Posted by KatNip on October 04, 1998 at 03:20:47:
“The atmosphere of the Convention was, in fact,
almost scandalously secular. Despite the social
preeminence of the cloth in 1787, not a clergyman
was listed among its fifty-five members; and when
Franklin suggested that one be recruited to open
the meetings with prayer, the proposal was shelved
by his obviously embarrassed associates with almost
comical celerity.” Edward S. Corwin, “The Constitution
as Instrument and as Symbol*,” 30 The American Political
Science Review, No. 6, 1071, 1073 (December, 1936).
*A paper delivered at the Tercentenary Conference of
Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, September, 1936.