The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION 685All this is quite remarkable.Certainly, Congress envisioned nosuch document when it sent out acall for a convention. Nor couldmost of those who assembled inconvention see how, at the outset,they could overcome the difficultiesin the way of drawing a satisfactoryconstitution. Even were amasterpiece produced, it appearedmost likely that it would be rejectedby the states. Few haveever remarked it, yet it may wellbe that the most amazing thing ofall is that the Constitution wasnot the work of a single man, oreven of two or three, but of a convention.It is a commonplace thatcommittees produce little of value ;but here, by a group larger thanmost committees, the exceptionwas made to happen.Some have described what happenedas more than remarkable;it has even been called a miracle.George Washington wrote to Lafayettethat it was "little short ofa miracle that· the delegates fromso many different States (whichStates you know are differentfrom each other), in their manners,circumstances and prejudices,should unite in forming asystem of National Government, solittle liable to well-founded objections."IMiss Catherine DrinkerBowen's recently published bookon the convention is called Miracleat Philadelphia. Whatever it was,or should be called, all who areopen to an examination of the evidencewill admit that it was an extraordinaryevent.Off to a' Slow StartEven so, the convention did notget underway any more auspiciouslythan did most other assemblagesin that age; it was calledfor May 14,but there was not aquorum to do business until May25. It was no easy matter to assemblemen from over the lengthand breadth of the United States;delegates from Georgia, say, hada formidable distance to travel,and even an early start did notnecessarily lead to a prompt arrival.In any case, promptness was.better calculated in weeks than inhours.The Virginia delegation was thefirst appointed by a legislature,and its members began to arrivein Philadelphia before other outof-staters.It was an impressivedelegation, including among itsmembers some of that state's leadingcitizens; George Washington,Edmund Randolph, George Mason,and J ames Madison. (GeorgeWythe, one of the best legal mindsin America, put in an appearancebut left shortly to attend his dyingwife.) Most of the Pennsylvaniadelegates did not have tomake a journey to get to Philadelphia,so that they were· avail-