Bible. Rvices matthew a building that was built in the 1730s, 40 years before there was any such thing as the United States of america and that that time, pennsylvania was a british colony and this was its capitol building. They would make laws for pennsylvania and each of the 13 colonies had its own government and these are the issues that will lead to the creation of the United States, most of which will happen in this room because the countys as time goes forward, or many people of the political classes colonies will start to grow the satisfied with the way the British Government is treating them, is affecting their lives locally, and one of the other side issues is s living in the colonies do not get to vote in british elections. When the parliament makes laws for americans, the most infamous being the taxes you learn about in school, we are going to say this is taxation without representation and it is that idea that you are not getting the voice. Thomas jefferson would write in the declaration of independence about government existing with the consent of the governed and americans feel like they are not getting that consent. When it starts disappearing locally as well as connected with the home country in london and britain, that they are really going to get this growing dissatisfaction. This room is long in use by pennsylvania, but by 1775, pennsylvania will be inviting the Continental Congress into their state. The Continental Congress had met in philadelphia about one year earlier although they chose not to meet in Independence Hall that year. They met down the street at carpenters hall. The first set of meetings, what we call the first Continental Congress, is sort of the first sit down of these different colonies and it is this idea of expressing to the British Government what would be under british constitution and bill of rights at that time this notion of redressing grievances we would have as british subjects will writeely, they to the king and say look, we are loyal british subjects and america, but these things are happening, we have these grievances over loss of rights, loss of connection with the government. The fact they are taking away some of our local government, they are closing down our local courts, giving us rules to follow that we have no say. They write this letter to the king, which, again, perfectly within your rights under british law. They also agree as a group on an association that these 13 colonies will Work Together on in future on these big issues. What is going to happen is they go home after that set of meetings in the fall of 1774. Obviously, communicating across the ocean in the late 1700s is going to take a while. They will not come back to philadelphia until the spring of 1775. However, things have changed in those few months. In the area of boston, you will have the battle of lexington and concord in april. When congress is coming back to philadelphia, this is the news. They are finding out about some of the conflict that has begun. Suddenly, things being a lot more serious leads to more serious circumstances when Congress Starts to meet in this room in may. The first big thing they will tackle is this notion of working as a group but the idea of maybe fighting for those rights, of actually taking that militia Minutemen Army around boston and making it an american army, the continental army. In june of 1775, one of the first big steps will be taken as far as changing the world is if we want to say that, is going to be creating this continental army, this american army, 13 separate colonies that had run their lives separately and for years had not resisted together but it never particularly worked out that they wanted to Work Together at the same time. They finally create this army, june 14, 1775, taking the beginnings of the army up in boston that had fought against the british already, making it it the american army, and taking and to me, most importantly, picking George Washington to be the commander of that army. That is one of the most important decisions made in this room. If you think about the way this war will go for the young United States, it is 8. 5 years. George washington will be the only commanding general we have for all of those years. At the end, he will succeed. Now, of course, back in 1775, they are still figuring out what they are fighting for. That leads to one last letter to the king. We call this one the olive branch petition. They began like they had done before, it starts off with the idea that we are loyal british subjects fighting for our rights, again, following this chain of command in britain to the king that asks that he assist us in redressing these grievances. The other thing they will write is a declaration of the causes and necessities of taking up arms. These things will be written in july. And again, it is essentially putting out there to the world exactly what we are looking to do, to basically correct this situation we feel has gone against us and our rights are being threatened or taken away. Well, unfortunately, the British Government in london will decide they are not really going to communicate with the Continental Congress. The king himself will announce there is this rebellion in america, and the British Government will essentially issue this letter to americans that says if you will be involved in this rebellion, we will view you as a traitor. The crime of treason as serious then as it is now that could very well lead to a death penalty. By early 1776, that news arrived gets to philadelphia. We are now a year plus into the war, and it is getting very clear that negotiating, talking is not particularly solving anything. Of course, you do have this very radical bent of men in this room that are pushing more toward this idea of independence and finally you get the last big Thomas Paynes book common