Reflections on Philadelphia's History Venues

I am in Philadelphia for a couple of days and had the opportunity to visit the National Constitution Center and the Pennsylvania State House (what many people call Independence Hall). The picture is of one of the most important rooms in our collective history. The Declaration was signed there. The Constitution was written there. Lincoln lay in state there on his last ride back home. In the building are only two verifiable items that came from the building, The chair in the picture, which Washington used to preside for the Constitutional Convention, is one of them. The guide we had thought it was his duty to point out that the Constitution did not include a lot of 20th century concepts. I am not sure why that commentary was necessary. Indeed, he did not point out that during the key days of the writing of the Constitution that 18th century that the participants observed bathing habits of the time. The latter did not seem necessary and the seeming editorial comment was not necessary either.

We also went to the National Constitution Center. The Center has a multi-media presentation called We the People - which I have now seen twice. The ending line suggests that the Constitution is what we make it. Not to quibble but I think that is lousy constitutional theory. Obviously the Center adheres to the doctrine of a living constitution. But there is another view that I think is more appropriate. We formed the Constitution to establish limits on government. Edmund Burke, in Reflections on the Revolution in France, explained the hazards of having an open ended system where reality was defined by who was in charge.

There are two sets of exhibits in the Center. The first is a recreation of the hall where the Constitution was written. It includes life sized statues of the signers. It is very inspiring. The second is a set of multi-media exhibits that I found almost totally useless. The exhibits seem to be mostly attentive to liberal interpretations of the constitutional history and while balance is important that is not the problem I have with the presentation. The hall needs either sound dampers or a reduction in number of things - the place is a cacophony of sounds so it is almost impossible to concentrate on any single exhibit.