Who really wrote the Constitution of the United States
Most people erroneously believe that Thomas Jefferson wrote the basis of the US Constitution. They are wrong. Certainly his friendship with the Framers weighed into the final draft, but not one word was written by Jefferson.
Jefferson was away in France when the Constitution was written in 1787 attending Peace talks with the British to formally end the war. The country was governed by the Articles of Confederation. With the supreme power that the colonies had just broke away from, the notion of a powerful federal government was not what anyone was looking for. The result was that Congress stripped itself of power to get anything from the individual states.
Something was seen to need to be done to make government more effective. So the Colonies joined again in Philadelphia to come up with a compromise to give states freedom, but give the federal government more powers. In this room below is a recreation of the room that James Madison wrote the majority of the Virginia Plan. This plan competed with the New Jersey plan to come up with suitable compromise to get a new governing document for the new foundling country.
The plan was known as the large state plan because it gave more populous states more representation than smaller states. Effectively this is today’s House of Representatives. The Senate on the other hand is equal representation. Two Senators per state. Out the window below sat Madison writing this plan.
View similar to what Madison would have seen when writing the framework of the Constitution
Part of the reason the Virginia Plan was adopted was due to Alexander Hamilton’s extreme opposition to the rival plans. The Virginia Plan was seen as the best compromise.
The desk of Madison at Montpelier.
There unfortunately is little left of actual artifacts owned by Madison in the room. The staff at Montpelier explained that after his death most everything was sold to help pay off debt incurred during the last years of his life.
Recreation of letters and a cabinet similar to what Madison would have had.
If you get an opportunity to visit Virginia and see Jefferson’s Monticello, I highly recommend you add a half of day to see this wonderful estate. Visit the grave in the Family Cemetery and leave your respects for the Author of the most important document from the Framers that still affects us all today.
Grave of Madison