This was a day I have been looking forward to ever since January when I found out that Carol Berkin would be traveling here to Philly too! To be in the presence of such a scholar, a strong woman, a master story teller was inspiring. Carol’s funny, irreverent repartee was delightful. I believe that using humor and storytelling can awaken a class to the joy of studying history. To watch a master teacher in action is a wonderful learning experience-content, presentation, synthesis of ideas and new perspectives.
Our Founders were human, and that is what makes what they did all the more significant. All were wealthy and well-educated, some were brilliant, but the feats they accomplished were the recognition that power corrupts and that they must safeguard the liberties declared and protect them from the tyranny of the one, the few and the many. They worked together, with this in mind and balanced old ideas into a new configuration in the spirit of compromise and with the knowledge that if they didn’t get this right, the existence of the new nation would be at risk. They protected the constitution from Spain, France, Holland and even the 55 delegates themselves-what insight! They compromised on the states rights vs representative power, and many other compromises as well as addressing taxation, defense, three branches of government and how to check and balance the powers within the branches. Finally, they realized that the Constitution would change and grow over the years and they put in place a process to make the necessary changes as they would come up over time.
The issue of states rights would not be resolved here, it would take a civil war to dig deeper into those issues and they still are evolving today.
City Tavern
We visited City Tavern tonight- a reconstruction of the original tavern the likes of which Jefferson, Washington and Franklin visited while they were here. It was a fun evening!
City Tavern. A familiar guest.
Two signs on Franklin’s fire insurance company building.
I’m jealous you got to visit the city tavern! How fun, did you actually feel like one of the founding fathers??!!:)
Lauren