Captioning performed by vitac captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 each one is different. Each one has its own sets of governments and own sets of law, and ill use pennsylvania. This room was pennsylvanias legislature. Pennsylvania decides to write a constitution that is so radical for its day that they basically get rid of the position of governor. They are not going to have really a chief executive for pennsylvania anymore. They are going to have a fairly democratically run onehouse legislature as opposed to the standard two houses that most of the states are going to use, that the United States has known throughout its history so pennsylvania has a very different setup. It proves a little too radical to work and our 177 of pennsylvania constitution will last only 14 years. They will have to redo it, go to the traditional two houses of government and legislature setup. This is 1776 that each of these states is going to start itself over. Now, the problem is being all a little bit different, and one of my colleagues loves to talk about that today. We still have differences from state to state as far as speed limits and, you know, some of the little rules for driving are going to be different, and so we do still have some of those vettages there, but the problem was that in those early days they kind of manifested themselves in ways that threatened what someone like George Washington who is very much a nationalist, believing in this idea of the United States, would sit and go, hmm, that could really be bad for us because you have states that literally start fighting with each over who owns what land. They dont particularly want to cooperate with each other. Now, what do we have in the way of government . State governments very much hold the cards. There is our Continental Congress. Now the articles of confederation sort of sets the rules for the Continental Congress. Thats the idea that comes into this room with Benjamin Franklin at the very beginning of the war. Its the idea that he kind of dusted off from the 1750s during the french and indian war. He puts aside the idea of confederation between the colonies so that they can Work Together to defend themselves between enemies such as france. They dusts off the old ideas, rewrites this first versions of the articles of confederation. The day after they those the committee to write the declaration of independence, they also chose a committee with a member from each of the states to write the articles of confederation. The main writer would be another pennsylvania, John Dickinson. Again, dickinson would be famous for kind of trying to slow us down for independence, but at the same time hes making those arguments, hes actually working on writing the articles of confederation, this formal agreement between the states of how the United States is going to operate, where essentially the congress would run the war, run foreign policy. The states would kind of run their internal, but they a cooperate with each other. You wouldnt have to pay taxes and tariffs as you went from state to state. Well, the first problem with the articles of confederation i think and ultimately what dooms it, you can see from how it is signed. The signing is going to take place right when the Continental Congress comes back to philadelphia after the british army has left in 1778. The british leave philadelphia in june. Congress is back meeting here in july, and on july the 9th they are ready to sign articles of confederation. Now, the way the signing of that one works is a little bit different. The declaration of independence is signed by the delegates and most of them sign it on the same day. The articles of confederation is signed as each state approves it. Their delegates will sign it. So they are waiting for the states to make their decisions, so its about half or so of them are going to sign it that first day, and then over the next weeks most of the rest will sign. Now, ultimately one state, maryland, will hold out for close to two years, so the signing will begin july the 9th, 1778 and wont finish until march the 1st of 1781 so youre talking about two and a half years of time and for most of that time its maryland by itself saying no so technically this cannot go into effect until all 13 states have agreed and signed. Maryland is feuding with mainly virginia, their neighbors over land to the west because, remember, when the revolutionary war comes to an end, we go from our old colonial boundaries which theoretically would be about the appalachian mountains, although the colonies each sort of figured they kept going. Now all of a sudden 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, well, all the old states, the old colonies, are looking at all that land going, boy, that would be great as part of my state so maryland and virginia are arguing. They are arguing over who gets to use the Potomac River and things like that, so maryland is kind of going, well, i dont want to sign this thing until everything is settled so theres kind of your issue that arises, and there will be others. Theres a bill one point trying to pass through this room to raise money on essentially imports. Take money from imports is like a tax tariff, and you put that to paying the soldiers, which, again, seems pretty logical. Why would you not want to raise money to pay the Army Fighting for independence . Well, 12 of the states agreed. That seems like a good idea. One, which happened to be rhode island, the smallest of the states, said no, and it failed. The vote failed, so the states individually have a lot more power, and sometimes one can defeat 12, and so a lot of people start thinking this isnt working so well, including members of the congress. So by the end of the war, you have members of the congress writing letters to officers in the army as the war is winding down saying, you know, maybe the army should try to throw their weight behind putting something a little bit more strong together here in philadelphia because this isnt really working between the states. Maybe we need the strength of that army. Now, George Washington, of