On this very day, two hundred and fifteen years ago, the great and wise men who were gathered solemnly in Philadelphia to frame the Constitution of the United States took the day off. Proper thing.
It was a hot summer. Those great men, referred to somewhat less charitably by some as the well-bred, well-fed, well-read, and the well-wed... were half-way through what was ultimately not a pretty document.
The Constitution is less poetry than pragmatism - less inspiration than perspiration, an operating manual for a complex country, its pages now stained with use, well-thumbed, corners turned down. But if it isn't pretty, it is elegant in its effectiveness. What some consider a living and evolving document others say should be considered dead.
Cass Sunstein, Professor of Law, University of Chicago and author of "Designing Democracy: What Constitutions Do" and Steven Bullock, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
