Legacy by James A. Michener

form, establish, insure, provide, promote, secure, ordain, establish. Right at the start he wanted the world to know that we meant business.'
    Some whispered in the days that followed that Morris had, perverted his assignment to his own purposes, slipping back into the final ver- sion points he had lost in debate, but none of the other four ever charged him with that. What he did do, all agreed, was tighten any loose state- ment always to make the powers of the federal government stronger and clearer.
    When we ordinary delegates finally received a printed version of what the committee had accomplished and saw with admiration that twenty-three rambling articles had been com- pressed into seven of remarkable sharpness, we assumed that this was the work of Hamilton and Madison, but when I quietly congratulated the latter, he corrected me: 'No, it was Gouverneur. He grappled with chaos and brought it into logical order and felicitous style.'
    Now that our new government seems a success it has become popular, with those who do not know, to hail Madison as 'The Father of our Constitution.' Those like me who followed closely what actually happened are apt to think it was James Wilson. But regardless of who the father was, the midwife who supervised the birth was Gouverneur Morris, the one-legged dandy. Perhaps every nation, now and then, has need of someone who knows how to use words with precision and emotion.
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    On Monday, 17 September 1787, forty-one tired but happy delegates met for the last time in the hall that housed their debate. Armed guards still keptaway inquisitive strangers, for the pledge of secrecy taken so long ago had been preserved right up to these final moments, and there was an air of excitement as men told one another: 'I think we'll finish today.' When the session began General Washington astonished everyone by making his first and only speech of the Convention. On all previous days he had sat in silent grandeur as the storms of argument swirled about him, but now he rose to
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    support a motion that membership in the lower house be made more widely democratic, one representative to every thirty thousand popula- tion instead of every forty thousand. Wrote Madison later: 'No opposition was made to the proposition, and it was agreed to unanimously.' Washington had a way of enforcing unanimity. But now came a most painful moment, for as the delegates prepared to cast the momentous vote which would determine the future of their nation, it became apparent that three of the finest, ablest and most intelligent members of the Convention would refuse to sign. In an impassioned cry from the heart, Alexander Hamilton pleaded with the three not to abstain: 'No man's ideas are more remote from the plan than mine are known to be. But is it possible to deliberate between anarchy and convulsion on the one side and the chance of good to be expected from the plan on the otherT He begged the delegates to join with him and sign unanimously. His plea was futile. Edmund Randolph of Vir- ginia, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and, to the amazement of all, George Mason of Virginia, refused to sign, and not even an ardent plea from Dr Franklin, read by James Wilson, caused them to change their minds. Forty-one men were in the chamber that morn-
    ing, three refused to sign, but thirty-nine did. How was that possible: John Dickinson of Delaware had had to leave Philadelphia early, but was so desirous of launching a new government that his fellow delegate from Delaware, George Read, was allowed to execute his proxy. That night James Madison, still scratching
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    away on his personal journal, penned one of the loveliest paragraphs in American history: Whilst the last members were signing, Doctor Franklin, looking toward the President's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him that painters bad found it difficult to distin- guish in their art, a rising, from a setting, sun. I