Day 1- National Constitution Center

This morning I went to the National Constitution Center here in Philadelphia.

 The Constitutional Center was actually commissioned by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980's and its honestly one of the better museums I've ever been to.  It is really interactive and it's full of interesting facts!  In the museum there are interactives for you to learn about important people in American history, you can vote for a 2012 presidential candidate and see whether or not your politics match up with your candidate's, swear your oath in as president, try to answer some of the questions that immigrants answer in the naturalization process, and see whether you could vote in the USA during specific time periods based on who you are.  That's only just a few of the many things that you can do!!

Inside the museum.  It's full of computer and digital interactives.  See the big tall upside down tree in the middle? That's computer screens with people's faces running across them.  If you touch on one of the monitors as the faces whiz by, you can find out all about them and also why they are important! It had people like Jackie Robinson, Sen. Alan Simpson, and Mickey Mouse!

You can also walk around Signer's Hall and interact with life-size statues of the signers of the Constitution.  Here's a picture I took today of the delegates from Pennsylvania:

Do you recognize the guy sitting down?

                                                                                  How about the guy with the peg leg?

Figure it out yet? The one sitting is the one and only Benjamin Franklin and the guy with the peg leg is Gouverner Morris.  A lot of people don't know who he is, but he actually wrote the Preamble to the Constitution and was a very colorful character in American History. (More about him later :-)

The afternoon was spent meeting and listening to Dr. Carol Berkin, who wrote one of the books that I read for this trip.  She was a fantastic speaker! She had wonderful voice, inflection, and a great sense of humor! She knows a TON of information all about these men who came to the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Here's some of the stuff that I learned from her today:

• The men who came to the Constitutional Convention were scared! Why? Well, the US had only been a country for four years and they quickly realized that their government, called the Articles of Confederation, wasn't working at all!  France, England, and Spain were looking at the United States (knowing it was about to fall apart) and trying to figure out what parts they were going to take over.

• REMEMBER: The United States was NOT a powerful country back then. It wasn't a powerful country until after World War II in 1945

• The states really hated one another.  They viewed each other as competitors and enemies almost, so they really didn't like to work together.

• When these men all came to the convention, most of them had never heard of one another.  The only two men that anyone knew nationally were George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.  Otherwise, if you were from South Carolina, you really only knew those who were from your state...not New York or Virginia.

• Many people believe that the signers of the Constitution wanted a democracy (ruling by the people), but they actually feared that.  They thought that it would lead to mob rule.  Instead, only land owning white men could vote, because they had a stake in society.  These men did not believe that a political voice was a birth right, (which is what we have today), but instead they thought it was a privilege given to landowning white men.

• Which state gave women the right to vote first?  Are you thinking Wyoming because that's what I thought too! But....NOPE!  Actually it was New Jersey.  Women were allowed to vote if they owned property from 1790 to 1807.  This was later repealed (or taken away) and it wasn't until Wyoming territory in 1869 that women were able to vote once again.

• Finally, what is a famous compromise from the Constitution regarding "unfree persons"? If you're thinking of the 3/5 Compromise you're right! For those of you who don't know, this was a clause that meant that slaves counted as 3/5 of a person towards population counts.  This was also included in Articles of Confederation, so it wasn't new at all (although many people believe that).  BUT, what I did learn today was this.....
• When the Articles of Confederation was created during the Revolutionary War, the South was AGAINST this clause.  They didn't want to count this at all, because it counted towards requisitions. (The amount that state needed to give to the new American government.) It was the North who suggested and pushed for this clause to go through.
• When the Constitution was created, the North was AGAINST this clause because it would give more representation to the southern states in the House of Representatives.  The South was for the clause, simply because then they could have more representation.

Are you tired of reading yet? Well....I'll be honest...I haven't even scratched the surface when it comes to new information I learned today. But, I am off to bed so that I can get up early for my walking tour of Philadelphia. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions.  I would be happy to answer them!

Ever wonder how checks and balances work? Watch the video and get a view of how each branch addresses a decision. :-)