Constitutional journal : a correspondent`s report from the convention of 1787 / Jeffrey St. John

The bicentennial of the Constitution has stimulated an autpouring of popular writing and serious scholarship on the Constitution and how it came to be. Mr. St. John´s account, both serious and popula, was first published in the Cristian Science Monitor as a series of columns from May to September 1987. HIS Constitutional Journal reveals the magnitude of the task the 55 delegates to Philadelphia undertook, as well as the uncertainty of its outcome. We know, of course, that the meetings of the delegates were closed, "secret" meetings which, among things, made it easier for members who had taken a position one day to change it later without em barrassment. So firm was this rule of secrecy that in one of his few statements as Chairman, George Washington severely scolded somo unknown delegate who had carelesly left some of his notes on the debates later found on the floor by the clean up crew: