We the People (white, male, Protestant, mostly motivated by their pocketbooks) met to end the form of government established by the Revolutionary War heroes, the first Founders of the United States, a government without taxes, the one established by the "traitorous" Founding Fathers, or so those at the Constitutional Convention said.

Of course who met to draft the Constitution were traitors, going beyond their assigned proper delegated power to meet "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation."

There were thirteen separate sovereign nations, nine of whom had their own navies, and seven of whom printed their own money, not interchangeable with the other nations of the United States. They fought small battles against each other, such as Pennsylvanians trying to keep out settlers from Connecticut, their armies meeting near Wilkes-Barre. New Jersey was bankrupt and talking about merger with New York or Pennsylvania.

The ordinary people were quite happy with the government. They had full liberty. But the "better sort" thought the weak central government was too "embarrassing" and too near anarchy. They wanted a strong central government to match those in Europe. There were rebellions in the States, people taking up pitchforks against foreclosures and jail sentences. Merchants were terrified and wealthy landowners and bankers demanded a strong government to impose strict law and order.

Rhode Island refused to participate in the Convention, quite happy and pleased with things the way they were. But Connecticut and Massachusetts wanted Rhode Island abolished and its territory divided among them.

Fifty-five eventually showed up but average daily attendance was less than thirty. Thirteen quit, nine for personal reasons, and four in opposition to the proposed new setup. Luther Martin returned to Maryland to fight ratification of the "conspiracy" for "total abolition and destruction of all state governments."

Patrick Henry refused to be a delegate and said he "smelt a rat" and that his "disgust exceeded all measure." Adams and Jefferson were in Europe. Sam Adams and Paul Revere and Governor John Hancock were denied delegate status. John Jay said he was too busy, and Aaron Burr wasn't interested.

No women, no blacks, no Indians, but the Confederation of the United States had just offered the Cherokee Nation Statehood. Ben Franklin was 81, fat, and so ill with gout that he was carried by four convicts in a sedan chair around town.

James Madison said he wanted "a strong consolidated Union in which the idea of states should be nearly annihilated." Patrick Henry said this was the rat he smelt.

The Constitutional Convention met in secret, since after all, they were plotting treason. "Sentries are planted without and within--to prevent any person from approaching near..." The proceedings of the Convention were sealed for fifty years, not released until 1836 after the death of Madison, in his will, and after all the other delegates to the Convention were dead. For the first five years of the new Constitutional United States, the Senate met behind locked doors in secret session, so the public would learn nothing about their deliberations. Not until 1873 were the proceedings of both houses made available to the public.

George Washington spoke to the Convention only once, on its last day, to ask for more members in the House.

James Madison warned that the numerous poor rather than the few rich would someday gain the power. Many of his one hundred fifty speeches vigorously opposed the idea of equality. At the last minute, property ownership was removed as a condition for holding federal office ("veneration of wealth" it said was required). Madison said "it was an indecent thing and might, in time, prove dangerous... to let Congress set its own wages."

The Convention voted down a National University, "in which no preferences or distinctions should be allowed on account of religion."

George Mason, who wrote Virginia's Bill of Rights, said he would "sooner chop off his right hand than put it to the Constitution." Two others agreed with him and walked out, refusing to sign it.

The sole reason income tax was kept out of the Constitution is because the South feared slaves might be taxed as "three-fifths" of a person.

Until the last month, delegates favored one seven- year term for the president, and until the last month most favored a three-person co-equal presidency. "A single executive is the fetus of a monarchy" said Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia.

The office of Vice President was not discussed until the last week of the Convention. Only four States had a vice president or lieutenant governor, and the office was almost unknown and considered unnecessary.

The proposal for a presidential cabinet, or "privy council" which eight States had, was never voted upon.

The Supreme Court is a "continuing Constitutional Convention" the Founders said. (The Court hears less than 200 of the more than 5,000 requests each year.)

Barely more than 50% of the delegates signed the Constitution. In the last week, the delegates rejected pleas by Gerry and Mason for a Bill of Rights.

Quartering and burning at the stake were legal punishments at the time of ratification. Only one State, Quaker Pennsylvania, had prisons, believing that prison would reform criminals.

Not a single delegate anticipated political parties.

In 1860, President James Buchanan wrote "there is nothing in the Constitution to prohibit secession. I will be the last President."

Days before his death, Lincoln signed the proposed 13th Amendment that would have prohibited Congressional interference with slavery. It would have ended slavery gradually over a fifty-year period, in 1915, with the federal government paying full compensation to slave owners. President Buchanan earlier endorsed it and two States had already ratified it.

The 21st Amendment is the only one ratified by State Conventions rather than State legislatures.

Some real history rather than the "patriotic" myths so prevalent on the Internet.

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