This
week I watched an re-enactment of the Constitutional gathering
which took
place among the statesmen after the American victory over the
superior British
forces. One reporter observed that few if any of the nations at the
time believed
we could
do it. It was also said that Washington and the others put their faith
in God. Obviously, He heard their prayers because otherwise- how can
you ascribe victory to this ill-equipped rag tag army -- even though
admittedly led
by one astounding military strategist like George Washington?
Meeting
together to choose a better governing doctrine than the Articles of
Confederation,
these men certainly were gifted with vision. James Madison's Virginia's
constitution provided the starting point and I believe much of it
was adopted
in this new constitution for the whole United States.
I
watched the proceedings with great interest. I had not given too much
thought to
this happening before, and that indeed is something quite shameful. We all should know
our history better than I do. Much of the episode centered on the thoughts of
Ben Franklin, and of course, this man of many talents displayed his wisdom and
foresight at this gathering.
I
hadn't fully realized what an
amazing thinker and
orator he really was until then. Gifted on many levels, we also owe him
a debt of
gratitude for enlisting the help of France in our Revolution. Could we
have succeeded
without it?
But
now I was reflecting on his gift of analyzing and putting into writing his
amazing
thoughts. Here in part is the paragraph which had me awe-struck re his assessment
of the final draft of the Constitution:
".....I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able
to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a Number of Men to have the
Advantage of their joint Wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those Men all their
Prejudices, their Passions, their Errors of Opinion, their local Interests, and their
selfish Views....."
So very true, and I thought that this reflection is probably descriptive of
almost any gathering of people who are called upon to make serious
decisions. And of
course, this was especially true of the delegates of the 13 original states who
were there to make a better blueprint then the Articles of Confederation on how to
govern this fledgling new nation.
He had his young friend read his prepared paper and again his thoughts are
refreshingly true: "From such an Assembly can a perfect Production be expected? It
therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this System approaching so near to Perfection
as it does; and I think it will astonish our Enemies, who are waiting with Confidence
to hear that our Councils are confounded, like those of the Builders of Babel, and that our
States are on the point of Separation, only to meet hereafter for the Purpose of cutting
one another's
throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution BECAUSE I EXPECT NO
BETTER, AND BECAUSE I AM NOT SURE THAT IT IS NOT THE BEST."
Thank God we had the likes of men like Ben Franklin, James Madison, George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Adams and others at this crucial time in our
history. They all believed in God or Divine Providence. I even admired Ben Franklin more
when I learned that he had made a
request that all the meetings of this group be
started with prayer. Sadly, his fellow statesmen did not agree, but I believe that
this man of such
innate goodness probably harbored no ill will to them because of this.
Truly a man of God -his one disappointment re the new Constitution was that
it did not abolish slavery.
I smiled this evening (December 5th) when I heard on the local evening news
how the Constitution was tested. The reporter reminded us that on December 5, 1933
the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) was repealed by the 21st Amendment. How wisely the
founding fathers had not cast the
Amendments in stone.
I was only 3 at the time, but somehow whether then or later I began to
realize the ramification of the 18th Amendment on basically the hard working class of
people at the time. Among them were my Slovak father and his friends. These early
immigrants worked hard- primarily for a pittance and they needed to be able to enjoy a
shot and beer with their friends to rest and unwind.
It was wrong to deprive them of this simple luxury. I would often
thereafter see my Dad raise his shot of whiskey and say to his friend --"Na zdravije" -- To your
health. I didn't know then but this 18th Amendment was the only Amendment to be repealed in
its entirety by the 21st Amendment. Maybe well-meaning in intent, it failed to realize
that people should not be deprived of imbibing alcoholic beverages. Even when Jesus
lived -- He and
His mother attended a wedding at Cana where the wine supply became
inadequate. We all know that at His Mother's request, Jesus changed water into wine at
this wedding feast, and saved the wedding couple from embarrassment.
So, thank you Founding Fathers for your wisdom in giving us a pretty darn
good blue print for governance. I think it can be safely said that it has worked until
now. Somehow though we need more people with the caliber of a Ben Franklin, George Washington,
and Abraham Lincoln to name a few. Will we ever see their like again? We seem to have
lost our way.
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