sense, selling tens of thousands of copies to the colonies and his simple argument is we do not need those guys in london. We are better off on our own. We can run america better than the british ever could. This idea of independence swells through that spring. By june, virginia introduces a resolution for american independence. They decide to not address it right away in june. They are going to want to consult their home governments, their home colonies or states, if we want to start calling them that because we are getting to that point. At the same time, they want to put something on paper. While they are each consulting home to see what home says, they will form this fiveman committee, john adams of massachusetts, who is probably one of the most significant guys in congress those early days. He is really pushing for the andtion of the army in 1775 the navy in the fall of 1775. He is pushing in the spring of 1776 that each of the colonies write its own constitution, which is, again, another step towards independence each colony getting rid of that old charter they had had from the British Government, the old constitution so to speak, and creating a new, independent constitution. He is one of the leaders in this movement. Also on the committee is a man named Robert Livingston of new york who goes back 10 years to the meetings held over the stamp taxes. You have a man from connecticut named Roger Sherman who ends up signing not only the declaration of independence, the United States constitution, but the articles of confederation. Cane are only two men who make that claim, so he is on our committee. Benjamin franklin from here in philadelphia, who is a far and away at the time, one of the most famous americans, at 70 years old, oldest man in congress, and one of the younger guys in congress, Thomas Jefferson, 33yearold, that growing reputation for his writing and political thought. The committee, deciding what they should say decides jefferson should be the writer. He works for 17 days on the declaration of independence, and he will especially go to john adams and Benjamin Franklin for some of their ideas and critiques of his writing. Generally, it is his work. He is building on a lot of other things both he and others have written. Some of the grievances they had already been talking about makeup the bulk of that declaration of independence. By june 28, the declaration is back here in the assembly room. That is a friday. They will wait to the next monday to start debating. July 1 begins debate on independence. Now, the first thing they will debate is not the declaration but the idea. They will start discussing is this the best thing for us to do . Should we become these free and independent states . Most men in the room are at that point where they are ready to make this step. But there are others who are they are not loyal. They are not going to have loyalists in the Continental Congress. They wouldnt want to have anything to do with it, but there are men who are more conservative who say this might not be such a good idea. John dickinson is one of the most important of them. He was the author of the letters of the pennsylvania farmer, is against some of those various taxes, the stamp act and so on. He is one of our bestknown political writers of the day. He is pulling back, the idea of how we are going to win a war against the british. This does not seem like the best idea in the world to declare our independence, because this completely cuts off any chance of negotiating with the british. Others might look at the idea that we do not have anyone helping us. Again, burton britain is one of the great powers of the world. America, 3 Million People and there are a chunk of them remaining loyal to the crown. There will be battles in this war, after all, with just americans on both sides. Some, saying we should slow down but most men are ready to move forward. On july 1, they will hold a nonbinding committee vote. The vote is on the question of being free and independent states. Heres how voting works at the Continental Congress. You have 13 states or colonies. Depending on your time period. Each gets an equal vote, one vote per state. They have different numbers of men at each table. Some states allow their delegates to decide amongst themselves. Some states will give delegates specific instructions. Here in the room on july 1, you will have nine of the delegations voting yes that we should be free and independent states. Two will vote no, and two will be either divided were not voting. New york is still waiting for formal instructions from home, so they will technically not vote at all. Delaware is divided. They have two of their delegates in the room, one for about one one for, one against. Pennsylvania and South Carolina will vote no. On the rest of the first and into the second, the second is the date they want to take the binding vote , the official vote. The politicking is we want to make this unanimous. New york is going to ignore. New york is going, we have to wait until they tell us what to do. Delaware has a third delegate. He is at home, so he rides overnight through the storm. If you did the state quarters, delawares quarter has a guy riding on a horse. He is the guy to break the tie in delaware. A vote yes for independence. Pennsylvania and South Carolina, South Carolina as three delegates. We assume it is 2 to 1. South carolina will be on board. Pennsylvania is a little more complicated. They have got one of the bigger delegations. When that vote goes south for pennsylvania, what they will do is convince two of the guys to walk away when they are ready to make the final vote so that it can be unanimous. They dont have to vote against how they feel, so John Dickinson is one of those guys that will not vote amongst the pennsylvania delegates. Instead of a onevote loss, it becomes