 An average town, though you never get anybody to admit it. They've got a lot of civic pride. There's an addition to the town today. I always liked it when I was alive. More than a century. That's Tom Shuler and his son. That would be my great, great, great, great grandson. Knows, I think, how you got to be in history. It was a quality you were born with. Or maybe you made a lot of noise. Like an historic figure that morning on Shipboard, shipmates came from many countries. We had no common language. But we all had our dreams. We peered through the fog for our first glimpse of the new world. It was too thick to see much. I knew what I wanted. Every young man has his dream of a new world. The world that could be born and undeveloped. They hadn't yet learned how to live together. Here I wanted one thing open. America's future was built into one united army. Issue a uniform current. You see, there were 13 separate indif... ...walls about bound. Could they remain united in peace? Some people began talking about a central government for all the states. But on this idea, the majority didn't agree. The wartime unity weakened. The seas returned. They began to erect walls around themselves. Not walls of stone, but walls of restrictions, differing currency values, and provincial pride. They were afraid of each other. They tried to frighten each other. That was the situation when I hopefully set up shop. And how did it affect me? The one thing I didn't know from one week to another what my colony's currency was going to be worth. If I worked on enough shoes to buy, say, a sack of flour, it was quite possible that in the meantime, the value of the money would have dropped. And the sack of flour would cost half again as much. I'd have to mend another pair of shoes to get the flour. Because currency values were uncertain, many people went back to the barter system. And even that presented problems, based their prices on the current value of British money. Some of them believed that conditions would be better if the colonies got together and straightened things out on a permanent basis. Some thought that this idea was visionary, or said such a thing wasn't needed and wouldn't work anyway. Or thought that people with such ideas were traitors to the colonies that they lived in. What was happening in our town? Was this the way to settle our problems? That's the way things were. And in my business, the way the country was brought, let others worry about that. I had my own problems. My family was increasing, and leather was hard to get. Then one day in early September, I had a wonderful surprise. I got a letter. It was a little the worse for where, like my friend, the postman, but I got it. It was from a friend of my wife's family in Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania colony. He asked how we were getting on and told of a real bargain in leather. Of course, I'd have to go to Philadelphia to buy it. Philadelphia was hundreds of miles away. But I said to myself, after all, it is a new world, Thomas. Perhaps you should do new things. Though the next morning I set out, traveling light. By evening, I was at the state border. I knew when I reached the border all right. I guessed right then that the trip wasn't going to be easy. It seems I had no official signatures, passes, or letters of praise. Hours later, though, I had plenty of them. I rode a horse and rode all the next day to another border. The proprietor wasn't what I'd call over-friendly. He wouldn't take my state currency at face value, though he did exchange it for me at less than the official rates. Then he showed me my accommodations. I didn't argue. Because it came to me suddenly that I was a foreigner. After all, I had traveled all of 50 miles from home. While there, I got some idea of how others felt about central government. One traveler offered a toast to the glorious colony of Rhode Island. Another offered his to the Union of the Colonies. It was a slight disagreement. I thought a lot that night about what I had seen. As I lay alone in my bed, well, almost alone, next day I took a stage for Philadelphia, still concerned about the things I had seen. I wondered what would happen if we all put our shoulders to the wheel. I soon found out. And after that stretch of road, another border. I felt I knew these fellas by now, but they didn't seem to know me. At a stream, we ran into a boundary dispute, something about the use of a toll bridge. We compromised and paid twice. Once at each end, it didn't seem to settle anything. Then we found that the stage road was impassable. So I hired a boat to take me further. I made the mistake of offering to pay the skipper with the money the innkeeper had given me. He wouldn't hear of it. Again, my money had gone down in badges. The trip across the bay is a lovely one. I wish I'd been able to appreciate it. On the opposite shore, I took a stagecoach, which was to go directly to Philadelphia. Riding through the Pennsylvania colony, I fell into an uneasy sleep, a destination. Philadelphia was the largest city in America. But my currency was worth as little here as anywhere else. The leather was indeed a bargain in Pennsylvania money. Virginia money was something else again. And Maryland and Delaware money was out of the question. I was just a little bit disturbed. The government, I thought, ought to do something about it. I didn't know it at the time, but just a few blocks away, they were trying to do something about it. Well, not exactly about my personal problem, but all the problems facing this new land. At a place called Independence Hall, a convention had been in session for many months, attended by delegates representing the various colonies. Whatever they were doing, it seemed important. Some thought this convention was a waste of time. And others were unconcerned. Still, it was the subject of much discussion. Pollinate delegates had come from the commercial north and the agricultural south. From the ship towns of the east and the farm towns of the west, they soon realized that their job was not to patch up what we had, but to create a new union. The United States of America with a central government. There were no rules to go by. Nothing seemed to fit. They had to find something that just suited their own needs, and they had to overcome all the ill will brought about by years of living as separate nations. There was argument and bickering. The convention heard a plan for a representation based on population. This would give the big states an advantage because of their larger population. The small states turned it down. They came back with their own plans. It was for an equal number of representatives from each state. This would give the smaller states an advantage. The big states didn't think too much of that. A deadlock followed. Basically, all the delegates wanted the same thing. One nation with a strong central government. Now they realized that in order to create this, they would have to make concessions and compromises on the controversial issues. So all the states made concessions on tariffs, currency, on all the problems that concerned them as states. The large ones agreed that all states should have equal powers. The small states agreed that representation should be according to population. In fact, the states deeded their western lands to the new government and surrendered other privileges to the power of a strong union. Their final draft was hammered out after many weeks. The delegates were to take the plan