by Catherine Drinker Bowen

This book had been deep in my Amazon to-read list for a while. I added it at the time I was reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow several years ago. I especially liked in that book the description of the people, circumstances, and events surrounding the creation of the U.S. Constitution. I knew at some point I would want to learn more about its formation beyond the role played by Alexander Hamilton. 

The Constitution being short in length belies its momentous and unlikely genesis. Hence, the title of the book, taken from a letter Madison sent to Hamilton following the end of the Federal Convention and final drafting of the U.S. Constitution,

“It is impossible to consider the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle.”

I had not appreciated how tenuous things were for the states at this time. The Articles of Confederation had provided a basic operating agreement for the States to follow during their 8 years of war. The colonies won but the weaknesses of this Confederation were known long before the war’s end.

General Washington lamented his troops lacking shoes, meat, gunpowder, clothing, barracks, and medicine. “Our sick naked, our well naked, our men in captivity – naked.” He wrote with desperation, “It is with infinite pain that I inform Congress that we are reduced again to a situation of extremity for want of meat.” The Congress, reliant upon unsupportive state legislatures, replied, “Last war the soldiers supplied their own clothing.” We did not yet act as a continent. 

Following the war was 4 years of trouble for the in-cohesive nation. It was fragmented with no national defense, no ability to generate revenue, unable to pay debts, unable to regulate trade and commerce. States rivaled one another leaving them vulnerable. A British delegate seeking commercial negotiation complained he had to deal with thirteen separate states when Congress proved impotent. “It will not be an easy matter to bring the American States to act as a nation. They are not to be feared as such by us.” And so it was at the start of the Federal Convention announced by the Virginia delegation,

“The Crisis is arrived at which the good People of America are to decide the solemn question whether they will by just and magnanimous Efforts reap the just fruits of that Independence which they have so gloriously acquired and of that Union which they have cemented with so much of their common Blood, or whether by giving way to unmanly Jealousies and Prejudices or to partial and transitory Interests they will furnish our Enemies with cause to triumph”.

Why did we have to stop speaking like this?

Thus the delegates assembled for what they all understood to be a daunting task of immense importance for posterity. Every man chosen was one of their State’s most impressive politicians, leaders, or thinkers. When Jefferson read the list of names he described it as, “an assembly of demigods” – Washington, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Adams, Wilson, etc… (James Wilson, unfortunately lesser known these days, is an especially luminary figure of this moment). Armed with thorough knowledge of classical Greece, Roman history, English legal theory, failed European experiments in Republicanism, the Enlightenment philosophers, as well as their own deep insights into human nature and a collective creativity, they forged a document unique to History until that time. 

In reading this book you learn in detail of the debates needed to reach consensus and compromise on a range of intricate issues. Avoiding tyranny was of primary importance. This evolved into the separation of powers. Interestingly, while they all were decided that a pure Democracy would be untenable due to the nation’s size, what was of greater concern was the ease by which the People would be empowered to elect a Tyrant. These ideas and many more coalesced into the Executive branch and the President – a role that seemed designed for a person of Washington’s calibre. 

There is meticulous debate about the structure of Congress and how best to protect the interests of States, large and small, as well as the sometime opposed Landed and Commercial interests. Slavery leads to thorny and heated debate, one of many issues which threatened to derail the endeavor. And while the separation of church and state was something they all agreed as granted, there was controversy on oaths of Religious observance, ultimately discarded based on arguments like those by a Jewish veteran of the Revolutionary War names Jonas Phillips. The Bill of Rights, which may surprise us today, was also a quite divisive topic.  Many other particularities and concepts are described in the book that make fascinating and vital reading. 

Ultimately it was up to the individual State legislatures to decide if the work of this Federal Convention would be accepted as the law of the land. The final chapters of the book describe this process. I think many modern readers will be as surprised as I was how contentious this proved to be. Perhaps it was naivety, but I was taken aback to learn of several violent episodes that occurred. 

I will end with a quote by Washington as he considers the conclusion of this process.

“Upon the whole I doubt whether the opposition to the Constitution will not ultimately be productive of more good than evil; it has called forth, in its defense, abilities which would not perhaps have been otherwise exerted that have thrown new light upon the science of Government, they have given the rights of man a full and fair discussion, and explained them in so clear and forcible a manner, as cannot fail to make a lasting impression.”

I wish the world today had people so learned and circumspect. I think every American owes it to themselves to read this book or another specifically on the construction of our Constitution. It provides lesson on the powers of intelligence, reason, and compromise.  All of which are traits the Founders, perhaps naively, assumed every future generation of leaders would possess.  I wonder how differently they would have written the Constitution had they known the sorts of leaders we would have today.