Robert is reading some of the papers in debate of the US Constitution, something he has not done since college, and, err, not well even then.

The first paper in the book he is reading is Benjamin Franklin’s Speech at the Conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, which, as the title suggests, are the comments that Ben Franklin gave in September 1987 at the closing of the convention where the first version of the Constitution was issued to the people for discussion and approval or rejection. Franklin was a little over 80 years old and, as we all know, an accomplished person of many attributes.

The main idea of Franklin’s speech is summed up in its first sentence.

“I confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present, but Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it.”

It is not clear whether Franklin was trying to be humorous.  But his point, it seems, was that the draft constitution was imperfect. He signed it because he trusted the men who put it together and he  heard no better alternatives during the convention.

Franklin’s speech did not give the draft high praise, that’s for sure. And the point was not lost on the first few antifederalist commentators who published statements on the draft Constitution in the newspapers.

“Z,” a writer of an essay in the Independent Chronicle of Boston in December 1787 should have titled his remarks “WTF.”  Z asks what federalist in his right mind would try to support the notion of a national government using the argument that Franklin, a great philosopher, did not entirely approve of the Constitution at the very moment he signed it? According to Z, that Franklin may, at one time or another, approve of the Constitution, gave the federalists faint support. And this was only so far as the federalists could rely on Franklin’s judgment at all.

The notion that Franklin was operating with a few loose marbles by the time of the conclusion of the constitutional convention appears to have been a favorite one of the antifederalists.