Writing the Constitution: Miracle in Philadelphia
Spring 1787. The American revolution had been won, but no one seemed to know how to govern the new nation. There was no chief executive, no agreement on taxes, or even how they should be collected. The country was teetering on the edge of anarchy. Something clearly had to be done, and quickly. What happened next is nothing short of a miracle. Historian Jay Cost tells the incredible story.
#constitution #prageru #history
SUBSCRIBE 👉 https://www.prageru.com/join
📲 Take PragerU videos with you everywhere you go. Download our free mobile app!
Download for Apple iOS ➡ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prage…
Download for Android ➡ https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…
Script:
Spring 1787. The American Revolution had been won.
But there was no peace.
Because there was essentially no government. There were states. But they weren’t united. Not even close.
There was no mechanism to collect taxes.
No way to provide for the national defense.
The nation was living on the edge of anarchy.
George Washington understood this. So did James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. So did many others.
Something clearly had to be done. And fast.
The word went out across the land. A new Constitutional Convention was called for. When Washington announced he would be there, the meeting gained instant credibility.
Fifty-five men from twelve states arrived in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft the framework of a national government. There was no guarantee that they would succeed. And even if they did, there was no guarantee that the American people would accept their plan.
Failure was a real possibility. And everybody knew it.
The different interests of the states were just too pronounced—over trade, taxes, and slavery to name just three of a dozen points of conflict.
Yet, they all knew that they had to succeed. Or there would be no country—just a loose collection of individual territories sharing the same continent, easy prey for the European powers.
Not only was America’s future on the line, so was the glorious principle of self-government as stated in the Declaration of Independence, the reason for the Revolutionary War.
So, these fifty-five men locked themselves in a room for four months, working six days a week, through the middle of a hot Philadelphia summer to get it done. They all agreed they would say nothing to the press about their deliberations.
They even closed the window shutters so that no one could look in, making a very hot room even hotter.
As the temperature rose outside, tempers rose inside. Still, they persevered.
On September 17 they finished, and the country and the world learned what they had produce—the Constitution of the United States, 4,500 words of collaborative genius.
How did they do it? There are many answers, many happy accidents, perhaps even divine intervention. But here are three reasons that stand out.
First, they knew the stakes.
The Articles of Confederation under which the country had been operating since the Revolution were clearly inadequate. This was dramatically demonstrated in 1786 when a group of New England farmers took up arms in a tax dispute. Known as Shays’ Rebellion, the rebels came close to overturning the state government of Massachusetts.
No one wanted anarchy. But anarchy was staring the country in the face.
Second, these were very capable men.
They were both learned and pragmatic. Many, like James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, and James Wilson were steeped in the great works from classical antiquity—from Thucydides to Aristotle, from Livy to Cicero—and, of course, they knew their Bible.
They were also men of the Enlightenment and saw politics as a kind of science. They studied what had worked in the past and what had failed.
For the full script, visit: https://www.prageru.com/video/writing-the-constitution-miracle-in-philadelphia
source
Great video! I hope you wouldn't mind if I translate this video into Ukrainian and Russian for use as a part of footage at my channel youtube.com/@anatolii.lazarenko – and for libertarian youtube.com/@derevovoli.org ? Wil there be enough reference to “ The translations into Ukrainian and Russian were made from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q818wlDzwqU (thanks to PragerU )” in the description of the future video, or would you prefer something else?
Here's to seperation of powers, as well as checks and balances. Someday a GOP Congress will hold a Republican President accountable like they did to Nixon. Trump should have been impeached. And it is the job of state and federal agencies to punish him for his attemped coup on J6. Here to Federalist 51- great job James Madison!
3:30 : OK, I kinda like PragerU, but this is just false.
It's always about Laws and freedom, cheers to Love…….🤺💓🌹
It’s 2022 and a former president just called for the “termination” of the constitution. Very curious how everyone feels about this
Our own government today doesn’t understand their inherent limitations & should study history, as our founding fathers did
Shouldn’t a “senior fellow” be more intelligent? Even an American one haha. So it was divine inspiration that created your electoral college propping up your slave-based economy?! Ok and so what role did the tooth fairy play? Idiots.
Do you think America will ever become a democracy with rights and freedoms for its citizens? Or will they be stuck with their few rights forever? The rest of the world had more rights before America (1689 Bill of Rights anyone?) and has far more rights today. The founding slavers were forced to tack on a few of the rights from other countries onto the constitution. They put them in the constitution so they’d be effectively frozen in time. Thus those American suckers don’t have any rights of the modern world. It’s 2022 and they still have slavery and execution! Idiots.
it was and is a genuine, wonderful, almost spiritual…miracle…love…
Interesting.
Isn't it that they called a convention to amend the Articles of Confederation and decided to scrap it and draft something else instead?
America is a gift to the world
Amazing! Wow. Thank you for this video.
I think the most interesting of the original amendments is the 2nd. Had that not been put in there, the Constitution would have been shredded a long time ago.
That was absolutely wonderful.
This is CRT! Showing our founding fathers wearing dumb looking clothes and fruity wigs, it doesn't matter if they actually dressed like this you need to change it now it's CRT!
Unsubscribed. Republicans and Democrats have BOTH made America ghetto af. Leaving this Titanic country. It’s disgusting now.
Why is a Neocon here ?
đź‘Ť
if the constitution was a miracle it would have upheld the whole 'all men are created equal' thing.
Nineteen of the 74 delegates to the convention never even attended a single session, and of the 55 delegates who did show up in Philadelphia, no more than 30 stayed for the full four months. Attendance was spotty… Although 55 delegates participated in the Constitutional Convention, there are only 39 signatures on the Constitution. Fourteen men, having already left Philadelphia, were not present for the signing, and only Delaware delegate John Dickinson had a proxy sign for him. Three delegates—Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia—were dissatisfied with the final document and refused to ink their signatures.
https://youtu.be/_7VUqJF3Vi4