a onevote when and now pennsylvania is on board. It is 120 and we ignore new york at the moment. On july 2, 1776, they vote more or less unanimously to approve the notion of being free and independent states. That is the day john adams would write to his wife the next day is the date we should celebrate. Sadly for july 2, it never gets particularly remembered. The rest of that day, the second, the third, and the fourth are the days of debating on the declaration of independence. Now, the declaration in jeffersons draft, the is about four pages long. They will go through more or less every single word. They will make a significant number of changes, but they will not change the basic nature of a lot of what jefferson writes. They will add words here or there. The most famous park for most is that opening paragraph or two. Most of that remains intact. The early listing of grievances, the things we have been talking about for several years as far as what we are worried about the , most of that remains intact. Probably the most famous section that gets changed is the section about the slave trade, specifically slave insurrections. One of the big arguments virginia makes his dear governor had essentially said there governor had said in the early days of the war that slaves should kill their masters and seek their own freedom, which for a slaveholding state, slave insurrection is a frightening thing. That is very much on the mind of jefferson and other virginians, this idea of slave insurrection. Bringing more slaves into america becomes a part of that. We do not want to have more slaves that we have to worry about in these kinds of days, so he kind of goes back to the slave trade, blames the king for importing these folks. That is a bit controversial in this room, because you have a fair number of slaveholding states that kind of dont want to talk about this. It does get put aside. It is not really an attack on slavery so to speak, but slave trade and some of these things they were worried about the british doing that would affect the lives in america. At any rate, as you get into july 4, they are going through every bit of that declaration of independence. Finally, taking a little bit out, adding words here and there but they get to something that all of the men in this room representing all 13 states can agree. They are ready to vote. On the fourth, it is that same vote. It is 120 with new york waiting. July 4 becomes for americans our day of independence. It is the day we literally have something concrete to hold up to the world. This is the day we said here is what we are fighting for. Again, when we look at the declaration of independence, we focus on that top, on that opening section. The idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happyness. For them, really it is that list of reasons why they are doing this. It justified independence, it justified a war against their own government, which is what this started out being. It is basically saying, look. It is the british fault for this. This is all of the things they did that are not legal by constitution, british bill of rights. We are just acting the way we have to act because we got to this point where we cannot stay under this rule. They had something that on july 4, they voted yes, and they voted right away to send it out. We want this to go to the states, we want this to go to the army. We want people to know what we are fighting for. That is really what they needed to, because if you pull back to the big picture in the summer of 1776, we are not winning the war. The british army is invading new york that summer, massive invasion. Hundreds of ships, tens of thousands of men sweeping down through manhattan, long island, into new jersey. By 1777, the british army is sitting in this very room. They captured philadelphia. Washington and his army spend the winter at valley forge. Those early days are not good ones for the young United States. We had a declaration of independence we can hold up, announced to the world what we are fighting for. We had a general in washington that would keep going in those difficult days. We had an army that managed to survive those bad winters in places like valley forge and we managed to keep ourselves long enough to keep going to make changes. Now before we get to that, one of the things about our declaration of independence, of this room that people expect is that they signed the declaration of independence on the fourth of july. Sadly, they did not. Probably, the simplest explanation is that nobody thought about it that day. They had not gotten to the point of preparing a fancy handwritten one. They wanted the words agree to, voted on. They wanted people to read it. They sent it to a printer. The oldest declaration of independence had no names on the bottom. Jump ahead a couple of weeks, to the middle of july and one of the men here in the room will make a proposal that the word groengross. In you make a formal version and to be signed by the delegates. Most of the men in the room said why do we not think of that sooner . They will have it handwritten, and by the beginning of august it is done. They make sure it is right and they will start signing it. About 50 guys signed it on august the second, and a few more in the next couple of weeks. That is the one if you go to washington, d. C. , that is the one most of us think of as the declaration of independence. It is one, like everything they will do here in this room, it is one we get through by process rather than some massive plan we have at the beginning. They are making it up as they go along and figuring it out as they go. The other big thing that will happen that late year of 1776 is Benjamin Franklin will go to france. He is going to be the guy to convince france to come into the war on our side. While the british army is in benjamin