Debacle in Philadelphia ("Miracle in Philadelphia," Alternate History Edition)

As many of you may know, I wrote my dissertation on the Founding period. Specifically, on the effect of the French "occupying forces" (some scholars still insist on calling them "our pro-American allies," even the multinational coalition) on the drafting of the federal constitution in 1787. My thesis was that the document that governed the Estats Unis from 1789 until 1807 would have been quite different had the suggestion of some of the extremist delegates to close the deliberations to the media been followed. As you remember: Federalism was the key issue. The power of the regions, versus the central government. But also control over the militias and the armed forces. The role of religion in a religiously diverse country. But because the delegates couldn't make any compromises in secret, the delegates were not able to deal with the deep rifts between the republican Virginians and the Anglophile New Englanders--disagreements that blossomed into the "Little Napoleonic War" of the first decade of the eighteenth century.

Perhaps the intervention of the French military attache was the worst problem. Just as delegates were making progress, his edict to produce a document on his timetable caused the factions to worry that their compromises wouldn't hold water--thus undermining the delegates' ability to bargain even further. Of course, it's hard to blame the French. By that time, the War with Britain had been over for years, and the French treasury was being drained, not to mention the manpower strain on the mighty French Army.

The point is, it's hard to draft a constitution. It's harder yet when you don't really have the autonomy to do so. It's even harder when you have to do it in public.