course, is very much a believer in this idea of civilian control. Thats one of the great principles that weve embraced in American History from our beginning points, and i think George Washington is really a big part of that, so one of what a lot of people would look at as one of his greatest moments is at the end of the war, up in newburg, new york, hes going to call a meeting together of all his officers as this word of, you know, maybe the army trying to change government a little bit, and hes against it so he calls a meeting. He puts some of the guys that he feels are behind a lot of this talk in charge of the meeting, and he says hes not going to be there. He wants them all to talk amongst themselves but then he shows up, and he shows up and now washington is not a public speaker. This is not a man who wants to stand up and make speeches. If he can avoid it, hes going to do it, but he comes and starts making a speech and he wants to read this letter so he pulls out a pair of glasses and puts them on and says to the men in the room ive not only grown gray in the service of my country and half blind as well. Of course, hes talking about this idea of what they fought for together for eight years and that, you know, that it not be ruined by rash actions at the end, and hes got guys in tears, and the whole thing sort of what we call the newburgh conspiracy kind of goes away, and own though the problems hadnt been solved, this idea of, you know, military intervention in our civilian government fortunately fades out of view, but, still, washington does believe that something stronger is needed, but he is one of those guys who is going to go through the proper channels, so George Washington is a virginian. His state is fighting with their neighbors in maryland. Well, what can George Washington do about that . Well, he can have a meeting at his house. He can invite virginians and marylanders to sit together. So he will do that after the war ends, about a year or so after. He has this what we call the mt. Vernon conference, and they will sign an agreement together solving essentially years of problems between maryland and virginia which then leads to a meeting in maryland the next year where they will invite more states. They will get five states to sit in annapolis. We call this the annapolis conference, the Annapolis Convention and, again, the big result is its going to lead to a bigger meeting. They are going to go and now our friend John Dickinson again is going to go to the Continental Congress with a letter hes written saying, look, we want a big meeting in philadelphia back in the same room and we really want to talk about the future and we want everybody to come so they are going to sit down starting in may of 1787, what we today call the constitutional convention. They are going to sit in this same room and address these issues plaguing the young United States. Its going to start with about 11 states. New hampshire will show up late. Unfortunately, rhode island will never attend these meetings. Now, this time they are not about to let one state keep them from getting something done, so the way they are going to end up setting it up is they are going to kind of pretend theres only 12 of them, and not only that, but when they vote they are going to go to the people in each state, let the people vote on a special convention and then the special conventions will approve or not approve the constitution for each state and then you need nine states. Threequarters of them to put this new constitution into effect, so these are guys who are definitely trying to engineer something because they know something needs to be done to hold these states together. They know as separate entities, you know, you go back to Benjamin Franklins design. The snake cut in pieces, that Benjamin Franklin put together during the fresh and indian calling for this union, join or die. A snake cut into pieces is going to die and a snake together is dangerous and thats a lot of the idea that these men are embracing in the summer of 1887 but the question that they will face in this room is what exactly is it that we want . So the first days of meetings are these very esoteric debates about the nature of federal government, national government, whats the difference . What do we want . They are getting deep in these things and then they start saying, well, we want this national government, and then they start saying, well, then what . What is it going to be . Well, virginia had come very organized. James madison is going to get credit for putting together a lot of the virginia plan that is submitted by Edmund Randolph, 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, of course, you know, equal now to franklin as far as american fame goes, and so washington will take the lead in the constitutional convention, and in fact the very chair in the back of the room behind me is the chair in which washington sat which interestingly is the only item in this room that we today have in this room that we know for certain was here as a part of those events. That chair was made in 1779 after the british had left philadelphia. A lot of things were gone, you know, between the americans coming and going, the british coming and going. We just dont have all the contents of the building anymore, so pennsylvanias government has to make new furniture, including that chair for the speaker of pennsylvania so that was in the room on that spot when washington took that position in 1787. So, the virginia plan, three branches of government, somewhat familiar to us today. Heres some of the issues that are going to face that plan as far as when you start debating, 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, sort of seeing the states as artificial. Everybody in all the states is american so whenever we do things, we should just be americans. Why be virginians or somebody from massachusetts or delaware or anywhere else . Lets be americans. Well, naturally the other side of that coin as some of the states would look is that virginia happens to have more people than any other state, so voting by people