in 1778, franklin is signing a peace treaty with france. That is changing the whole nature of the war. The british suddenly find they have to worry about a french navy. You know, the United States doesnt have much of a navy to threaten the british fleet, but france does. The british have to worry about being invaded. Certainly guys like Benjamin Franklin working with Marquis Marquis de lafayett. They worked on the king to try to get some invasion of england going. You will have to worry if you are Great Britain about islands in the caribbean. You will be fighting in asia, africa, you will be fighting all over the world. A lot of resources are not coming here to america, which makes George Washingtons life easier. We will get money from france, we will get supplies from france. We will get french troops, plus that french navy. If you think about the victory at yorktown, we are not going to get that victory without the french navy. Eventually, the war slowly turns in our favor. 1783 back in paris, john adams and Benjamin Franklin sign a peace treaty. It is really, back in 1783, the Continental Congress can finally breathe that sigh of relief and know that we have achieved american independence, which would be very nice if that was the end of our story, but there is more to do. Go back to 1776. Each colony, each state writes its own constitution. Each one is different. Each one has its own set of government. Its own sets of laws. I will use pennsylvania. This room was pennsylvanias legislature. Pennsylvania decides to write a constitution that is so radical for its day that they get rid of the position of governor. They will not have a chief executive for pennsylvania. They will have a democratically run legislature as opposed to the standard two houses that most states will use. That the United States knows throughout its history. Pennsylvania has got a very different set up. It proves to be too radical to work. Pennsylvania legislature will only last for two years. They go to the traditional last about 14 years. They go to the traditional governor, two houses of legislature. This is the idea in 1776. Each state will start itself over. The problem is, being all a little bit different. One of my colleagues loves to talk about that today. We still have differences from state to state, speed limit, rules for driving will be different. We do still have vestiges there. The problem was in those early days, they manifested themselves in ways that threatened what someone like George Washington who is very much a nationalist, believing this idea and eight a United States. That could be better for us. You have states fighting over land. They dont particularly want to cooperate with each other. What do we have in the way of government . State governments very much hold the cards. There is our Continental Congress. The articles of confederation sort of set the rules for the Continental Congress. That is an idea that comes into this room with the Benjamin Franklin at the beginning of the war. It is an idea he dusted off from the 1750s during the french and indian war. He put this idea together of a confederation between the colonies so they could defend themselves against enemies such as france. He dusts off the ideas, writes the first articles of confederation. The day after they chose the committee to write the declaration of independence, they chose a committee with a member from each of the states to write the articles of the confederation. The main writer would be another pennsylvanian, John Dickinson. Dickinson, he would be famous for trying to slow us down for independence. At the same time hes making those arguments, hes writing the articles of confederation, this formal agreement between the states of how the United States is going to operate. Essentially, the congress would run the war, run foreign policy, the states would run their internal, but they would cooperate with each other and you wouldnt have to pay taxes and tariffs as you run from state to state. The first problem and ultimately with the article articles of confederation and what ultimately dooms it is you can see from how it is signed, the signing is going to take place right when the Continental Congress comes back in the cash after the rick sharga has left. The british lead philadelphia in june. Congresss meeting back in july and on july 9, they are ready to sign the articles of confederation. The way the signing of that one works is a little different. The declaration of independence is signed by the delegates and most sign on the same day. The articles of confederation is signed as each day approved it, their delegates will sign it, so they are waiting for the states to make their decision. About half or so are going to sign that first day. And then over the next weeks, most of the rest will sign. Ultimately, maryland will hold out for close to two years. So the signing will begin july 9, 1778. It wont finish until march the first of 1781. Youre talking about two and a half years of time. For most of that time, it is maryland by a self saying no. Most of that, it is maryland by itself. Technically, it cant go into effect until all of the states have signed. Maryland is feuding with mainly virginia to their west overland. When the revolutionary war comes to an end, we go from our old colonial boundaries, which would be the appellation mountains, though the colonies figure they should keep going. Now we end at the mississippi river. Thats a lot of new land. You think of all the states between the east coast and the mississippi river. All the old states, the old colonies are looking at that land going boy, that would be great as part of my state. So maryland and virginia are arguing over who gets to use the Potomac River and maryland is going i dont want to sign this until everything is settled. There is your issue that arises. And there will be others. There is a bill at one point trying to pass through this room to raise money on essentially imports, take money from imports, theres a tax tariff and you put that to tame the paying the soldiers. It seems pretty logical. Why would you not want to raise money for the armies fighting for independence . 