Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution by Richard Beeman

May 13, 2013 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-stars, biography, north-america, nonfiction, politics, law, history

The popular view of the Constitution is pretty well expressed by John Milton, and I'll quote it here:

God, from the Mount of Sinai, whose gray top shall tremble, He descending, will Himself, in thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets' sound, ordain them laws.
-Paradise Lost

Well, G-d did it through the intermediaries of the founding fathers, but most often that's a detail that's glossed over. The Constitution, in American political thought, is Holy Writ. The truth is far more interesting and messy, h...more

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May 30, 2013 Robert Owen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is what it is, and so any recommendation of it becomes a question of what you're looking for when you pick it up to read. If you're looking for a thorough explanation of the process whereby the terms of U.S. Constitution were negotiated and (sort of) agreed upon during the constitutional convention of 1787, this book will serve you well. It takes the reader through an day by day chronological examination of the issues discussed, proposals made and, ultimately, agreements settled upon....more

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Mar 28, 2012 Mark Fallon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“While some have boasted it (the Constitution) as a work from Heaven, others have given it a less righteous origin. I have many reasons to believe that it is the work of plain, honest men.” – Gouverneur Morris, delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention

This week, like many other weeks for the last 223 years, people are making arguments before the Supreme Court about whether a law is constitutional. In other words – is the law in agreement with the intent of the United States Constitution? Of...more “While some have boasted it (the Constitution) as a work from Heaven, others have given it a less righteous origin. I have many reasons to believe that it is the work of plain, honest men.” – Gouverneur Morris, delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention

This week, like many other weeks for the last 223 years, people are making arguments before the Supreme Court about whether a law is constitutional. In other words – is the law in agreement with the intent of the United States Constitution? Of course, people have argued over what was the intent of the Constitution since it was ratified. And that includes disagreements among the men who drafted the document.

In "Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution", Richard Beeman tells what took place during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Pledged to secrecy, and meeting behind closed doors in the Pennsylvania State House, men from 12 of the 13 states (Rhode Island refused to participate) worked to draft a better framework for the young country. The odds of a positive outcome were never very high.

Using notes and speeches kept by some of the attendees, Beeman is able to reconstruct many of the debates that took place. The conflicts between northern and southern states, as well as the competing interests of larger and smaller states, meant compromise was needed at every turn. Some compromises helped create some amazing developments, like the separation of powers among the three branches. Other compromises meant securing the dubious legacy of slavery.

Over the next few months, we’ll hear from pundits and politicians about what “the framers of the Constitution had in mind” when it comes to the rights and responsibilities of American citizens and their government. Beeman’s work demonstrates that the framers were never of one mind on most issues. However, they did believe in the power of debate and compromise to effect lasting change. As a result, they created one of the most powerful and influential constitutions ever written.

"Plain, Honest Men" is the type of book that inspired my love of history. I highly recommend reading it.(less)

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Apr 21, 2009 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Beeman, Richard. PLAIN, HONEST MEN: The Making of the American Constitution. (2009). ****. Beeman is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and a famed scholar of the Constitution. In his preface, he notes that he has thought about writing this book for forty years. He’s finally done it. What he has done is to take us through the work done by the men who sat on the Constitutional Convention committees in 1787 and arrived at the framework of our Constitution. This is a step-by-s...more Beeman, Richard. PLAIN, HONEST MEN: The Making of the American Constitution. (2009). ****. Beeman is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and a famed scholar of the Constitution. In his preface, he notes that he has thought about writing this book for forty years. He’s finally done it. What he has done is to take us through the work done by the men who sat on the Constitutional Convention committees in 1787 and arrived at the framework of our Constitution. This is a step-by-step journey, that explores the workings on a day-by-day and issue-by-issue basis. We learn who the drivers were for each of the articles ultimately adopted, and also learn that those drivers were not above compromise in order to achieve their objectives. All of the material in this volume is available elsewhere. What Beeman has done, however, is to make it more user-friendly in a narrative form. It is interesting to see how much trouble the delegates had in reaching agreement on the definition of a “president” and how he would be elected. Uppermost in their minds was that each of them had the responsibility to maintain as much of their state’s rights as possible, but they were afraid of putting too much control in the hands of the “people,” at least of the unrefined and uneducated masses who then comprised most of the population of the states. According to the author, the principal players in this convention were James Madison, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. In the category of men who shaped the constitution he includes Gouverneur Morris, James Wilson, Roger Sherman, and George Pinckney. There were other categories, too: “Influential Characters,” and “Principal Dissenters.” Of the principal players, George Washington hardly spoke at all, acting as the chairman of the group, and Benjamin Franklin, when he spoke, tended to come out with things that sounded like your old grandmother when she was in a nursing home. A great deal of the book is devoted to the long debates on determining representation within the legislative branches, and how the issue of slavery was handled. Powers that went to the central government vs. those that remained with the states were also a key issue. It is miraculous that the document that was produced was able to be born out of the deliberations of these “plain, honest men” with their various agendas. Fascinating reading. Recommended.(less)

