Constitution Week spotlight

Sept. 22, 2024

On this sixth day of Constitution Week, we focus is on Benjamin Franklin, who, at age 81, was the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention. 

No longer able to walk, Franklin was carried into the convention sessions in a sedan chair. He often propped up his gout-swollen feet and napped through the deliberations.

None of Franklin’s major ideas, including no pay for service in public office, a single-chambered legislature and an executive board instead of a president, were adopted. Yet Franklin was one of the most influential delegates at the convention because of his ability to encourage compromise and resolve disputes through his prestige, diplomacy and humor, which often lightened the mood.

When it was time to sign the Constitution, Franklin did not approve of it in its entirety, yet he encouraged delegates to lend their unanimous support in the spirit of compromise. Throughout the convention Franklin had mused that he was unable to tell if the sun on the back of the president’s chair was rising or setting. While the last members were signing the document, Franklin concluded that, “I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”

After the Constitutional Convention, Franklin was elected as the first president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, a cause he had been committed to for over 50 years. He died April 17, 1790, at the age of 84.

Who said it? “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”

a) Frederick Douglass

b) Roger Sherman

c) Abraham Lincoln

This Constitution Week Spotlight was provided by Lieutenant George Farragut Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. For more information about DAR, please visit the chapter’s website at lgfdar.com.

Answer: c) Abraham Lincoln