Constitutional Convention Part 1

Ok, so I was going to post about the Founding Fathers today, but I'm not finished with my research because there were 39 of them who signed the constitution and I wanted to read about each one.  It takes a long time.

I bought this book (see below) titled, We the People, at a discount book fair about 3 weeks ago.  It's written by Lynne Cheney.  It's a good book for kids ages 8+.  It talks mostly about the Constitutional Convention.  It does not cover the actual content of the constitution, but it's a good start.  You can buy it or check it out from your local library.  I find that I learn a whole lot from reading children's nonfiction books.  Don't overlook their value.  You can usually finish a children's book in about 20 minutes or less and not have to look up fancy words in the dictionary to understand what the author is talking about. I don't know why I don't remember learning half this stuff when I was a kid. Either it wasn't taught well, or I have horrible retention.



I only got through about half of the book while reading it aloud to my children today in 25 minutes. I think the language in the book is still a little too sophisticated for young children, so I had to stop and talk about it in their language. This is what we learned today in my own words:

Way back on October 16, 1781 America won the last battle of the Revolutionary War in Yorktown, Virginia. Yay! So now America was independent from Britain. (This was when my eight year old son told me the war actually ended in 1783. I looked it up, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, so I'm not quite sure which date is the official ending to the war. According to Mrs. Cheney it was when the last battle was won.)

So anyways, the British were totally bummed because they totally thought they were going to win, but now there were a bunch of Americans that were really excited (we'll call them "Patriots") that have this big huge country all to themselves (except, of course, for the Native Americans) with so much potential for prosperity and greatness. However there was no, like, official government or anything to keep things in order. Some people wanted to appoint George Washington as king because he was so awesome, but he was like, "Wait a minute. No way. Don't you understand that we just spent six years fighting for independence because kings are not a good idea?" So instead they continued operating under what was call the Articles of Confederation, which was America's a first attempt at a form of government after the signing of the Declaration of Indpendence.

The Articles of Confederation ended up proving to be a total bust for a few reasons. One was because the states were printing their own money which was a total mess because it was difficult for states to buy and sell goods from each other and all that. Secondly, the government couldn't get the citizens of the states to help defend America. Thirdly, the government couldn't do anything about getting the states to contribute to paying off all the debt that it owed from fighting the war. Basically the Congress didn't have enough power and it flopped.  Other countries saw that the newly formed union was weak and took advantage of it.  Britain didn't leave like they were supposed to. They were pretty much like, "Nanny nanny nanny, you can't get us." It needed to be fixed quick or America would have egg on its face. George Washington said:

"I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds which have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country."  :( 

He didn't actually use a sad face, but my point is that it was a sad time for America.

So in May of 1787 some American guys (we'll call them delegates) got together and said, "Let's fix this."  At first they were just going to fix the Articles of Confederation, but it ended up they scrapped the whole Articles of Confederation thing and started fresh. It was a big deal. Many, if not all, of the men were very well read and learned on the subject of government. They were smart, they cared about the country, and they wanted it to succeed. So they committed to spend how ever long it took to get a really solid government in place. It ended up that they spent the entire summer from May 25 to September 17 working out the kinks of this new Constitution.  It wasn't easy. There were lots of arguments, it was hot (and I imagine stinky) in that unairconditioned room in Philadelphia.

James Madison was a key writer of the Constitution. He knew that the key to a solid government was if it rested on the People. All but, one of the 13 states was in attendance at the convention. Rhode Island was the party pooper and chose not to attend.

During the convention, the delegates threw out their ideas and suggestions. One guy from Virginia, Edmund Randolph, suggested the Virginia Plan which suggested that bigger states had more representatives than smaller states. But the smaller states were like, "No way, Jose!" So a guy from Delaware, William Paterson, presented a plan called the New Jersey Plan that suggested an equal number of representatives in each state. Basically it was like having a 5 year old and a 6 year old arguing over who is more deserving of the last piece of Double Bubble in the Halloween candy bowl.  Nobody wanted to budge on their opinion.

But finally a guy from Connecticut, Roger Sherman, suggested a plan that there would be two bodies of Congress.  The House would be represented according to the size of the state.  The Senate would have equal representation from each state.  Brilliant!  Now is everybody happy?  Of course they weren't, because the big states thought they were all more cool and important and stuff, so Ben Franklin had to step in and say, "Hold it!  Let's not forget to bring God back into this equation.  Perhaps he can shed some light on our predicament."  (Not an exact quote.) So they stopped arguing long enough to form a committee that came up with the Great Compromise, which was pretty much what Sherman proposed, but it made it more appealing to large states by having the House deal with legislation dealing with money first.

That is as far as we got today.  Join in for Part 2 next week.....

Thanks to all who are joining in! Learning the constitution is very important to keeping our country strong. I'm still reading The 5000 Year Leap that I mentioned last week. It's a great book, and I officially recommend it.