12 of the states agreed. One, which happened to be rhode island, the smallest of this e states and said no, and it failed. So the states individually have a lot more power and sometimes one can defeat 12. A lot of people think this is not working so well, including members of congress. By the end of the war, you have members of congress writing letters to officers in the army as the war is winding down saying you know, maybe the army should throw their weight behind something a little more strong in philadelphia because this is not really working between the states. Maybe we need the strength of that army. George washington, of course, is very much a believer in this idea of civilian control. Its one of the great principles would have embraced in American History from our beginning points and George Washington is a big part of that. What a lot of people would look at as one of his greatest moments, at the end of the war, in newburgh, new york, hes going to call a meeting together of all his officers as this word of maybe the army trying to change government a little bit, he is against it so he calls a meeting. He puts some of the guys he feels are hind a lot of this talk in charge of the meeting and says hes not going to be there. He says he wants them to talk amongst themselves, but then, he shows up. Now washington is not a public speaker. This is not a man who wants to stand up and makes speeches. If he can avoid it, hes going to do it. He starts making a speech and pulls out a pair of glasses and puts them on and says to the men in the room, i have not only go only grown gray but half blind as well. Hes talking about this idea of what they have fought for for eight years and that its not be ruined by rash actions at the end. Hes got guys in tears and the whole thing, what we call the newburgh conspiracy, goes away. Problems hadnt been solved, this idea of military intervention in our civilian government, fortunately, fades out of view, but washington does believe butthing stronger is needed he is going to be one of those guys who goes through proper channels. George washington is firm virginia. His state is fighting with maryland. George washington do about that . He can have a meeting at his house, he can invite them to sit together. After he has the mount vernon conference and theyll sign an agreement together, solving essentially years of problems between maryland and virginia, which leads to a reading in maryland next year where they will get even more states, they will get five states to sit in annapolis. Again, the big result is it is going to lead to a bigger meeting. They are going to go and now our friend John Dickinson is going to go to the continental conference saying we want have a big meeting in philadelphia and we want to really talk about the future and we want everybody to come. They are going to sit down starting in may of 1787, what we today call the Constitutional Convention. They are going to sit in the same room and address these issues plaguing the United States. It is going to start with about 11 states. New hampshire will show up late. Unfortunately, rhode island will never attend these meetings. Are nots time they about to let one state keep them from getting something done so the way they will set it up is they will pretend theres only 12 of them. Not only that, but when they vote, they will go to the people of each state. Let people vote on a special convention and they will approve or not approve the constitution for each state and you need nine states, three quarters to put the new constitution into effect. These are guys who are trying to engineer something because they know something needs to be done. To hold the states together. They know as separate entities, you go back to Benjamin Franklins design, the state is snake cut into pieces. Franklin put together during the french and indian war, hes calling for this union, join or die. That is this idea that a lot of these men are embracing that summer of 1787. The question they are facing is what exactly is this that we want . The first days of meetings are these esoteric debates about the nature of federal government, national government, whats the difference, what do we want . Thesere getting into things and they start saying we want this national government, so then what . What is it going to be . Virginia had come very organized. James madison is going to get credit for putting together a lot of the virginia plan submitted by admin randolph, who is eventually our first attorney general. Another virginian is chosen by nomination from pennsylvania to sit in the back of the room and lead the Constitutional Convention and that will be George Washington. The big hero of the day equal now to franklin as far as american fame goes. Washington will take the lead in the Constitutional Convention and the very chair at the back of the room behind me is the chair in which washington sat, which interestingly is the only item we have in this room we know for certain was here as part of those events. That chair was made in 1779 after the british left philadelphia. A lot of things were gone. Between the americans coming and going, the british coming and going, we dont have all the contents of the building anymore. So pennsylvanias government has to make new furniture, chair whenhat washington took that position in 1787. The virginia plan, three branches of government, somewhat familiar to us today. Here are some of the issues that are going to face that plan because other plans are going to get