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Aug 16, 2012 Andy Miller rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an excellent book about our constitutional convention which had the advantages of being written by a history professor who did painstaking research both from original writings of the delegates themselves as well as other histories written about the convention. It also included thoughtful and in depth analysis--but it does not read like a dry textbook, it was well written, at times it read like a novel with suspense and a look into the personal lives of the delegates.

The result is that I...more This was an excellent book about our constitutional convention which had the advantages of being written by a history professor who did painstaking research both from original writings of the delegates themselves as well as other histories written about the convention. It also included thoughtful and in depth analysis--but it does not read like a dry textbook, it was well written, at times it read like a novel with suspense and a look into the personal lives of the delegates.

The result is that I learned as much as I enjoyed reading the book. For example, while not diminishing the work by James Madison, the actual constitution was much more than the common perception that Madison was the father of the constitution and it was largely his product. Madison never accepted the Connecticut compromise which provided for equal representation of all states in the senate while basing representation in the House on population. He also was unsuccessful in giving Congress the power to veto laws passed by state legislatures, Madison's view of the constitution was more of a national model as opposed to the federal model that was adopted. This was confirmed by his exclusion from the important "Committee of Details" which provided the framework of the final document.

My understanding of the roles of Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were also changed. While Franklin had the unquestioned respect of all the delegates and brought credibility to the convention, his actual proposals typically were met with polite rejection. Hamilton was not only absent from much of the convention but his views of a completely national government were completely rejected.

I grew to appreciate the influence of lesser known delegates such as James Wilson, Governour Morris and Robert Morris from Pennsvlvania as well as the efforts of the Connecticut delegates such as Roger Sherman who achieved many compromises in addition the Senate/House compromise. It was also fascinating to observe the shifting coalitions of delegates as they moved from subject to subject

Perhaps the most interesting thesis of the author, Richard Beeman, was that the almost fatal political mistake of not including a Bill of Rights was not due so much to philosophical objection(thought Madison certainly objected on policy grounds) as it was that most of the delegates were tired and wanted to go home as opposed to committing a protracted debate that would have gone along with the details of drafting and adopting a Bill of Rights

A great, great read(less)

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Jul 29, 2011 Catherine Woodman added it · review of another edition

This is a very good retelling of what happened in the summer of 1787, with the writing of the Constitution--the tensions that existed between the Federalists and those who valued states rights, the lack of interest in the process except for a very few, the work of James Madison in writing the document, and formulating the style of the document, the tensions between the slave states and the non-slave states, and while a bulk of the book goes almost day by day for awhile throughout that summer, he...more

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Jun 01, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: july-aug-2009

The challenge of writing an account of the Constitutional Convention is that so many accounts already exist. "Do we need another narrative history of the Constitutional Convention of 1787?" asks the Washington Post. While Beeman's book does not revolutionize the genre, it garners praise for examining the "the nuances and complexities of the compromises that the framers made" (New York Times) and for its detailed recreation of the Philadelphia debates. The most pointed complaint comes from Walter

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Dec 03, 2012 Emmanuel Gustin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history_americas

This the story of about 40 men gathered together in a stuffy room, returning daily for months, to discuss drafting a legal document. It would be only too easy to make it terribly dry and boring. Instead it has become a lively book with in places a touch of humor, written in a crisp, clear style.

