simply would have been no Constitution, and the former was a unique document in all respects. The Constitution, as an framework for the operation of a state, is in itself not a unique concept, although the ideas enshrined therein are.While the Declaration was important, it was more a statement of "why" than anything else. The Constitution was a statement of "how". For the first time, it established a nation where the individual was superior, where one's own conscience trumped the whims of the government or the strictures of any given religious faith. It established the things that the people would allow government to do, instead of the opposite. It established ways to guarantee and preserve these limitations. Finally, it established a way to amend itself when it was clearly neccesary.
It was the Constitution that established this Nation as the greatest the world has ever seen.
-Eric
"For the first time, it established a nation where the individual was superior, where one's own conscience trumped the whims of the government or the strictures of any given religious faith."
Principles first espoused in the Declaration. I see your points, but still believe as I stated.
Nonetheless, the Constitution is indubitably one of the two greatest documents in human history. The Declaration was the other.
Reading this is like listening to the guy who declares his mom the bestest mother ever. Flattering hyperbole only helps hide the rather glaring structural flaws within the Constitution and its interpretations, original and otherwise.
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