thrown out by other men. Virginias plan, to me, one of the biggest things is this notion of voting based on american people. Seeing the states as artificial, everyone is american, so whenever we do things, we should just be americans. Why be virginians or someone from massachusetts or delaware or anywhere else . Lets be americans. Naturally, the other side of that coin, as some of the states would look, is virginia happens to have more people than any other state, so voting by people is good for virginia. A small state like delaware embraces one idea and that is the idea that every state be equal. The way it has always been, every state get a equal vote. Delaware is digging their heels it and they are going to refuse anything that does not involve equality amongst the states. You get the small states liking delawares ideas, the big states, virginias idea and that is an issue that will go on for the better part of a month. Virginias idea of congress as is we have these two houses. Upper house, lower house. Again, it is based on population. As you start debating it, you have other saying, lets base it on states. Eventually, when it seems like theres no answer to be found, it would be connecticut that would make the compromise. What we call the great compromise. It would give us this question of how about a senate where every state is equal, a house of representatives where we base things of people. Both sides getting some of what they want. Eventually, that is how it will go, but not Everybody Loves that. You are not sure if everybody is going to go for that but that is how they slot in for congress. The president , there is another one. There are multiple ideas of president , executives, the virginia plan as they start working on it, is ultimately a seven year executive elected by congress. A little different system that n we are used to today. Another plan Edmund Randolph of virginia says how about having three president s at once, three regional president s. Then you have Alexander Hamilton who wants a very strong executive and he says how about president for a lifetime, which needless to say, having gotten rid of king a few years ago, was not overly popular to these men. Eventually, they settle on a president for four years at a time. But then they have that level of Electoral College and we get a lot of questions about that. Why would they do that Electoral College . There are probably several reasons. One of them is simple distance. The idea of having states that are days and days and weeks apart from georgia to New Hampshire with not a lot of great roads and travel can be difficult, so having this notion of sending people together to vote makes a lot of sense mechanically. Then also, you have this idea that with the electoral, you are making sure smaller states have a certain amount of say and youre trying to balance a lot of different things. Talking about that, again, one of the things that will plague a young United States is something that does come up in this room. That summer of 1787. It is the idea of slavery. Its the time to make that step and do away with slavery. Unfortunately, it wasnt. The Southern States obviously are fairly attached to it. They dont want to talk about it. You have one little notion of the slave trade, which they talk about in 20 years maybe we can discuss doing away with the slave trade. In other words, importing slaves from africa. Thats all the mention you get. Anyone who are antislavery, and there are guys in the room who are decidedly so, are not happy we put this off for 20 years, put off the entire discussion for 20 years, let alone action. Southern states would look at it that this is going to come up in 20 years and we are not happy with that. You have a lot of people looking at sections of the constitution that are not very happy. Who writes the constitution . Happy. Declaration of independence, Thomas Jefferson basically wrote it. The constitution, theres not that one obvious writer. Youre going to have a fiveman committee called the committee of detail which name is exactly what it sounds like. The guys in the details of what this government is going to be. Three of the five will be on the United States supreme court, one will be our first attorney general, so thats the kind of men you are going to have on there. Very much legal minded men. Probably the main guy is a man named james wilson from pennsylvania. Hes one of the signers of the declaration of independence as well and he will end up on the United States supreme court. More than likely, he came up with the three words we the people and the beginning of that report nothing else that would be recognizable to us today, but he does start out with we the people. As they go through this committee of detail report, eventually, they get to a point where they work out how they wanted to be so they formed another fiveman committee and we call this the committee of one style. This is where your heavy hitters American History will be Alexander Hamilton and james madison. But the guy who is probably going to do most of the writing is a pennsylvania by the name of Gouverneur Morris, a man with a wooden leg. But another one of these men very gifted with the pen. And morris is a friend of George Washington. There is a story that comes from that summer with morris and Alexander Hamilton and there is a bet made, hamilton makes with morris because morris slaps says ill just go up and slapped George Washington on the back and say how are you doing, that sort of thing. Is a very formal guy, prefers to bow and can be on the aloof side, especially in public. Hamilton is like youre never going to do that. In fact, ill bet you dinner youre not going to do it. So of course he goes up and does it and washington gives him one of his glaring looks and shrinks him down and im sure hamilton is standing in the corner