Remembering the greatness of our Constitution — and its composers

On Sept. 17, 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed a newly crafted Constitution for the United States. The men had spent all summer working on the document, honing its structure and wording into the original seven articles we now know.

Constitution Day, when we commemorate this magnificent accomplishment, reminds us of the greatness that once marked our leadership. Consider the men who participated in composing this constitution: Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, and James Madison, to name a few. George Washington served as the convention’s president.

These men possessed the virtues needed to lead a country well. Hamilton displayed a restless genius and bullheaded disposition. His proposed plan at the convention called for a Senate and a presidency elected for life. The proposal went nowhere in and of itself. But Hamilton made the case that our politics, based as it would be on the rule of the people, must maintain vigor and stability, especially in its enforcement of the laws. The American presidency created in Philadelphia still bears that mark.

Madison showed the calm, cool assessment needed during these deliberations. He advocated strengthening the separation of powers as a means to make government both safer from tyranny and more effective from ineptitude. He, like Hamilton, did not get everything he wanted. Madison desired, for example, a “council of revision” that would have combined the president and the judiciary in assessing and potentially nixing legislative bills. While that failed, the convention did agree on several modes of checking the legislative branch, which Madison feared would overwhelm the rest of the government, to the securing of liberty.

Finally, Washington was truly the indispensable man. He did not possess the refined education or the intellectual genius of some of his colleagues at the convention. But as the winner of the Revolutionary War and thus of independence, America was impossible without him. As the general who voluntarily resigned his commission at the war’s end, despite some wishing him to be king, he established the precedent of putting institutions and laws above powerful personalities.

At the convention, everyone knew he would be president. That office’s strength came about in large part because of the trust the men and the nation reposed in Washington’s vigor and prudence.

The people went on to ratify this proposed Constitution. During the debate surrounding doing so, Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay wrote and published the Federalist Papers, still the best commentary on the Constitution and still a towering work of political thought. Washington went on to serve nobly as the first president, setting crucial and beneficial guidelines for all future officeholders. Madison also occupied the White House, but not before a distinguished stint in the House of Representatives and in other positions of influence for the fledging nation.

This Constitution Day, we should remember the precious document produced on Sept. 17. It has guided us well in the principles it both articulated and which it embodies. The people are the country’s rulers and were before the Constitution. But the Constitution has channeled our exercise of rule better than any structure of government made by human hands. We would do well to consider how the Constitution has done so and to commit anew to following its dictates.

Beyond the document, we also should celebrate the men who composed, defended, and implemented it. America retains a love for its founders, one seen in the success of biographies and documentaries about these men over the years. We should be thankful for their courage and for their success in service to our republic.

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We also should consider the particular insights stemming from their wisdom. They saw deeply into human nature. This vision understood human depravity but also human possibility. They held to human equality, however imperfectly, and to the consequent view that men could exercise the virtues necessary for self-government.

We may lack such genius and virtue in our politics today. But we should not despair. These men remain with us. They remain with us so long as does the Constitution. And their example may yet, as it has at other times, awaken the republican geniuses among us to new acts in service to America.

Adam Carrington is an associate professor at Ashland University.