Louis Glanzman’s painting of “The Signing of the Constitution”, commissioned by the Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey Societies of the Daughters of the American Revolution, portrays the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia as they concluded the Convention’s work on this day in September 1787.
They then sent the proposed charter for ratification or rejection by elected conventions in each of the 13 independent States.
The Constitution was signed by 39 of the 55 delegates who participated at one time or another in the convention during the spring and summer of 1787. (In fact, John Dickinson, a delegate from Delaware who supported adoption of the Constitution, was absent on September 17. At his request, George Read, another delegate from Delaware, signed on his behalf as well as on behalf of himself.)
The Glanzman painting, unlike other depictions of the event, shows no flags and is oriented away from the room’s windows which, in fact, had been covered over to promote privacy in the convention’s deliberations. It does show the “rising sun” design that appeared on the back of the chair in which the convention’s president, George Washington, sat.
The formal motion to adopt and sign the Constitution was made by Benjamin Franklin, a delegate from Pennsylvania, who, at 81, was also the oldest delegate.
George Washington, president of the convention and a delegate from Virginia, was the first to sign the document. The other delegates then signed, each delegation signing together with the States arrayed geographically from north to south. The New Hampshire delegates signed first, immediately under the signature of George Washington. The Pennsylvania delegation signed at the bottom of that column, whereupon the delegates from Delaware started a new column of signatures to the left of the first column. The second column ended with the signatures of the delegation from Georgia.
The youngest signatory was Jonathan Dayton, 26, a delegate from New Jersey.
After the instrument was signed that day, the convention adopted a resolution to adjourn sine die.
The document consisted of seven articles written on four pages of parchment. [High resolution photographs of the four pages from the National Archives can be seen below.]
Many countries have adopted written constitutions. The average lifespan of a national constitution on earth has turned out to be about 17 years. The United States Constitution is 237 years old today and it remains a vital, guiding force in the life of our nation.
The Constitution is notable for many reasons, among them:
(1) It sought for the first time to create a national government of limited, delegated powers, with those powers not delegated reserved to the States or to the people.
(2) It sought to create a federal republic, with sovereignty divided and shared among both the States and the national government.
(3) It sought to create an effective government while at the same time protecting individual liberty by dividing power both vertically (between national government and States) and horizontally (among legislative, executive, and judicial branches), thus creating a system of “checks and balances” to prevent concentrations of power.
(4) Its obvious aim was the protection of life, liberty, and property under the rule of law Its genius lies in its marrying of what the Declaration called the individual “pursuit of happiness” with the preservation of an organic society whose culture and traditions respected human dignity.
(5) Together with the Declaration of Independence, it represented the first time a nation had declared the principle of universal equality of liberty; had rejected slavery, then a global scourge practiced by nearly all peoples on all continents; and set in motion a plan allowing for the legal and pacific abolition of slavery in the United States. When that plan was obstructed the Civil War came.
Defense of the Constitution remains the foremost duty of American citizens. There are, alas, Americans — even political leaders and legal scholars — who reject the Constitution’s principles of individual liberty and restraint on government in favor of schemes to “improve” humanity through coercive measures.
The independence of the judiciary, now under attack by some for transient and craven political motives, is the linchpin of the Constitution’s effectiveness.
Happy Constitution Day!
Joseph A. Morris is a partner at the law firm of Morris & De La Rosa and is the chairman of The Heartland Institute Board of Directors.