is definitely good for virginia, so a small state like delaware pretty much embraces one idea, and thats the idea that every state be equal. The way its always been, every state get an equal vote so delaware is digging their heels in and they will refuse to anything that doesnt involve equality amongst the states. You get the small states naturally liking delawares ideas and the big states virginias idea, and thats an issue that will pretty much go on for the better part of a month off and on. Now, virginias idea of congress is that we have these two houses, upper house, lower house, what becomes our senate and house of representatives, and, again, its based on population, but as you start debating it, you have others saying, no, its based on states, so eventually when it seems like theres no answer to be found it would be connecticut that would make the compromise, what we call the connecticut compromise or the great compromise, would give us this question of how about a senate where every state is equal and a house of representatives where we base things on people. Both sides getting some of what they want, and eventually, of course, thats exactly how it will go, but not Everybody Loves that, so youre not sure if everybody is going to go for that, but thats pretty much how they slot in for congress. Now, the president , theres another one. Theres multiple ideas of president , of executive. The virginia plan as they start working through it is ultimately a sevenyear executive elected by congress, so a little bit different system obviously than were used to today. Another plan, Edmund Randolph of virginia says how about having three president s at once. Hes talking about three regional president s, and then you have Alexander Hamilton of new york who wants a very strong executive, so he says how about president for lifetime which needless to say having gotten rid of king a few years ago was not overly popular to these men so eventually they settle on the 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 here. Why, why would they do that Electoral College . Theres probably several reasons. One of them is simple distance, the idea of having states that are days and days and weeks apart of each other from georgia to New Hampshire with not a lot of great roads and travels can be difficult, so so having this notion of sending people together to vote makes a lot of sense mechanically and then also you have this idea that with the Electoral College youre making sure the smaller states have a certain amount of say, so youre trying to balance a lot of different things, and talking about that, you know, again, one of the things that will plague the young United States is something that does come up in this room that summer of 1777. This is the idea of slavery. Is this the time to make that big step and do away with slavery . Unfortunately, is it wasnt. The Southern States are attached to it. They dont want to talk about it. Slavery doesnt make it into the constitution. You have one little notion of the slave trade which they talk about in to years. Maybe they can discuss doing away with the slave trade, with importing slaves from africa. Thats all the mention you can get. Anyone who is antislavery, which there are guys in this room decidedly so is not very happy that we put this off for 20 years, put off the entire discussion let alone any action and, of course, Southern States would look at in 20 years this is going to come up again. Were not happy about that. Well put it away forever. Again, theres a lot of people looking at sections of the constitution that arent very happy. Who writes the constitution. Declaration of independence. Thats easy. Thomas jefferson was in a committee. He basically wrote t. Constitution, theres really not going to be that one obvious writer. Youll have a fiveman committee called the committee of detail which name is exactly what it sounds like, the guys putting 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 that youre going to have on there, the very much legalminded men. Probably the main guy who puts together most of their report is a man named james wilson from pennsylvania. He is one of the signers of the declaration of independence as well, and hell end up on the United States Supreme Court and more than likely he came up with the three words we the people at the very beginning of the constitution because thats the beginning of that committee of detail report is we the people. Nothing else that would be recognizable to us today, but he does start out with we, the people. Now, as they go through this committee of detail report, eventually they get to a point where they pretty much worked out how they kind of want it to be, so they form yet another fiveman committee. We call this one the committee of style, and heres one some of your heavy hitters in early American History will be. Youll have Alexander Hamilton and James Madison on this committee, but the guy who probably is going to take up the pen and do most of the writing for them is a pennsylvanian by the name of 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. In fact, theres a story that comes from that summer with morris and Alexander Hamilton and basically theres a bet made that hamilton makes with morris because morris is ill go up and slap George Washington on the back and say how are you doing, kind of thing, and washington is this very formal guy who doesnt like to shake hands. He prefers to bow and can kind of be a bit on the aloof side, especially in kind of public, so hamilton is like youre never going do that. In fact, ill bet you dinner that youre not going to do it so morris goes up and does it, and washington sort of gives him one of his glaring looks and slinks him down. Im sure hamilton is standing in the corner laughing like mad, but anyway, morris is the guy thats probably going to write we, the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, that famous preamble that we know, so at the end of the day you have this constitution. By september the 15th, 1787, four pages, and thats all it is, four pages. Theres no bill of rights at