The author chose to devote most time and pages to the topics that were controversial even at the time: The nature of the US government, the balance of power between the small and large states, the process...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Joseph Schlesinger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Laws are like sausages—it is best not to see them being made," is a statement misattributed to Otto von Bismarck. However, "Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution," an engrossing history of the concerns, debates, compromises, arguments, & revisions that went into forging our government's fundamental document & then getting it ratified, is a book I wholeheartedly & enthusiastically recommend to every American with concerns about the direction in which our country...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Steve Gripp rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a phenomenal summer read, being apropos since the Constitutions was created over the summer of 1787. The book accounts for pretty much a day by day account of what transpired during that historical summer in Philadelphia. It takes the three major contentious issues: Nationalism vs. Federalism, the role of the President, and slavery, and presents a philosophical accounting of all the major players. It brings to light the provincialism of some, and the genius of others, especially James Madis...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Ron Tenney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book hit one of my sweet spots in reading. It is highly biographical. Famous and somewhat obscure men are discussed. It runs along a chronological line with asides to discuss the men that mattered in the particular part of the debate.
While it seems that the stated premise of this book is that the Constitution was more the work or plain, honest men (downplaying the "miraculous" origin of the constitution). Yet, as the drama unfolds, the successful outcome defies any logic. I recommend this a...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is a very well written narrative history of the writing of the Constitution. The title does not really seem appropriate. I am sure the delegates would would be glad to be referred to as honest but plain does not seem a description they would prefer.
The topic of the book is a fascinating event. 55 men spent the summer writing a document which is the blueprint for a nation that has changed immensely and is the longest lasting constitutional republic in the world.
The process of writing t...more This book is a very well written narrative history of the writing of the Constitution. The title does not really seem appropriate. I am sure the delegates would would be glad to be referred to as honest but plain does not seem a description they would prefer.
The topic of the book is a fascinating event. 55 men spent the summer writing a document which is the blueprint for a nation that has changed immensely and is the longest lasting constitutional republic in the world.
The process of writing the Constitution is set forth in great detail. The first item of business was to establish a committee to fashion rules for the convention. The most important contribution of the rules committee was the use of a parliamentary mechanism known as the committee of the whole. This committee was made up of all of the delegates present but allowed for an informal debate and decision process. In the committee of the whole any matter could be brought up and reworked at any time without the formalities required if the delegates were sitting as the convention. The delegates spent much of their time sitting as the committee of the whole discussing the same issues over and over until there was an agreement.
Two other committees were used in writing the document. The first was the committee of detail, elected on July 24. It was composed of five delegates and was given the task of writing the Constitution. The members of the committee went through all of the resolutions which had been passed by the convention and using some supplementary materials delivered a draft of the Constitution to the convention on August 6.
On September 8, after additional debate and changes to the document, a committee of style was elected which included James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris. This committee gave the final polish to the Constitution producing a very concise document. For example they wrote in seven articles the material that the committee of detail had written in twenty-three articles. In addition they rewrote the preamble substituting "We the people of the United States" for "We the people of...." followed by a list of the thirteen states. Gouverneur Morris in a letter written years after the convention claimed primary authorship of the finished product. By describing the work done in these two committees the author helped me to understand the process of writing the Constitution. It showed me how important a good plan is for a project like this.
The book describes a wider scope of events than what occurred in the meeting hall. There is a discussion of the social life of the delegates with particular attention paid to George Washington. He developed a strong friendship with Elizabeth Powell, the wife of a Philadelphia businessman. During the convention she regularly had elaborate dinner parties for some of the delegates in a fashion similar to a French salon. She was well educated and intelligent and her friendship with Washington lasted until his death. The author must have read Washington's diary because he also includes how many times Washington went to church that summer, four. Even the problems of the delegates paying their bills is addressed. Many of the states did not provide enough funds and some delegates had to borrow money to pay their boarding house bill when they left.
Some details described go beyond the scope of the average history book. There is a description of an elaborate privy referred to as "The Necessary" capable of occupancy by 16 persons. Benjamin Franklin could not walk because of gout and was carried in a sedan chair described as a miniature carriage which was carried by four prisoners.
The discussion of the debates is also very thorough. The Virginia plan, the New Jersey plan and the Connecticut compromise are discussed in detail. While I have a working knowledge of these matters the author did provide additional details of the debates and how the final compromise on the question of representation was reached. The problems presented to the convention in working out the details of the chief executive position are described very thoroughly. The Articles of Confederation had no executive and having just overthrown a monarch there was a fear of a strong executive power. This issue was debated until September 4 before a final resolution was reached. This author more than some others wrote about the problems presented by the topic of slavery in several parts of the Constitution. The delegates avoided the use of the word slavery and adopted the three-fifths compromise i. e. counting slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation. This compromise changed the results of a number of presidential elections.
The Committee of Style submitted their draft to the convention on September 12. There was a brief discussion of a Bill of Rights that day which the delegates quickly decided was not necessary. This quick decision may have been due to fatigue but the lack of a Bill of Rights presented problems during the ratification process. On September 17 the Constitution was ready for signing. Three of the delegates; Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia, decided not to sign the Constitution, all citing different reasons. There was one additional change proposed requiring a representative for each 30,000 people instead of 40,000 people. For the first time that summer Washington rose to speak and in favor of this change which was passed unanimously.
The book does continue through the ratification process which is not discussed in detail. I have left out many items which I found interesting. To date this is the best book I have read about this important and interesting event.(less)

