Benjamin Franklin

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Narrator

One of the thorniest issues was how Congress would be apportioned. Under the articles of Confederation each state had an equal vote and delegates from smaller states demanded that it stay that way. Larger states, which would be contributing more in taxes, wanted Congress to be based on population. Franklin was placed on a committee to find a workable compromise. -

Walter

And finally Franklin gets up and he says when we were young tradesmen here in Philadelphia and we had a joint of wood that didn't quite fit we'd take a little from one side and shave from the other until we had a joint that would hold together for centuries. And his point was that compromisers may not make great heroes but they do make great democracies. -

Narrator

As the impase over apportionment threatened to derail the convention, Franklin began inviting important delegates to his home where they could socialize in the late afternoon under the branches of his Mulberry tree and try to find common ground. -

Walter

They discuss science, they discuss the things they're talking about, that they have to compromise on and he helps cool the passions of that hot summer under the shade of his Mulberry tree. -

Narrator

In the end, a compromise was reached. Each state would have the same number of senators, two, chosen by their legislatures. The members of the house of representatives would be elected by voters, white men only. And each state's share would be based on its population. To mollify the Southern states their populations would include their number of enslaved people, but each of those human beings would be counted as only three fifths of a person. -

Joseph

They can't talk about slavery directly and the word slavery is never mentioned in the document itself. The difficult fact to accept is that the Union is only possible if it includes the South. And the states south of the Chesapeake, are it committed to slavery, especially Virginia and South Carolina. If you did the moral thing in the summer of 1787 and took a clear stand and insisted on it, the constitution would've never passed. -

Joyce

It was a tragic compromise obviously for many populations in the United States who had no party to this agreement. They had never agreed that they would be represented in this way. And so the compromise looks especially compromised in those terms. This is America's original sin, and they know it. Nobody in the convention or at that moment talks about slavery as anything other than a necessary evil. The original sin of slavery was more than just simply compromising. The original sin of slavery began, at least for these colonists, years before. For Franklin, unity and compromise was the only thing that could make this new nation move forward. Without it, it would be a failed journey. American democracy would not develop without it. And for that reason, Franklin as well as others side stepped the issue of slavery. -

Narrator

On September 17th, 1787 the delegates gathered to vote on the proposed constitution. Benjamin Franklin made the motion for its adoption. -

Benjamin

I agree to this constitution with all its faults, if they are such, because I think a general government necessary for us. I doubt too, whether any other convention we can obtain may be able to make a better constitution for when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does. And I think it will astonish our enemies who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the builders of Babel and that our states are on the point of separation only to meet here after for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus, I consent sir to this constitution because I expect no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best. -

Narrator

Franklin's motion was approved. One by one the delegate signed the new constitution so it could be sent to the states for ratification. -

Sheila

He signed it and I think he was relieved that it brought Americans together. And that was something that he had wanted ever since the Albany conference, he had wanted Americans to be a part of one grand hole. This might not be the best but it was the best that you could get and he recognized that. The constitution is the framework for an ongoing argument about who we are as a people and where power resides. And it's presumed that each generation will be engaged in an argument and take it in new directions. What do we mean by we the people? And certainly we mean a lot more people now than we did then. -

Narrator

With the work done, the doors to Independence Hall were thrown open. Franklin was approached by one of the city's most prominent citizens, Elizabeth Willing Powell, whose own rights had not been considered. She asked him, "Well doctor, what have we got a republic or a monarchy?" "A republic", he answered, "if you can keep it."