back to see if their states would ratify it. After further thinking about my own problem, I realized we could get nowhere being mad, perhaps if we discussed it further. I had to have the leather and he wanted to sell. We finally did solve the problem. I paid a little more than I wanted to and the merchant took a little less than he expected. That evening I started home. The first border I heard the bad news. There was a duty on leather crossing into this colony. So I paid. Later I found that my traveling companion had been a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention. I said that was nice, but down deep I wondered if the colonies would ever become a nation. There were just too many problems to overcome. I didn't know that he had in his pocket a copy of the convention's plan for overcoming the problems I'd seen and many others I'd never heard of. I arrived in Hilldale as I had left on foot, but no longer traveling light. That night I figured out what the leather had cost me. It came to more than I had ever paid. In November a young man from the state capital visited Hilldale. He was speaking in favor of the new constitution. I heard him and read a lot of literature about the proposed plan. The plan was called a Constitution of the United States and was a masterpiece of compromise which created something larger than anybody expected. The United States was to be a republic with elected representatives. The plan was original, worked out to fit the peculiar circumstances. Government was to be by laws, not by officials. It was divided into three sections. The legislative branch to make the laws. An executive branch to carry on the business of government. And a judicial branch to decide questions of law under the constitution. The legislative branch was itself divided into two parts. A house to represent the people and the Senate representing the states. The legislative power was balanced between the large and the small states. The executive power of the government was placed in one man, the president of the United States. He would be responsible to the people for all departments of government. To check against the possibility of abusing his executive powers, it was provided that his veto could be overwritten by a two-thirds vote of vote houses. To further protect the rights of the people under the constitution, a judicial body, the Supreme Court, was created. This body operating independently of the legislative and executive branches could be called upon to interpret the constitutionality of any law. Thus, the three branches of the government are constantly balancing and checking the power of each other. This was the gist of the work done at the Philadelphia Convention. After what I had gone through, the plan sounded good to me and to others too. But Gerald Wellman, who had been a soldier in the War of Independence, said that it didn't even mention the rights of man. Goodman Barlow said that the constitution ought to guarantee the states the right to run their own internal affairs. These sounded like good ideas to me. I talked a lot about it, I guess. I didn't know how much, though, until the day some of the men came to me and asked if I'd be a candidate to the ratifying convention in our state. Thomas Shuler, the fellow who'd thought that government affairs should be left to others. Now I had a big decision to make, whether to work actively for what I believed in or once again to let someone else carry the load and do it for me. I thought about it for a long time. Then I told the men I would be a candidate. When the votes were counted, I had been elected. That night my wife sewed on my hat a black cockade that meant I was a federalist in favor of the new constitution. Early the next morning, I set out on foot. This time headed for the capital of my state, wearing the black cockade. My friends turned out to bid me goodbye and good luck. Others were on hand who wished me neither. They thought I was getting too big for my britches. Shoemakers stick to your last, they said. Even in 1787 it was an old saying. At the capital I found that some people liked my federalist badge for a very special reason. At the state convention, I felt like a child. Everybody there seemed so much more capable than I. But when the time came to talk, I talked and they listened. I told them what Gerald Wellman and Goodman Barlow and my other neighbors had said. It seemed to make quite an impression. There was much dissension, but we finally ratified the constitution on the condition that it be amended at the first session of the new National Congress. And it was by ten amendments called the Pill of Rights. These amendments guaranteed to the people freedom of speech and assembly. Freedom of religion, the right to a trial by jury. Immunity from searching. The tenth amendment said that power is not delegated or reserved to the people. This meant that aside from being a part of a great nation, each state reserves the right to pass its own laws, its own system of taxation, finance and support education, medical and health programs, road projects and other state activities. Maintain a state militia equipped for emergencies in time of disaster or to combine its militia with those of other states into a united army. Now we had a nation, a constitution and a bill of rights with provision for further amendments. It was up to us to protect these privileges. I returned home to Hilldale and my family. I saw many change. I saw the walls that divided the state disappear. State borders become imaginary lines and roads stretching through state after state and kept in good repair. I saw religious tolerance become an actual fact. As the states grew closer together in a union, the old hostilities began to wither and fade. With the establishment of a solid national currency, I saw more goods at lower prices. For manufacturing and selling now became national in scope and as volume rose, prices dropped. A lot of people began to think that union was a good idea now. People who never had before. Now finally, when T. Shuler and sons needed leather, they got it in whatever quantities they wanted and at prices they could better afford. And our shoes were now going to all the large cities to be sold. Without having to pause for a paper snowstorm at each border, the country continued to grow and flourish as a union. It wasn't always easy. Sometimes it looked as if the whole system was break down. 36 years after I had gone, over an issue that the Philadelphia Convention had left unsettled. But the idea of union was a powerful one. It stood the severest test. Because the citizens made it work. Because they supported and defended their constitution. I lived 76 years, all told. And although I ran for office a few more times, my proudest memory is the four weeks spent at the state ratifying convention. I guess that's what it takes to be an historic figure. You think about the problems of your country. You talk about them. When responsibility comes along, you shoulder it. You always keep in mind that freedom belongs to those who continually work for it. The job is never done. And you never lose the young man's dream of the new world. The world that could be. The task isn't finished yet. There are still many problems. The constitution is only a piece of paper. It needs people to make it work. With people united, and the constitution strong and flexible enough to meet any need, there's no limit to what you can do with your country. I wish I had the chance that you will.