America at 250: Miracle at Philadelphia

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2 months ago

by Gene Pisasale

Gene Pisasale is an historian, author, and lecturer based in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

“It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States … should unite in forming a system of national Government…” –George Washington, Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, February 7, 1788

After the Revolutionary War was settled, many colonists thought their nearly decade-long struggle might be over. Far from it. The 13 colonies considered themselves independent entities, even though they were loosely bound together by the Articles of Confederation.

Despite having won the war, enormous challenges lay ahead, namely, how the colonies would exist together in a cohesive governmental framework, how they would all act in case of attack, rules for conducting commerce between them and what laws would prevail if disputes arose between the states. Some historians now privately wonder whether spiritual intervention got them to agree on a national framework binding them all together.

In “Miracle at Philadelphia,” Catherine Drinker Bowen details the personalities involved in crafting the U.S. Constitution, including James Madison, scholarly expert on the history of governments, considered its “architect,” James Wilson, Madison’s equal whose knowledge of law helped shape the final document,

Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton, whose recommendations concerning revenue and the funding of the new government were hugely instrumental in the formation of the banking system and Roger Sherman of Connecticut, whose “Connecticut Compromise” helped finalize states’ representation in the new system. The debates started on May 25, 1787, lasting nearly four months through the sweltering Philadelphia Summer.

Appointing General Washington to oversee the Convention was a stroke of genius, putting his stellar reputation behind the proceedings. Yet the dialogue was, at times brutal in attacks on the character of the attendees.