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Jul 20, 2012 Amblingbooks.com marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, history

Plain, Honest Men is a full-scale account of the deliberations of the Founding Fathers from the opening of the Constitutional Convention on May 25, 1787, to its concluding session on September 17. Following closely the chronology of the convention, the book takes listeners behind the scenes and beyond the debates to show how the world's most important constitution was forged through conflict, compromise, and eventually fragile consensus.

Listen to Plain, Honest Men on your smartphone, notebook or...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Lucas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

The first chapter gets off to a very slow start, telling the reader unnecessarily which hotels delegates checked into, what they were eating, or equally mundane details. Better it would have skipped forward to when real constitutional decisions are being made, those parts are fascinating.

The most riveting section is where the 3/5 of a person concession is made to the slave state representatives. Even if the fact of slavery could not be addressed at the time, it's extra insulting that the slave...more

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Sep 27, 2009 Mel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book focuses on the Constitutional Convention that took place in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. All the "big names" were there--Washington, Jefferson, Franklin--and, of course, William Paterson of New Jersey. While slow in a couple of spots, the information gleaned from this treasure of a book is well worth it. The book not only covers what happened inside the convention, but who was dining with whom, or staying in the same boarding house, outside the convention. Interestingly, the Foun...more

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Aug 01, 2009 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history, non-fiction, read-in-2009, american-revolution

Excellent read!

Richard Beeman brings history to life in this creative retelling of the events of the Constitutional Convention and its ratification by the states. It goes more in depth than any other book I've read on the convention and it does in it a way that reads more like a story, which makes the information overload much easier to comprehend.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in that era of American history or anyone who wants a better understanding of the challeng...more

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Feb 04, 2011 David Melbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Historians

Recommended to David by: Found this book myself

This is a good read, for sure. I found it ironic that the same arguments that these men were having in 1787 are still being argued today! I think the beauty of the original document is that Article VII is where it states that this thing will have to be amended, and often.

I think the most startling item in this tale is the women who was stoned on the streets of Philadelphia that summer, accused of being a witch. She died days later and it is the saddest part of that summer.

The fact that these men...more

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May 08, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arts-and-historical

From distinguished historian Richard Beeman comes a dramatic and engrossing account of the men who met in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 to design a radically new form of government. Plain, Honest Men takes readers behind the scenes and beyond the debate to show how the world’s most enduring constitution was forged through conflict, compromise, and, eventually, fragile consensus.

The delegates met in an atmosphere of crisis, many Americans at that time fearing that a combination of financ...more From distinguished historian Richard Beeman comes a dramatic and engrossing account of the men who met in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 to design a radically new form of government. Plain, Honest Men takes readers behind the scenes and beyond the debate to show how the world’s most enduring constitution was forged through conflict, compromise, and, eventually, fragile consensus.

The delegates met in an atmosphere of crisis, many Americans at that time fearing that a combination of financial distress and civil unrest would doom the young nation’s experiment in liberty. When the delegates began their deliberations in May 1787, they discovered that a small cohort of men, led by James Madison, had prepared an audacious plan–revolutionary in its view of the nature of American government. The success of this bold and brilliant strategy was far from assured, and the ultimate outcome of the delegates’ labors–the creation of a frame of government that would enable America to flourish–was very different from what Madison had envisioned when he launched his grand scheme.

Beeman captures as never before the dynamic of the debate and the characters of the men who labored that summer in Philadelphia, among them James Madison, as brilliant as he was unprepossessing; the mercurial Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, arrogant, combative, but ultimately effective in shaping the language of the completed Constitution; Maryland’s Luther Martin, a pugnacious (and often inebriated) opponent of a strong national government; Roger Sherman, the straightforward Connecticut delegate who helped broker some of the key compromises of the Convention; and General George Washington, whose quiet dignity and forceful presence helped keep under control the clash of egos and words among the delegates.

