 | A French version of the U.S. Constitution is part of Yale's collection of materials relating to Benjamin Franklin. Selections of the Constitution will be read in English during Yale's Constitution Day event. |
Yale will observe Constitution Day on Monday, Sept. 18, with activities highlighting Benjamin Franklin's contribution to the Constitutional Convention, in honor of his 300th birthday.
The one-hour program on Beinecke Plaza (between Woolsey Hall, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and Woodbridge Hall) begins at 12:15 p.m. and is free and open to the public. In case of rain the program will take place in the lecture hall of Sterling Memorial Library (entrance on High St.).
"Ben Franklin and Constitution Day" will feature readings about Franklin and the Constitution, drawn from Franklin's letters and from biographies about him. The readings were selected by the staff of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, which houses the most extensive assemblage of materials by and about Franklin and his times to be found in a single collection anywhere in the world. (See related story.)
The second half of the program will include readings from the Constitution by students, staff and faculty. The selections have been chosen by Akhil Amar, the Southmayd Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale, who is a scholar of the Constitution.
Among the readers are Yale history professor Joanne B. Freeman; Jonathan Holloway, professor of history, American studies and African-American studies and master of Calhoun College; and Ellen R. Cohn, editor of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin and senior research scholar in history.
During the readings, a drawing will be held to give away copies of Edmund Morgan's award-winning biography, "Benjamin Franklin," published by the Yale Press in 2002. Morgan is the Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale.
The Constitution Day observance will also feature an actor dressed as Franklin, who will distribute copies of the Constitution.
Although none of Franklin's proposals were adopted into the Constitution, his distinction gave him a voice and influence at the convention unlike anyone else. Historians have noted that his capacity to create harmony out of dissension brought about the unanimous resolve by Congress to submit the Constitution to the States.
Franklin "soothed disputes, encouraged compromise and helped resolve deadlock," according to Robert K. Wright Jr. and Morris J. MacGregor Jr., authors of "Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution."
Constitution Day was observed informally until President George W. Bush signed a bill on December 8, 2004, designating Sept. 17 as Constitution Day nationwide. The law mandates that schools receiving federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education "implement an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution... ." Since Sept. 17 falls on a Sunday this year, Constitution Day will be celebrated before or after the weekend by most participating institutions.
When the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in Independence Hall in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, to sign the document that would determine the structure and function of the federal government, four of them were Yale graduates: William Livingston (B.A. 1741) of New Jersey, William Samuel Johnson (B.A. 1744) of Connecticut, Jared Ingersoll (B.A. 1766) of Pennsylvania and Abraham Baldwin (B.A. 1772) of Georgia. The original Constitution is on permanent display in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
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Observance of Constitution Day
will highlight Franklin's contributions
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