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| | Those were the words of one of the greatest statesmen of the 1800s, Daniel Webster, who represented Massachusetts in the House of Representatives in the 1820s, and in the U.S. Senate until 1850, and was Secretary of State after that. | | Those were the words of one of the greatest statesmen of the 1800s, Daniel Webster, who represented Massachusetts in the House of Representatives in the 1820s, and in the U.S. Senate until 1850, and was Secretary of State after that. |
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| − | Daniel Webster was not the first to call the U.S. Constitution a "miracle". George Washington was. He presided over the Constitutional Convention that created the Constitution in Philadelphia during the hot summer of 1787. The following winter he said this about it:<ref name="Washington Letter to Lafayette">http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-06-02-0079 -Letter from George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, dated Feb. 7, 1788</ref> | + | Daniel Webster was not the first to call the U.S. Constitution a "miracle". George Washington was. He presided over the Constitutional Convention that created the Constitution in Philadelphia during the hot summer of 1787. The following winter he said this about it:<ref name="Washington Letter to Lafayette">http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-06-02-0079 -Letter from George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, dated Feb. 7, 1788 (modern spelling used in the quotation)</ref> |
| − | {{cquote|It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States (which States you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances and [prejudices]) should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well founded objections.}} | + | {{cquote|It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States (which States you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well founded objections.}} |
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| | There was no single author of the Constitution, and no single person (not even George Washington) had an enormous influence over it. It was the product of a few dozen men, most of whom had fought alongside each other in the successful American Revolution, and virtually all of whom where devout Christians inspired by their faith. They opposed a monarchy, which was the system of government in England and all of Europe. | | There was no single author of the Constitution, and no single person (not even George Washington) had an enormous influence over it. It was the product of a few dozen men, most of whom had fought alongside each other in the successful American Revolution, and virtually all of whom where devout Christians inspired by their faith. They opposed a monarchy, which was the system of government in England and all of Europe. |