From the very start, Americans proposed amendments. The U.S. Constitution was itself an act of amendment, written in 1787 because the Articles of Confederation were technically amendable but, for all practical purposes, not. What would be the national disgrace if … a vile Negro should come to rule over us?” These possibilities were, to Brackenridge, absurd. The rejected Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork once explained how originalists think about the Constitution and the historical record. Mecom’s biblical plea for nonviolence, for beating swords into plowshares, can be read as the constitutional preference of a constituency — women — unrepresented at the convention.

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Persons: Lemuel Haynes, “, George Mason, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Brackenridge, Robert Bork, George Washington, Martha, ” Bork, George, Jane Franklin Mecom, Benjamin Franklin, ”, — unrepresented Organizations: Continental Army, Massachusetts, Constitution, United, New York State Locations: Independence, Massachusetts, U.S, Philadelphia, Virginia, United States, New