The Miracle That Happened at Philadelphia

Many Americans in the early years of the Republic truly regarded the Constitution as a miracle. Not only did they praise the competence, motivations and wisdom of those who served in the Federal Convention of 1787, but they declared that the formation and adoption of our new system of federal government represented a political achievement unprecented in human history.  Many Americans looked upon this event and thought that it was actually "influenced, governed and guided" by the hand of God. It is not hard to understand why our Founding Fathers believed that the Constitution was destined to bless all mankind not just the American people. These covictions articulated and quoted below, should move today's Americans to seriously reflect and to take appropriate action during this extremely divided time in our nation. This miracle that was produced at Philadelphia that gave freedom to a nation has never been seen in all of the thousands of years of Human history it is the duty of every patriot to uphold a blimp on the radar of civilization the ideas of Liberty and Individualism. Human civilization has never seen this much freedom given to the individual and it may never see it again if tyranny triumphs and our great nation falls.

John Adams: "[The Constitution] is... the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen."

John Adams:"I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign country.... I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed ... I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution ... What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?"

Oliver Ellsworth: "I have often admired the spirit of candor, liberality, and justice with which the [Constitutional] Convention began and completed the important object of their mission."

Benjamin Franklin:"I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly concieve a transaction of such momentous importance [as the framing of the Constitution] ... should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being."

Aleander Hamilton: " A NATION, without a NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, is, in my view, an awful spectacle. The establishment of a Constitution, in time of profound peace, by the voluntary consent of a whole people, is a PRODIGY, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety. I can reconcile it to no rules of prudence to let go the hold we now have, in so arduous an enterprise, upon seven out of the thirteen States, and after having passed over so considerable a part of the ground, to recommence the course."

Thomas Jefferson: "May you and your contemporaries... preserve inviolate [the] Constitution, which, cherished in all its chasity and purity, will prove in the end a blessing to all the nations of the earth."

Thomas Jefferson: "The example of changing a constitution by assembling the wise men of the state, instead of assembling armies, will be worth as much to the world as the former examples we had give them. The constitution, too, which was the result of our deliberation, is unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to men."

 James Madison: "The great objects which presented themselves [to the Constitutional Convention] ... formed a task more difficult than can be well conceived by those who were not concerned in the execution of it. Adding to these considerations the natural diversity of human opinions on all new and complicated subjects, it is impossible to consider the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle."

James Madison: "Is it not the glory of the people of America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example, of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public happiness. Happily for America, happily we trust for the whole human race, [the founders of the nation] pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel un the annals of human society. They reared the fabrics of governments which have no model the face of the globe. They formed the design of the great conferacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate."

James Madison: "The real wonder is that so many difficulties should have been surmounted [in the federal convention], abd surmounted with a unanimity almost as inprecedented as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for any man of candor to reflect on this circumstance without partaking of the astonishment. It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution."

James Madison: "The happy union of these states is a wonder; their Constitution is a miracle; their example the hope of liberty throughout the world. Woe to the ambition that would meditate the destruction of either!"

James Madison: "Whatever may be the judgment pronounced on the competency of the architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction ... that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them, than were the members of the Federal Convention of 1787 to the object of devising and proposing a constitutional system which should…. best secure the permanent liberty and happiness of their country."

Charles Pinckney: " When the general convention met, no citizen of the United States could expect less from it than I did, so many jarring interests and prejudices to reconcile! The variety of pressing dangers at our doors, even during the war, were barely sufficient to force us to act in concert and necessarily give way at times to each other. But when the great work was done and published, I was not only most agreeably disappointed, but struck with amazement. Nothing less than that superintending hand of Providence that so miraculously carried us through the war…could have brought it about."

Benjamin Rush: "Doctor Rush then proceded to consider the origin of the proposed [Constitution], and fairly deduced it [was] from heaven, asserting that he as much believed the hand of God was employed in this work as that God had divided the Red Seato give passage to the children of Israel, or had fulminated the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai."

George Washington:"It appears to me…little short of a miracle that the delegates from so many different states (which states…are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances, and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of national government so little liable to well-founded objections."

 George Washington: "[The adoption of the Constitution] will demonstrate as visibly the finger of Providence as any possible event in the course of human affairs can ever designate it."

George Washington: "The Constitution… approaches nearer to perfection than any government hitherto instituted among men."

 George Washington: "This Constitution is really, in its formation, a government of the people…. No government before introduced among mankind ever contained so many checks and such efficacious restraints to prevent it from degenerating into any species of oppression…. The balances arising from the distribution of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers are best are best that have ever been instituted.

 James Wilson:  "Governments, in general, have been the result of force, of fraud, and accident. After a period of 6,000 years has elapsed since the creation, the United States exhibit to the world the first instance … of a nation … assembling voluntarily … and deciding calmly concerning that system of government under which they would wish that they and their posterity should live."

James Wilson:"I can well recollect, though I believe I cannot convey to others, the impression which, on many occasions, was made by the difficulties which surrounded and pressed the [federal] convention. The great undertaking sometimes seemed to be at a stand; at other times, its motion seemed to be retrograde. At the conclusion, however, of our work, many of the members expressed their astonishment at the success with which it terminated."

I love the country that our Founding Fathers envisioned and created for us. I see to many people today taking for granted the freedoms that we have. For thousands of years there has have only been a handful of moments where people had any amount of liberty in any society that has been thought of or tried. This is the only one that the individual has explicit rights granted to them. Please do not take it for granted and think that this will last forever the moment we do that is the moment we stop being vigilant and lose our liberty and rights. We must do everything within our power to maintain the integrity of this great nation. For if freedom fails here in our culture we may never see freedom in any society ever again or if we are lucky it will take thousands of years for it shine through once more. Many people seemed to have forgotten that true freedom and liberty come at the price of responsibility and discipline not doing whatever we want. Let's help procure the future of liberty together for generations to come not just here but for the world at large.