Читать книгу And Then They Prayed - Barry Loudermilk - Страница 4

Benjamin Franklin (1787)

“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”

Psalm 127:1

The room was crowded, the air was hot, and so were the emotions of the fifty-five men assembled in the chambers of the Philadelphia State House. It was late June, 1787 and the sweltering summer heat further stoked the fiery tempers of the delegates as they engaged in heated debate. Twelve of the thirteen states had sent some of their most respected citizens to represent their interests at this Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation had been the governing document of the United States since the Revolutionary War; and, while these documents had served the needs of the states during the conflict with England, they had proven to be inadequate in governing the expanding post war nation and were in great need of revision. Rhode Island’s legislature refused to participate in the Convention out of concern that the members would be too tempted to abandon the Articles and create a new government. Rhode Island’s fear of this assembly “making innovations on the rights and liberties of the citizens at large,” appeared to be coming true, as the Convention had, by this time, abandoned revising the Articles of Confederation and was now debating the formation of a new government; a Constitutional Republic.

The sights, sounds and smells of the old State House Chambers were all too familiar to some of the Convention’s delegates, as they had assembled here many times before. Eleven years earlier, some of these same men stood in this very room when the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution declaring independence from Great Britain.

During the war for independence, except for a short time the British occupied Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress met in the State House Chambers. Throughout this period, these men, whose primary allegiance had always been to their own colonies, were suddenly united by a common cause; freedom from tyranny. Patrick Henry, a fiery orator from the Virginia legislature and a member of the First Continental Congress, expressed this unusual unifying spirit when he declared, “I am not a Virginian but an American.”

Throughout the war with England, the members of the Continental Congress regularly prayed for God’s divine protection. They prayed openly as a delegation and privately as individual citizens. They knew that their only hope for victory rested in the powerful hand of God, and they were neither embarrassed nor ashamed of their reliance on His Divine power. To ensure the world and future generations understood their dependence on God’s protection, they included such a statement in the Declaration of Independence. The final sentence of the Declaration expresses the unity and dedication of these brave men, “And in support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

Eleven years had now passed since the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed. These brave men, who held a firm reliance on the protection of Divine providence, had succeeded in their quest for liberty and won their independence, but now they faced the hardships and struggles of building an independent nation.

They needed a government that would protect and serve these thirteen independent states. However, unlike the Continental Congress who assembled here, this Convention seemed to lack the unifying spirit enjoyed during the Revolution. These men were attempting a significantly more difficult and challenging task, to solidify these independent and sovereign states into a single nation. Their goal, as they would later define, was to create a government structured unlike any the world had ever seen, a government that would be described nearly a century later by President Lincoln as a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

In previous Conventions, each delegation represented an independent and sovereign government working with other independent and sovereign governments toward a common goal that had equal benefit for each. Although there were debates, and an occasional argument, most Conventions had been relatively calm and productive. This time, however, the fear that one state might have more influence in the national government than another, coupled with their passion to protect the sovereignty of their individual states, ignited the delegates’ emotions. Debates, which far too many times resulted in all out verbal battles between delegates, were threatening to bring a disastrous end to the Convention. In fact, part of the New York delegation, frustrated by the bitter fighting and the lack of progress, had packed up and returned home.

The eventual product of this Convention, the Constitution of the United States of America, would be such a carefully crafted, uniquely structured and significantly limited form of self government, that it would appear to some to be Divinely inspired. From the perspective of an outside observer, one would assume the handiwork of the delegates was the result of years of cooperation and coordination. In reality, the fact they even completed the Convention and emerged with any type of agreement or governing document, was a miracle in itself. The document they eventually drafted and passed was indeed miraculous, especially considering that when they first convened they had not intended to create a new government, only to revise the Articles of Confederation.

The Constitutional Convention, as it would come to be known, had been in session for nearly five long and mostly unproductive weeks; and, from all appearances, this would possibly be the final week. So far, little progress had been made because the delegates were deadlocked on many issues, with the most prominent being how each state should be represented in a new national government. The fighting became increasingly bitter with each session, as northern states argued that representation should be based solely on population, while the southern agricultural states argued that representation should be based on the amount of cultivated land. The representation issue also sparked arguments between small and large states. Small states demanded there be a fixed number of representatives from each state regardless of size or population. All sides were firm on their convictions and none were willing to compromise.

At the beginning of the Convention, George Washington had been unanimously elected to serve as President of the Convention, in hopes that the respect all delegates held for this hero of the Revolution would create a sense of unity. It was the dignity and the statesmanlike demeanor of the former General that was responsible for holding the Convention together thus far, but even Washington wondered how much more quarreling they could withstand before more delegates headed back to their home states.

Washington, through a letter writing campaign, had been one of the primary reasons this Convention had taken place. In the years following the Revolution, disputes between the states had reached a critical level, and Washington proposed convening the Congress to resolve their differences. In May of 1786, Washington expressed his feelings in a letter to John Jay, “…there are errors in our national government which call for correction; … something must be done, or the fabric will fall.” Washington had fought hard for this Convention and, as much as he wanted it to succeed, he maintained his dignity and remained reserved in his position as Convention President. Washington refused to join the heated debates and, when he desired to make his opinions known, he would do so privately outside the Convention chambers.

On June 28, the Convention took a catastrophic turn. Once again, the debates regarding representation ignited a fiery diatribe, which resulted in one of the small states threatening to leave the Confederation and align itself with a foreign power. A delegate from one of the larger states immediately responded with the threat of using military force to keep dissenting states in line. It was now inevitable; everything our soldiers had fought and died for was crumbling down around them. Washington had commanded many of these brave patriots through eight brutal years of war. Countless numbers of America’s countrymen had given their lives for this new nation, and now, the very Convention that was supposed to design a new and stronger nation was, in reality, destroying it. To many of those in attendance, it seemed only a miracle could save the union now and, unknowingly, a miracle was about to begin.