The American Constitution: 1787
Connecticut Old State House
Hartford
August 29, 2024
How did our constitution come to be?
A documentary featuring actors and special effects brought what might be considered a tired tale to life.
The Connecticut Old State House hosted a free screening of the documentary The American Constitution: 1787, a film about the Constitutional Convention that was tasked with replacing the ineffectual Articles of Confederation that governed the still newly formed United States of America. There was also a video discussion with filmmaker David Garrigus and historian Carol Berkin from the City University of New York.
Garrigus avoids the “talking head” problem of modern documentaries, where the film is just experts talking into a camera, by recreating the constitutional convention with actors and special effects that place those actors in the rooms in Philadelphia where the new government was formed. The actors speak from the historical documents that their real counterparts left behind, and make it far more entertaining than simply hearing the importance of the events explained.
While there were still experts discussing the creation of the Constitution, Garrigus kept those segments interesting by allowing the experts to actually disagree with each other. Oftentimes in documentaries, it feels as if the filmmaker has already decided their agenda and selects a chorus of similar voices to make their point. This wasn’t the case in The American Constitution, and it led to some thought-provoking exchanges.
For example, the documentary spends a great deal of time on the convention’s debate about proportioning representation: Would the new government award seats in the federal Congress based on population, which would favor larger states, or give each state the same amount of representatives, so that smaller states would have an outsized say? Alexander Hamilton argued for a third way: both the president and the members of the Senate would be appointed for life, essentially creating an American monarchy that would be similar to the one the nation had just escaped from.
Mary S. Bilder of Boston College believed that Hamilton was being strategic; by presenting such an extreme idea, he was providing cover for his colleagues to compromise on another plan. However, Michael Klarman of Harvard thought that Hamilton truly believed what he was saying — how could he argue for it for five hours if he didn’t? Documentaries often claim to present the truth, but Garrigus’ approach is refreshing. It allows for the reality, which is that no one really knows, and trusts the audience to come to their own conclusions about much of what was happening in that room.
I studied to be a history teacher when I went to college, so I thought that I knew the important aspects of the Constitutional Convention well enough. But the documentary offered insights I hadn’t heard before. Of particular interest to us in the audience was how the electoral college came to be, and how it influenced early American history. The experts explained that the combination of the electoral college and the three-fifths clause that counted enslaved people for representational purposes combined to solidify Southern control of the federal government for decades. In fact, for 32 of the nation’s first 36 years, the president came from the state of Virginia, the largest slave state, and there wasn’t an openly anti-slavery president for over 70 years until Abraham Lincoln was elected.
The electoral college also came up during the discussion afterwards, where both Garrigus and Berkin were unabashed in their disdain for the system. But unlike the usual story we’ve heard, where the electoral college was an ingenious if flawed compromise to keep large and small states together in the Union, Berkin explained that it was only meant as a stopgap measure because the delegates to the convention couldn’t think of any way to elect the president. Direct democracy, even if limited to white men with property, was unthinkable to them.
Through Garrigus’ fresh approach to the documentary format and the lively discussion that followed, I learned a great deal about the formation of the oldest continuous government in the world. I also learned that most of the delegates never imagined the Constitution would last for over two hundred years. As arguments about intent, originalism, freedom, and rights swirl in this election year, it’s more important than ever to hear what these men meant in their own words.
NEXT
The Summer Music Series continues on August 30 with Ali Kat and the Revelators.
Jamil is going to enjoy the long weekend. See you next week!