laughing like mad but Gouverneur Morris is the guy whos going to probably write that we the people of the United States, in order to form a more Perfect Union that famous preamble we know. At the end, you have this famous constitution. By september 15, 1787, four pages. And that is all it is four pages. There is no bill of rights at that time. They kind of talked about it. Alexander hamilton would say we dont need one, the whole thing is kind of a bill of rights. The government is only going to have the power we give it. Why do we even need it . Others would say thats all well and good but we would like to see Something Like that there. So again, even by the time they are finished, you have guys look at parts of the whole and say this i dont like, that i dont like, i dont like this sentence, gives too much power to little states, the president is too strong, not strong enough, we didnt deal with slavery, theres no bill of rights. You come in on the last day and its not certain everybodys going to agree. Now remember, these guys are sending out for their states to vote on, so it is important to the group as a whole to try to have everyone on board because these are the guys that have to sell this new constitution to the people so that they will then put it into effect. So youre going to have Benjamin Franklin come in the very last a day of meeting. Franklin is 81 that summer. There are days he is literally being carried in and out of these meetings. He can hardly walk. Fortunately for everyone, he is still the great sage, the elder statement. On that last day, he brings in a speech where he starts off i saying there are things in this constitution i do not approve. But then he says im old enough to know im not perfect. My ideas are not perfect, nobody in this room is perfect, and we should basically put aside our doubts and sign our names on this thing. He actually says we should all doubt a little our own infallibility, which i always love another one of these typical franklin phrases. He says, one of his famous statements in the room, he says we should all sign because i do not expect anything better than this. In fact, i am not sure this is not the best. To me, one of the most famous triple negatives in American History. Im sure some of the guys in the room were listening and said what is he saying . Is he saying to sign it . In the end, its hard to argue with franklin. 41 men are in the room that day, 38 men will sign 39 names. Theres a story to that one. John dickinson, who refused to sign the declaration of independence, again, not that he was loyal to the british, but he was saying this is not the right time, its a bad idea, he never signed the declaration of independence. He is sick the day the constitution is going to be signed. So he tells his fellow delegate from delaware, look, i want you to put my name on that thing when you sign it. So george read signs twice. Once for himself, once for John Dickinson. 39 men would sign the constitution. Three would not, different issues. You have Elbridge Gerry of massachusetts who made a speech that last day saying there was an excess of democracy, which he called the worst of all political evils. The fear of democracy at that point in history is made evident a few years later in the french revolution when their new government went to the point of renaming months and starting over at year one and cutting off 6000 heads. Thats the sort of fear of democracy that leads to some kind of chaotic anarchy which ultimately in history leads to a dictator which is what france does going up to napoleon. They went back to rome and saw the same sort of thing. Democracy was always a little tempered in the United States and britain, which is where we get our ideas of having that mix. We have a mix of states and people, a president and congress, we divide our powers. This idea there is no one place that has too much strength coming. So jerrys a little afraid democracy will overrun because he sees potential for revolution in the future. He wont sign it. Two of the virginians, Edmund Randolph wont sign it but hes always one of those guys who like to hedge his bets. He ends up supporting it when virginia is voting on it but would not actually sign it in this room because hes afraid guys at home like Patrick Henry will go against him because he knows Patrick Henry is one of those guys that doesnt think this is a good idea. The other one, george mason is looking at the idea of a bill of rights. He kind of wants to see that, so he is not crazy about parts of it. A lot of guys in the big states like massachusetts or virginia dont like that. There are all kinds of issues but most men put aside their doubts as franklin hoped and sign their names. September 17, 1787. At that point, franklin looks at the chair washington sits in looks behind washingtons head, sun onarving of a half the back of the chair and says all summer ive been trying to decide whether that half sun is supposed to be rising or setting and i could not make up my mind and till now. Now, at length, i have the happiness to know that is a rising and not a setting sun. And he felt good. He had been working on this since the 1750s, this unity of the american states and he finally sees it happening. One of the Great Stories that comes afterwards as he is supposedly asked what kind of government they have created in philadelphia and he says its a republic, if you can keep it. His last warning to the rest of us. Think about the United States one of the things i like to finish with is this idea we are still using that same constitution. We are still using that same government, but it has also allowed us maybe not quickly but it has definitely allowed us to improve because ultimately, slavery in the United States does not really and by the civil war. Technically it is in the constitution, the 13th amendment. The 