The twenty-three resolutions offered by Governor Randolph, of Virginia,
are commonly considered as forming the groundwork of the Constitution.
With them were incorporated apparently six provisions taken from the
plan devised in a conference of the small States and offered by
Paterson, of New Jersey, together with twenty suggestions emanating
from an individual member, Pinckney, of South Carolina. Even the
Virginia resolutions, although commonly ascribed to Madison and winning
for him the title, "Father of the Constitution," are modestly ascribed
by him to the series of conferences held by the Virginia delegates
during the ten days they waited for a quorum. "The resolutions," said
he later, "were the result of a consultation among the deputies of the
State; the whole number, seven, being present. Mr. Randolph was made
the organ of the occasion, being the governor of the State, of
distinguished talents, and in the habit of public speaking."

Turning over the pages of Madison's "Notes," one may follow through
committee and general session, the slow evolution of the Constitution
of the United States. The eager hands of the experienced workers turned
over the materials of old forms, rejecting parts hitherto tried and
found wanting, welding together familiar pieces brought from monarchical
or colonial precedent, and constructing a machine noted for
practicability rather than for novelty. They were forced to use careful
workmanship because of the great variety of opinions. They were hindered
constantly from rash action by inherited prejudices and climatic
differences. And they were conscious at the end of having wrought, not
perfectly, but as well as conditions would permit.

Experience was the fountain from which the Constitution-makers drew
their "inspiration." A novel creation, as a certain narrow provincialism
in the United States is sometimes fond of claiming for the Constitution,