When the final agreement was reached with the 55 signers of the U.S. Constitution, it had to be submitted to the 13 new States for ratification. That road was still rough. Even though the document was signed unanimously as requested by Benjamin Franklin, there was still much uncertainty among the States.
Each State had its own ratification Convention. To explain the arguments in favor of adoption, three great men, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution” wrote a series of articles explaining the meaning of this new intended Constitution.
Not only was John Adams not present at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, neither was Thomas Jefferson. Although Jefferson had sent his good friend, James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, trunk-loads of books about government for use in preparing for the Constitution.
John Hancock the President of Congress, called Benjamin Franklin aside after The Declaration of Independence had been signed.
Benjamin Franklin was a religious man, but he didn’t much care for organized religion. At least not as it was presented to him. But he did believe in God. And he had some things to say about our Constitution.
Patrick Henry summed it up well in his last will and testament. “This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.
“Each of us was given a portion of God’s light, called ‘the Light of Christ,’ to help us distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong. This is why even those who live with little or no knowledge of the Father’s plan can still sense, in their hearts, that certain actions are just and moral while others are not.