VERNON — When our founding fathers convened in the blistering hot weather in the Philadelphia courthouse during the summer of 1787, they did not plan to create a new government. They simply planned to amend the Articles of Confederation, the existing law of the land, which did not provide the federal government with enough power to maintain the people.
They did not intend to frame a document which would be revered in the highest esteem even 222 years later. As a matter of fact, many delegates did not even attend this convention, such as those from Rhode Island who refused to participate in what they saw as a conspiracy to overthrow the existing government.
Now, in creating this document, many wealthy, educated men were likely concerned about protecting the power of their class: the wealthy planters and merchants. But the founding fathers made the Constitution a living document, which has allowed generations of Americans to overcome numerous obstacles. And though our Constitution has been tested, and though the scope of our Constitution started off small, over the years it has expanded, allowing us to take immense strides to where we stand today.
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“We the people of the United States of America do ordain and establish this Constitution.” With these simple words scrawled upon a piece of parchment and serving as the first line of the Preamble of our Constitution, the delegates of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 performed the most democratic deed the world had ever seen.
As James Wilson, delegate from Pennsylvania, cried out in a speech advocating the ratification of our Constitution, “You have heard of Sparta, of Athens, and of Rome; you have heard of their admired constitutions, and of their high-prized freedom…But did they, in all their pomp and pride of liberty, ever furnish, to the astonished world, an exhibition similar to that which we now contemplate?”
But wait a minute; let us take a moment to reconsider the beginning of the Preamble to our Constitution.
Who were “we the people?” The 55 delegates present at the signing of our Constitution certainly did not represent “we the people.” James Madison from Virginia grew up as a slave owner on a prosperous tobacco plantation. He is known to be the first graduate of Princeton University. Charles Pinckney - a governor of South Carolina: He was the son of a wealthy planter and received formal education his entire childhood, which was very rare at the time. John Dickinson, one of the wealthiest men in Delaware, was educated by private tutors growing up and then passed on to study law in Philadelphia and London.
All of these delegates were wealthy; all of these delegates were educated; all of them were men; all of them were white; and most of these delegates were slave owners. This is not the America we know today. Just walk down the streets of Indianapolis, and what do you see? We see African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, women, homeless people. So how has this document, created by 55 white, wealthy, educated men lasted us over two centuries?
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It is because those delegates gave us, the American people, the ability to amend it. As Akhil Reed Amar, professor at Yale Law School, said in his biography, America's Constitution, “Later generations of the American people have surged through the Preamble's portal and widened its gate. Like constitutions, amendments are not just words but deeds - flesh-and-blood struggles to redeem America's promise while making amends for some of the sins of our forefathers.”
So what amendments have we made to broaden the scope of the American government so that it will reach out to all of its citizens? The 13th Amendment ratified in 1865 abolished slavery; in 1868, the 14th Amendment defined citizenship to be any person born or naturalized in the United States; in 1869 the 15th Amendment was passed prohibiting that a person be denied the right to vote based upon race; and then later, the 19th Amendment, of 1920, granted women the right to vote.
All of these changes have allowed for America to become the nation it has become, the melting pot, a nation defined by the great expanse of cultural practices that people have brought from all over the world. How can we not be proud?
But make no mistake - throughout the years, our government has been tested. It was tested when one of our most beloved presidents suspended Habeas Corpus throughout the nation during the Civil War. It was tested with the black codes in the Southern states during the years of reconstruction. It was tested in the women's suffrage movement. But because our Constitution is a living document, we have been able to overcome these hurdles.
It is because of this transformation that our founding fathers had allowed for, a night like November 4, 2008 was possible. On this night results of the election revealed that Barack Obama would serve as the 44th president. Could the framers of the Constitution ever have envisioned this: Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at Grant Park in Chicago to listen to Obama's victory speech; mobs celebrating on Times Square; there was singing, chanting, and rejoicing outside of the White House.
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Does this rectify the racism that was embedded into our constitution? Does this take back Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution, which counts an African American as 3/5 of a person? Does this heal the wounds of slavery? Perhaps not, but it epitomizes the idea of freedom and equality upon which our nation was built. We Americans have been fighting for this freedom for 234 years. It was this very document that propelled us into the land of the free.
So, while the Constitution was written for a certain group of people, we turned to it in our times of greatest need to guide us to act in the name of our forefathers. It was the power of the Constitution that allowed us to get past this race issue and unite as a nation. While the delegates knew that they had created something great, they could not see the full power of the constitution in having it only relate to the wealthy planters. They could not imagine how it would flourish.
And yet, even as our Constitution has flourished, it is still not perfect and continues to be tested today. It is tested with the War on Terror. It is tested in our questions about gay rights, abortion, stem cells. It is tested as our representatives struggle to represent us while not infringing upon our rights as American citizens. But our Constitution will prevail because of the will of the American people, who will give their lives to uphold it and ensure that this sovereignty that was created by our forefathers will persevere.
For this is the reason that a document created to protect the power of the wealthy has become a champion of the common man. Throughout American history, our people have made sacrifices to uphold it. Paid in blood and sweat and tears, our forefathers have given us a debt. It is our duty, not only as Americans, but as lovers of freedom and prosperity, to uphold this sacred document, made so by the men and women who fought and died for it; to pay back that debt.
For it is from us that the Constitution derives its power as the “supreme Law of the Land.”
Our land.