15th amendment will give equality in voting by color. The 19th amendment will give equality in voting by gender. So, through the years, maybe slowly, we have faced every issue that came up in our and our constitution and it has allowed us to solve things and continue to move forward. Again, i always think back to franklin and his rising sun and that is exactly what was seen through the years. This little humble room is everything the United States has been and will be. Its going to grow from the events that happen over 10 or 11 year period in this room and its amazing when you think of this humble place and the men who sat here and the things they did. It is really incredible, the things that have grown from this space. This Pennsylvania State house is the real name of Independence Hall and it was pennsylvanias capital until 1799. Pennsylvania then moves its government west to the center of the state, to harrisburg. At that point, the building, they are using space in the building and renting it out. Its not the Capital Building anymore but the city of philadelphia had started building buildings on the block. By the early 1800s, essentially, the city is going to buy this building and this whole block is going to serve as our city hall. So through the 19th century, this is city hall. The second floor of the building would hold meetings of Philadelphia City council until 1895. But the first floor is one of the first places in the United States that becomes a historical place. By the 1820s, 1830s, 1840s, people are coming to visit. It gets the nickname Independence Hall. Probably this room was Independence Hall before the whole building became Independence Hall. One of the famous early deidents, the marquis lafayette, about 50 years after the war makes this triumphant trip through the United States. Youre are talking to 1820s. We have very few of the Founding Fathers and soldiers that are left. Every town lafayette visits, you gather the old veterans and anyone like Thomas Jefferson or john adams thats still alive, they get together and celebrate lafayette. So its this wonderful exclamation of patriotic memory and probably one of the first times we are looking at embracing our history. Thats the same time period when people are starting to purchase their copies of the declaration of independence and put them above the fireplace and we are celebrating the words and actual document. Fortunately, this room becomes a Historic Place before theyve gotten to the point of totally getting rid of the building and tearing it down to build something new. We are really lucky in a lot of ways it was in use long enough that it became important. By the mid1800s, this whole thing is a museum. One of the fascinating stories of this room, when the liberty bell, almost a hundred years in our belltower cracked, they put it on display in this room. Where else will we put it . Lets stick it in the room where the United States began. One of my favorite days thats not one of the days of the revolutionary war comes 150 years ago this year in april after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. His body lay in state in this room. There is a little back story. He came here to philadelphia, washingtons birthday, 1861. On his way to be inaugurated, he made a stop, made a speech at Independence Hall on washingtons birthday and said in this room he would rather be assassinated on the spot then fail the ideals of the Founding Fathers. Exactly the kind of strength america needed at the time. Sadly, four years later, he comes back having been assassinated, but having succeeded in saving the United States, and they put his casket literally next to the liberty bell and ran 100,000 people through this building in a day to pay their respects to lincoln. In this space, you had lincoln laying next to the liberty bell in the room where the United States was born and the ghosts of the founding father present at that one time. Thats the kind of thing that makes this room so great. The park Service Comes in and in the 20th century after world war ii and, unfortunately, the one thing that had changed, a lot of the walls, they made them fancier. It was a little plain room and they wanted to have paintings up, so they had that oldfashioned museum filled with stuff. Our big thing was get back to the way it looked. We kind of stripped it back down to the plain walls you see today. But again, the main structure, fortunately, survived the years and we were able to figure out well enough the paint colors and Everything Else and were able to get it back to what we think is pretty close to how it looked. The furniture is from the time, not necessarily the original furniture because in those early days, nothing was saved. The british Army Captures philadelphia. Nobody is thinking about the history until he have some and they keep using it for different things, so we dont necessarily have all the contents of the room but everything here is a good match to what was here. Rethink really, as best we can tell from our investigation and research, this is pretty close to how it looks. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you are watching American History tv, 48 hours of programming on america is history every weekend. Follow us on twitter at cspan history for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. The cspan cities tour , exploring country the american story. Been11, we and more to more than two hundred cities. Our staff is staying close to home due to the coronavirus. Next, a look at one of our city tour visit. We are standing on the historic part of the San Antonio River walk, which has developed into one of the worlds great parks. It is not something that started out to be this. Back into the 1700s when san antonio was first established, this was the major source of water for the residents of the city