Ratification Of The Constitution 1787-1788 By Pauline Maier

An example of “good writing” is Ratification; The People debate the Constitution 1787-1788 by Pauline Maier (2010). Maier’s prose is partially from 1787 legislative meetings, letters, and period newspapers. She incorporates the letters of Madison, Washington, Jay, and less known orators into her writing. Readers hear the framers voices in her writing, as readers are transported in time through each state as delegates debate the Ratification of the Constitution. Surprisingly what wee think of as sacred document the framers thought was simply not good enough, they thought it might not survive. In the introduction Maier asks the reader to play a game, to imagine you don’t know the ending. I find this” good writing” exceptional in detail, in the unfolding of the story, even though we know the ending. She unfolds the story by examining the people, and what it meant to be a citizen in 1787. The reader gets a very good sense of the strength of” “we the people,” and what was at stake if the Ratification was not passed.
Vernon. Knox had to coax Washington into attending the convention. “If Washington attended the convention Knox said, he would no doubt be made President. If the Convention proposed only amendments to the confederation, his reputation would suffer. But if it proposed “an energetic and judicious system” with Washington’s endorsement, that would be “highly honorable, enhance his fame in “the present and future ages” and entitle Washington “ to the glorious republican epithet-The Father of Your Country.” The persons chosen as delegates, Knox said were generally men of “wisdom and vigor” which made him so optimistic that his opinion shifted to greatly in favor of attendance. (Maier