Virtually all of the issues the delegates debated that summer–the extent of presidential power, the nature of federalism, and, most explosive of all, the role of slavery–have continued to provoke conflict throughout the nation’s history. Plain, Honest Men is a fascinating portrait of another time and place, a bold and unprecedented book about men, both grand and humble, who wrote a document that would live longer than they ever imagined. This is an indispensable work for our own time, in which debate about the Constitution’s meaning still rages.(less)

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Jun 20, 2012 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

I started reading this book at a time that I was really questioning whether the American Experiment will last much longer. The idea of letting the smartest men in the country sit down and whittle out a government for themselves sounds grand, but when I picked up this book I was feeling like that government is about to crumble under its own weight. I've never really read historical nonfiction before, but I figured that in the context of today's polarized political climate it would be interesting...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Holly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this to feel more qualified to work at the National Constitution Center. :) From colleagues I've talked to, this is one of the best-written accounts of the Constitutional Convention. It's the only one I've read so far, but every one I read after this will be compared to this one. It's written in such a way that even though I know how the history ends, there's still a sense of suspense and feeling emotionally invested in teh story. In addition, it's simply an intellectually rigorous, evenh...more

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Aug 17, 2011 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: amer-history, political-science, study-group

The history of the making of the Constitution is presented here as it was created by an impressive group of individuals. Richard Beeman's excellent detailed account of the summer of 1787 relates the revolutionary results of these individuals in the context of their time. I was impressed with the character of the men who were able to work in secrecy for months even though their views were passionate and varied from state to state and even within some delegations. Holding the group together were t...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Ray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A little dry in parts, and a little long, but certainly a definitive work on the founding fathers and the development of our current system of government. Beeman really gets into the nature and depth of discussions among the delegates on settling issues of small states interests vs. large states, the nature of a chief executive, or even if there should be one, how he would be elected, and how we ended up with the Electoral College system. The book contains many interesting insights into the writ...more

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May 21, 2010 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

They used to teach this in the public schools. I can see why todays progressives want to repress it. If you were'nt taught this in school then you it is a must read.

Publishers Weekly Review:
A day-by-day account of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia can't yield up much drama or fireworks, or even much sparkling talk, at least as recorded by a few participants, especially James Madison. But in this masterful account, Beeman (Patrick Henry), a noted historian of the late 18th cen...more

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Jan 19, 2010 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction

A little dry, but overall, a fascinating look at the "players" and their meeting at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 where they developed the U.S. Constitution.

Some things that struck me as interesting in my reading:

I am not a huge fan of Ben Franklin, but his final speech, urging the delegates to put the need for a harmonious union above their own interests and ideologies, to check their egos at the door, in essence, marked a decisive moment in the process of the making of...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Dick Tatro rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

With all the talk these days from the "Tea Party" movement about what is in the constituion this book would be great for them to read. To really understand what happen in 1787-89 when these men wrote the most remarkable political document ever written. Beeman focused on this great collection of men and their struggles to create a new kind of goverment. This book is not a textbook it is the drama of creating a new world order.

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Apr 30, 2012 Jack rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction, politics, presidents

Been some time since I read a book about the 1787 Constitutional Convention. This is the best of any fairly recent effort (so I've read elsewhere). Let's be honest, though: this is a book about a summer-long meeting in Philadelphia. How exciting can it REALLY be? Interesting to note that the Constitution was the last decent thing to come out of that crappy city. Am I right?!?

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Sep 15, 2011 Zach rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Highly recommended! Beeman discusses the wide range of positions on each of the topics contained in our Constitution, helping the reader to understand why the resulting language is a compromise between the factions. This approach provides a deep understanding of the nuanced discussions and fragile agreements that began the creation of the system of government we have today.

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Dec 28, 2010 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good account of the Constitutional Convention. Written in a narrative style. At times a bit of a page turner! If Hollywood ever decided they wanted to make a movie about the creation of the Constitution they could do worse than using this book as the basis. ALso, don't be put off by the title...the author is not afraid to expose the flaws in those involved!!

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Mar 16, 2010 Sadie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've been wanting to learn more about the creating of our American constitution, but I didn't want a dry book, or one with a lot of biases. This was perfect. He threw in lots of little tidbit information, and did a great job of really helping you put yourself there in the convention room with these amazing - albeit - plain, honest men. Highly recommend!

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Nov 29, 2011 John Maniscalco rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quiet possibly the most comprehensive and well written account of the Constitutional Convention. If you want to know anything about the Constitution (prior to the Bill of Rights), the nature of the debates at the Convention, and an in depth but short biography of all the relevant delegates, this is the book to read.

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