iberty. The Declaration cut the chain
that fastened this great ship to England's shores. The Revolution was
like the stormy passage across the ocean waves. At times it looked as if
our ship of state would be torn to pieces by the storms, or driven back
to the shores from which it set sail; but then the clouds would break
and the sun shine, and onward our good ship would speed. At length it
reached the port of liberty, and came to anchor far away from the land
of kings.

This is a sort of parable. I think every one of you will know what it
means. The people of this country had enough of kings and their ways,
and of being taxed without their consent. They made up their minds to be
free to tax and govern themselves. It was for this they fought in the
Revolution, and they won liberty with their blood.

And now, before we go on with the history of our country, it will be
wise to stop and ask what kind of government the Americans gave
themselves. They had thrown overboard the old government of kings. They
had to make a new government of the people. I hope you do not think this
was an easy task. If an architect or builder is shown a house and told
to build another like that, he finds it very easy to do. But if he is
shown a heap of stone and bricks and wood and told to build out of them
a good strong house unlike any he has ever seen, he will find his task a
very hard one, and may spoil the house in his building.

That was what our people had to do. They could have built a king's
government easily enough. They had plenty of patterns to follow for
that. But they had no pattern for a people's government, and, like the
architect and his house, they might spoil it in the making. The fact is,
this is just what they did. Their first government was spoiled in the
making, and they had to take it down and build it over again.

This was done by what we call a Convention, made up of men called
"delegates" sent by the several states. The Convention met in
Philadelphia in 1787 for the purpose of forming a Constitution; that is,
a plan of government under which the people should live and which the
states and their citizens should have to obey.

This Convention was a wonderful body of statesmen. Its like has not
often been seen. The wisest and ablest men of all the states were sent
to it. They included all the great men--some we know already,
Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams and many others of fine
ability. For four months the