FLAWED FOUNDING OF THE UNITED STATES

Were the seeds of Civil War already written into the American Constitution?

- Alan Taylor

On 17 September 1787 in Philadelphia, delegates from 12 American states concluded a convention to write a Constitution for their embattled country. The oldest delegate, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, had a colleague read a wrap-up speech. Franklin confessed that he disapproved of "several parts of this Constitution" but supported "this Constitution because I expect no better." The alternative, he feared, was "that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats."

STATES

Franklin's words are shocking because they contradict the great myth of the American founding. That myth insists that a consensual set of heroic founders crafted the perfect constitution to serve a united American people. Today we hear pundits, politicians and even Supreme Court justices urging a return to that original moment of supposed political purity. Instead, we should find out why Franklin thought that Americans needed a new constitution to keep from killing one another.

In 1787, few people thought of themselves primarily as Americans. Instead, they identified with their state and distrusted outsiders. Carolinians disliked Virginians, almost as much as New Yorkers despised New Englanders. A Massachusetts man noted: "Instead of feeling as a nation, a state is our country. We look with indifference, often with hatred, fear and aversion to the other states." Such distrust grew out of vast differences in climate, landscape, economy and culture.