that time. They have kind of talked about it. Alexander hamilton would say we dont really need one. The whole thing is kind of a bill of rights. The government is only going to have the power we give it so why do we even need it . And others say thats well and good but we would kind of like to see something there. Again, even by the time they are finished you have guys that look at parts of the whole and say theres this i dont like. Theres that i dont like. I dont like this sentence because it gives way too much power to little states. The president is the too strong, not strong enough. We didnt deal with slavery. Theres no bill of rights so in the end you come in on the last day and its not at all certain that everybody will agree. Remember, these guys are signing it to send it out for their states to vote on it, so its 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 to that we, the people so that they will then put it into effect. So youre going to have Benjamin Franklin come in the very last day of meetings. Now, franklin is 8 is th1 that. Theres days hes being literally carried in and out of that meeting. He can hardly walk. Fortunately for everyone hes still the great sage, the elder statesman, and on the last day he brings in a speech which he starts off by saying there are things in this constitution i do not approve, but then he says at present, look, im old enough to know im not perfect. My ideas arent perfect. Nobody in this room is perfect and we should all 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 those typical franklin phrases. Anyway, he says one of his great 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 that this is not the best, and to me one of the most famous triple negatives in American History, and im sure some of the guys in the room half listening scratching their heads what did he just say . Did he say to sign it . Did he not . Its hard to argue with franklin. 42 men excuse me, 4 is men are in the day and 38 men will sign 39 names. Okay, theres a little bit of a story to that, too. John dickinson who actually refused to sign the declaration of independence, again, not that he was loyal to the british saying this isnt the right time. This is a bad idea, were rushing too much so he never signs the declaration of independence. Hes sick the day the constitution is going to be signed. So he tells his fellow delegate from delaware, george reed, look, i want you to put my name on that thing when you sign it, so george reed signs twice, once for himself and once for John Dickinson so 39 men would sign the constitution. Three would not. Different issues. You have Eldridge Jerry of massachusetts who actually made a speech the 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 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 6,000 heads and thats the sort of fear of democracy that it leads to some kind of chaotic anarchy which ultimately in history leads to a dictator which is exactly what france does going up to napoleon, and they went back to rome and saw the same sort of things happening, so democracy was always a little tempered here in the United States and in britain which is where we get our ideas of having that mix. We have a mix of states and people. We have a president and a congress. We divide our powers, so its this idea that theres no one place where theres too much strength coming, so jerry is a little afraid that the democracy will overrun because he sees potential for revolution in the future, so he wont sign it. Two of the virginians, Edmund Randolph wont sign it, but randolph is always one of those guys who kind of likes to hedge his bets. He ends up supporting when virginia is voting on it but wouldnt actually sign it here in this room because hes a little afraid that guys at home like Patrick Henry will go against him because he knows Patrick Henry is one of those guys that doesnt think that this is a great idea, and the other one, george mason, is kind of looking at that idea of the bill of rights, you know, he kind of wants to see that so hes not crazy about parts of it and a lot of guys from the big states like massachusetts or virginia dont like the senate. Theres all kinds issues, but most of the men will put aside their doubts as franklin hoped and sign their names september 17th, 1787. At that Point Franklin looks at the chair where washington sits and says look behind washingtons head. Theres a carving of a half sun on the back of the chair. All summer ive been trying to decide whether that half sun is rising or setting and i could not make upmileperhour mind until now. Now at length i have the happiness to know that that is a rising and not a setting sun. He felt good. Hed been working for this since the 1750s, this kind of unity of the american states, and he finally sees it happening. One of the Great Stories that comes afterwards is hes supposedly asked what kind of a government they have created here in philadelphia, and he would say its a republic, if you can keep it. His last warning to the rest of us, to make sure, but think about the United States. One of the things i like to finish with is this idea that were still using that same constitution. Were still using that same government, but its also allowed us, maybe not quickly, but its definitely allowed us to improve because ultimately slavery in the United States doesnt really end by the civil war technically. Its the constitution. 