A Fortuitous Beginning . . .

Over Philadelphia the air lay hot and humid; old people said it was the worst summer since 1750.

So begins Catherine Drinker Bowen’s “Miracle at Philadelphia,” the classic story of the drafting of the federal Constitution starting 200 years ago today. The beginning was not auspicious. The raucously sovereign and independent colonies, roughly aligned under the Articles of Confederation, had chosen 74 delegates to the convention, called to revise the impotent charter. Only 55 showed up and, by September, only 39 signed the document.

Many of the delegates, including George Washington and James Madison, had been in Philadelphia for some days. The convention originally was scheduled to open in the Pennsylvania State House, Independence Hall, on May 14. By then, only delegates from Virginia and Pennsylvania were present. It was Friday, May 25, before a quorum of seven states was present. Maverick Rhode Island never did show up.

The Virginians and Pennsylvanians did not fritter away their time. The Virginians caucused each morning and met with their Quaker State counterparts at dinner, which then was taken in mid-afternoon. These pre-convention sessions were destined to have a profound effect on the formulation of the Constitution, fashioned around the proposals of the brilliant delegation from the Old Dominion.

This convention was an exceptional group, although only eight had been signers of the Declaration of Independence. Neither Thomas Jefferson nor John Adams was present. Both were abroad, representing American interests in Paris and London. The old revolutionary firebrands, Sam Adams and Patrick Henry were missing, and probably just as well. Henry, by then 51, a firm states rights man, refused to attend, declaring that he “smelt a rat.” Adams was dubious, too. Indeed, the organizers of the convention pretended that the gathering was merely to do some tinkering with the Articles of Confederation. But, in truth, they fully intended to propose creation of a strong federal government. Fred Rodell, in his book “55 Men: The Story of the Constitution,” wrote, “So they came to Philadelphia with their tongues somewhat in cheeks.”

Today, Americans tend to venerate the Framers of the Constitution, and properly so. But Rodell makes clear that the delegates were “essentially hard-headed men of affairs” and not just visionary dreamers “playing around at Philadelphia with abstract conceptions of political theory.”

Indeed, their knowledge of political science and philosophy would put the average modern politician to shame, Rodell said, adding, “But political science was to them an extremely practical topic of discussion, dealing with the extremely practical business of running a government” and not an exercise for academia.

On the opening day 200 years ago, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania nominated George Washington to serve as convention president. Not surprisingly, his choice was unanimous. “When seated,” one delegate wrote of Washington, “he declared that as he had never been in such a situation he felt himself embarrassed, that he hoped his errors, as they would be unintentional, would be excused. He lamented his want of qualifications.”

An amazing, modest beginning by an amazing man, who presided silently for the next four months, rising to give his only formal speech of the convention on the final day, Sept. 17. This, then, was the rock on which the delegates began assembling a nation.

Over Philadelphia the air lay hot and humid; old people said it was the worst summer since 1750.

Ah, but what a summer it turned out to be for the United States of America.