The chair in which George Washington sat as he presided over what would become the Constitutional Convention of 1787 includes a painted sunburst. 

As the convention ended, the redoubtable Ben Franklin is said to have commented: “I have often … looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”

We are in the midst of Constitution Week, an annual, though poorly celebrated, commemoration of the document that brought our nation into existence and has since been the basis for what we proudly call a Nation of Laws.

Given the political turmoil in which our nation finds itself today, this might be a good time to revisit Mr. Franklin’s pondering and ask ourselves whether the sun continues to rise over the world’s greatest and most successful experiment in self-government. 

Even Franklin continued to have his own doubts, despite his optimistic pronouncement. In a far more memorable quote at the end of the convention, he responded to a question concerning the type of government that had been formed. Was it, he was asked, a republic or a monarchy?

“A republic, if you can keep it,” he said.

That phrase has reverberated through the nearly two-and-a-half centuries since Franklin coined it, and today is often used by partisans of all stripes to promote their particular concerns for the nation. 

And therein lies both our problem and our opportunity. The Constitution was never seen as a perfect document, nor was it seen as immutable. The founders’ intent, voiced in the Constitution’s preamble, was to form a “more perfect union.” It was not, as written, a perfect model for governance, and even among those who labored to create it, there was healthy dissent from the outset.

Notably, George Mason of Virginia would not affix his name to the document because the convention had failed to include what, in his view, must be the underpinning of a democratic republic — a Bill of Rights protecting the public from a variety of governmental abuses. Virginia ratified the Constitution in 1788 in two steps — the first being the ratification and the second its endorsement of a Bill of Rights. In 1791, it became the 10th state to ratify those first 10 amendments, thus making them a part of the Constitution and making it a “people’s” charter.

The imperfections of the Constitution didn’t end with adoption of a Bill of Rights, however. It would take nearly two centuries for the remaining 17 amendments following the Bill of Rights to be ratified. Most of them moved in the direction of that “more perfect union” while at least one — Prohibition — attempted unsuccessfully to curb individual liberty, something Americans quickly rejected.

It would take three-quarters of a century and a bloody Civil War to partially settle the nation’s most vexing inconsistency — slavery. The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments abolished slavery, established the “Equal Protection Clause” and attempted to give the right to vote to citizens regardless of race, color “or previous condition of servitude.” That struggle continued for the next century as efforts to deny African Americans full citizenship continued through Jim Crow laws. Even today, voting rights are threatened through more subtle, but very real, efforts.  

The right to elect U.S. senators didn’t come until the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1912, and the right of women to vote was denied until the 19th Amendment was added in 1919. 

The latest, and possibly one of the most difficult, debates in modern times has only just begun — whether and how to reform the nation’s highest court. The U.S. is the only democracy that appoints members of its highest court for life. In all of the others, there are term limits.

In addition, the Supreme Court is the only court in the U.S. with no required ethical review. Supreme Court justices are not bound to any of the ethical standards that restrict activities by all other federal judges.

We also now have, for the first time in 237 years, a presidency largely untethered by legal restraint. The Supreme Court has declared that presidents are essentially above the law so long as they can make a claim that their actions are “official.” 

These and other issues test whether our Constitution continues to work as it was intended. I believe it does, but only if Americans demand that it be adjusted to meet the demands of today. 

Constitution Week is an ideal time to ruminate on the issues that rise to constitutional questions. The Constitution belongs to all Americans and we are all called on to protect it. First, however, we must understand it, and that’s what Constitution Week is all about.

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.