The Great Convention as Comic Action

In our political system the fundamental law, the Constitution of the United States, is sovereign. Our public servants, both elected and appointed, swear loyalty to it, as if to a prince, and undertake "to preserve, protect and defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic"--a large order, to be executed only with care and caution. As a prince may be distracted from his rightful function as father to his people by the blandishments of evil counselors, so may the fundamental law be drawn out of character by the strategies of interpretation and the interested manipulation of those who are responsible for its application. To protect the Constitution may require knowing something of its origins--how and why it came into being. With these purposes in mind, and in the spirit of bicentennial observation, this discussion focuses on the form and the founding principles of the convention and on its protagonist, James Madison, who helped shape the process of lawgiving that remains associated with his name.