Constitution Day

Read the preamble: “to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.” The primary purpose of our government is to secure the nation. We should actually do that.

After winning an improbable victory in the American Revolutionary War, our new, independent nation hit quite a bit of turbulence — due, in part, to the lack of an effective written constitution.

By the time the delegates convened in Philadelphia in 1787 to craft a new constitution (officially they were merely there to “revise” the existing — and inadequate — Articles of Confederation), things were dire, and there was little consensus about a path forward.

The delegates hashed through a wide range of thorny issues ranging from the proper role of the federal government to the scope of executive power. There were many times where the convention appeared to be at an impasse.

In the face of long odds, the delegates were able to arrive at a series of compromises that yielded what has turned out to be the best written constitution in the world.

At the close of the convention, as the delegates were signing their names to the proposed US Constitution, Benjamin Franklin rose and pointed to the sun that was on the back of George Washington’s chair.  

The sun was only half visible. 

Franklin said that, throughout the convention, he couldn’t figure out whether the sun was rising or setting. But, now that a new constitution has been agreed to that had the potential to secure the American Revolution for future generations, he was quite certain that it was a rising sun — a symbol of the rising republic that would soon characterize the United States of America.

We would be much better off as a people if our nation was more faithful to the principles the Constitution represents and if the federal government operated consistent with the proper understanding of the Constitution.

Happy Constitution Day!