James Madison and Benjamin Franklin

He had studied and prepared a proposal for the constitution that he wanted used. He took a leading role in the debates and made many speeches in support of the constitution and wrote many articles to help get the constitution ratified. Madison convinced his state’s delegates to support the constitution even though two Virginia leaders, George Mason and Edmund Randolph, were opposed to parts of the constitution. Even though these two leaders were very different, they were both important in preparing and getting the constitution ratified. Even though the things he wanted were not part of the constitution, he made an important speech on the last day of the convention asking everyone to accept the compromises and called for unanimous support of the constitution. Benjamin Franklin was an old man and was in poor health but he was well known and respected. People listened to what he had to say. Even though he didn’t lead the debates and had someone else read his speech, when he called for the constitution to be ratified unanimously it was.

Benjamin Franklin was 81 years old when he attended the Constitutional Convention.

James Madison was a young man when he attended the Constitutional Convention. Franklin believed that instead of a president that the government should have an executive committee and a single legislature. When he made a motion for a vote that the constitution to be unanimously passed, his motion was immediately carried. He also wrote 29 of the papers in The Federalist which was written to convince people in every state to ratify the constitution and spoke in favor of the constitution when Virginia was preparing to vote on ratification. ention and took on a leading role in debates.