Benjamin Franklin Urges Adoption of the Constitution with a Warning
On September 17, 1787, James Wilson delivered a speech written by Benjamin Franklin on the last day of the Philadelphia Convention. The speech urged the adoption of the Constitution despite Franklin’s reservations – and prediction that the system would...
James Madison and the Case Against Compromise
Over the three days spanning from July 2 to July 5, 1787, the attendees at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia approved a resolution that would sufficiently satisfy the demands of delegates from small states for equality of representation and those from the...
Understanding the Constitution: How the Document was Composed
The Constitution’s framers were familiar with a long line of Anglo-American documentary landmarks, of which the most famous was Magna Carta and the most recent were state constitutions and the Articles of Confederation. But in drafting the U.S. Constitution, the...