If Gouverneur Morris, one of the framers of our Constitution, were still alive today
I wonder what message he would text to us this Independence Day......
We declared our Independence...had an Independence Day
But we needed a set of guidelines to help us on our way.
The Articles of Confederation were not working and it was causing so much tension
That we went to Philadelphia and had us a convention.
73 delegates were chosen from all across the land
With only 55 showing up to lend a helping hand.
But those who did attend the meeting had quite a lot to say
Back in 1787 on that 25th of May.
Hamilton and Madison were there and many other famous men
Like Robert Morris, George Washington and Dr. Franklin...we called him Ben.
We talked, debated, argued and if I can remember
We didn’t adjourn that meeting till the 17th of September.
We wanted a document short and sweet, we didn’t want it to ramble
So we started with one paragraph and called it the Preamble.
Seven Articles later we were finished, after 85 days of work and pain
The only thing left for us to do was gladly sign our names.
42 delegates were there at the end a little bit battered and bruised
And as we lined up to give it our John Hancock’s only three refused.
We were proud of our Constitution and were equally satisfied
After the 13 original colonies voted and it was ratified.
A little while later we realized some mistakes and quickly had to write
10 amendments to that Constitution, which we called the the Bill of Rights.
Yes, the colonies had a problem so we gave up our summer vacation
To meet in Philadelphia and build the framework of our nation.
We the people got together to solve that mystery
We wrote our Constitution and the rest is history.
That was over 200 years ago, we did our part, and were proud when we were through
And as July 4th 2014 rolls around...the rest is up to you.
3>
GM