Chapter 5: A new Constitutional Convention convenes

After operating for six years under these “Articles of Confederation,” ex-General George Washington speaks for most leaders when he says “we have errors to correct.”

This results in a convention in Philadelphia to try to hammer out a new, improved U.S. Constitution. The meeting will last for four months, from May 14 to September 17, 1787, with seventy-four delegates invited, fifty-five eventually appearing and a mere thirty staying throughout. All have been involved in the revolt against Britain, with twenty-nine serving in the Continental Army and forty-one in prior sessions of the Continental Congress. Roughly half are lawyers and some 25 are slave-owners. The group is about evenly split geographically between North and South and between larger and smaller states. All meetings are held in secret with the secretary, James Madison, recording notes he later edits and that are not published until 1840, four years after his death. George Washington and Ben Franklin are present throughout, saying little but acting as the senior “wise men” in the hall.