Benjamin Franklin's Speech on the Constitution - Essay Example

The speech, more than a politician’s oratorical musing (he did not even delivered it, he was too frail to personally deliver the speech) served several purpose during the Constitutional Convention.”First, the delegates' signatin-es would function as a marketing device, highlighting important pro-Constitution selling points to the people who would ultimately determine its fate. Second, the signatures would function as a constraining device, preventing the Constitution's signatories —all of whom carried considerable local influence —from publicly opposing the document once the ratification battles began” (Coenen 971) .

Obviously, the speech served its purpose because we are now a constitutional government. Without that speech, United States may not be the America that we know today. It may have been still fragmented and undemocratic. It must be understood that along with the speech, was Benjamin Franklin’s statemanship that brought the benefit of pragmatic compromise for America to unite. Franklin as can be reflected in his 1787 speech after the Constitutional Convention, was a great power broker because he made the representative’s to sign the proposed constitution.

Corollary to the speech is its democratic implication. During the representation of individuals to the Constitutional Convention , representation was made not on the basis of landownership nor a prerequisite for the right to vote because Franklin was vehemently against it. He also sought for a simple government and government that is guarded from despotism by limiting the power of a president and recommended corrective measures such as impeachment to remove an erring president. Perhaps the byproducts of Benjamin Franklin efforts to have the Constitution signed by the representatives, from his speech, to the mode of representation, voting and governance set the backbone of American democracy.

Benjamin Franklin made this possible because he saw the task of creating a government to be not an impossible endeavor. He believed that creating American government only required that people so what was “useful and right for themselves, and they could easily do that without interfering with what useful and right for others “(Morgan 148). Thus, with only few days of lobbying for the passage of the Constitution, had the lasting effect that influenced American government and way of life for the next 250 years.

Imagine what America would be without the speech and efforts of Franklin. Considering Franklin’s contribution not only in framing the Constitution but also in lobbying to have it passed, we may be inclined to believe that Benajmin Franklin was a revolutionary and wanted a revolutionary government. His idea might be, in a way revolutionary during his time but Benjamin Franklin was never considered as a radical as a politician. He can be classified rather as a moderate and even a conservative by today’s standard.

Smith elaborated that “Benjamin Franklin should not, however, be classed with the revolutionary radicals who saw government as only a necessary evil that a society should minimze as much as possible. . . it would be accurate to say that government: government with strictly curtailed ends, powers fully adequate to meet those ends, and lines of responsibilities of maximum directness and clarity” (128). Examining the speech closely, we could also infer that later politicians cribbed some of Franklin’s idea.

This only manifests that Benjamin Frankli