13th amendment. The 15th amendment will give equality and voting by color. The 19th amendment would give equality and voting by gender, so through the years, again, maybe slowly we have face the every issue that came up, and our constitution has allowed us to solve things and continue to move forward, so, again, i always think back to franklin and his rising sun, and thats exactly what exactly weve kind of seen through the years so this little humble room is really everything that the United States has been and will be. Its going to grow from the events that happened over a 10 or 11year period in this room. Its amazing when you think about this humble place and the men who sat here and things they did. Its really its really incredible the things that have grown from this space. The pennsylvania statehouse is the real name of Independence Hall, and it was pennsylvanias capital until 1799. Pennsylvania then moves its government west to ultimately the center of the state to harrisburg. Well, at that point the building, you know, they are using space in the building and renting it it out. Its not the Capitol Building anymore, but the city of philadelphia had started building buildings here on the block, and by 18 the early 1800s essentially the city is going to buy this building, and this whole block is going to serve of as our city hall, so through the 19th century this is city hall. The second floor of the building would hold hold meetings in philadelphias city council until 1815, but the first floor is probably one of the first places in the United States that becomes a historical place, so by the 1820s, 30s, 40s, people are coming to visit. It gets the nickname Independence Hall. Probably this room, in fact, was Independence Hall before the whole building became Independence Hall, and one of the famous early incidents is the marquis delafayette, about 50 years after the revolutionary war returns and makes this triumphant trip through the United States and youre taking about the 1820s. We have a very few of the Founding Fathers and soldiers from the army that are left but every town that lafayette visits you gather all the old veterans and anyone like Thomas Jefferson or john adams thats still alive and they get together and they celebrate lafayette so its this wonderful sort of exclamation of patriotic memory, and its probably one of the first times that were real kind of looking at embracing our history. Its that same time period when people are starting to be able to purchase, you know, their copies of the deck had aration of independence and put them above the fireplace and were actually celebrating the words and the actual document. So this room becomes an Historic Place before they get to the point of totally getting rid of the building and tearing it down to build something new so were really lucky in a lot of ways that it was in use long enough that it became important, and so by the mid1800s this whole thing is a museum. One of the fascinating stories of this room, when the liberty bell, of course, spent almost 100 years in our bell tower cracked, they put it on display in this room, they said, well, where else would we put it . Lets stick it in the room where the United States began, and one of my favorite days thats not one of those days in the revolutionary war actually comes is 50 years ago this year in april after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. His body lay in state in this room, but theres 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 here at Independence Hall on washingtons birthday, and he actually said in this room that he would rather be assassinated on the spot than fail the ideals of the Founding Fathers, exactly the kind of, you know, strength that america needed at the time, and then sadly four years later he comes back having been assassinated but having succeeded in saving the United States, and they put his casket literally almost next to the liberty bell, and they ran about 100,000 people through this building in a day to pay their respects to lincoln, and in this space, you had lincoln laying next to the liberty bell in the room where the United States was born and all of the sort of ghosts of Founding Fathers is kind of present at that one time, so thats the kind of thing that makes this room so great. And the park Service Comes in in the 20th century after world war ii, and, unfortunately, the one thing that it changed a lot of walls, they kind of made them fancier. You know, it was a little plain room, and they wanted paintings up and they had that oldfashioned museum filled with stuff, and our big thing was lets get it back to the way it looked so we kind of stripped it back down to the plainer walls that you see today, but, again, the main structure, fortunately, survived the years and we were able to, you know, figure out well enough the paint colors and Everything Else so we were able to get it back to what we think is pretty close to how it looked. The furniture is from the time. Its not necessarily the original furniture because, again, in the early days nothing was saved. The british army captured philadelphia. Nobody is thinking about the history until we have some, so and they kept using it for different things, so we dont necessarily have all the contents of the room, but we think everything here is a good match to what was here, so we think really as best as we can tell from our investigation and our research that this is pretty close to how it looked. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight we begin with womens history. The National World war i museum and memorial hosted mona siegel to talk about her book peace on our terms, the global battle for womens rights after the first world war. The professor argues that a Diverse Group of women from around the world pushed for more rights in the wake of world war i and that some of these women who were attending the 1919 to 1920 paris peace conference helped push president wilson to help support the 14th amendment. Watch beginning at 8 00 eastern and enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan3. Kermit roosevelt, a constitutional law professor and the greatgreat grandson of theodore roosevelt, presents a talk titled the constitution and declaration of independence a contrary view. He argues through fail ours and reinventions weve used the cobs to us as a tool to create our modern core values. The Smithsonian Associates hosted the event. Good evening, everyone. Can you all hear me in the back . Great. My name is ruth robbins and its a pleasure to welcome you all here tonight for our program. Before we get started, just a couple quick things. If you have electronic devices, nows a good time to turn them off. As usual in our programs, theres no ph
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