WASHINGTON AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION OF 1787
By Violet Oakley
This picture is in the Pennsylvania State Capitol at Harrisburg.
It portrays the Fathers of the Republic at their great work of framing the national constitution. Washington, the presiding officer of the convention, is appealing to his colleagues with the notable words which encircle the top of the picture. Around and below him are Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, William Paterson, James Dickinson, Edmund Randolph, Robert Morris, and Gouverneur Morris, all of them in quaint costumes of the later eighteenth century.
The picture is symbolic of America’s great aspiration—Let us raise a standard to which the honest can repair!
WASHINGTON AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
By Violet Oakley
Copyright by Violet Oakley. From a Copley Print, copyright by Curtis & Cameron, Boston. Reproduced by permission.