When 50 or 60 Men have a Constitution to form for a great Empire, at the same Time that they have a Country of fifteen hundred Miles extent to fortify, Millions to arm and train, a Naval Power to begin, an extensive Commerce to regulate, numerous Tribes of Indians to negotiate with, a standing Army of Twenty seven Thousand Men to raise, pay,of victual and officer, I really shall pity those 50 or 60 Men. - John Adams 1775

This is an interesting perspective on the scale of the tasks facing the American revolutionaries

For me, it also implies a couple of things:

• writing a constitution is hard. It’s especially hard if there are lots of other hard problems that needs to be solved

• maybe a constitution produced under such circumstances should be treated with undue reverence.

Quote from Open Yale Courses HIST 116: The American Revolution Lecture 13 - Organizing a War - Joanne Freeman