ABSTRACT
The American Founders expected, or at least hoped, that they would provide an example for the rest of mankind. But that example is not to be found merely in the fact of a written constitution, or even in the substantive provisions of constitution. Each day Madison took notes on the speeches, and he was seldom absent except for very short periods; most nights he spent writing up his notes. The view of the Convention and of the Constitution is by no means simply wrong, but it is flat, lacking in perspective. Of course, the delegates recognized that clashes of interest were involved; but they also saw beyond that. As a result of the Great Compromise of the Convention, it was agreed that each state should have an equal vote in the second branch of the legislature. In the American case, those materials had been subjected to law and formed into a political community.
