David Barton advocates for an Article V convention. [FN64] His 1st contention, & 2nd sub-part in support are:
“1. The original Constitutional Convention was not a runaway convention.
b) “states ratified the Constitution after it was written” & thus “supported what occurred at the Convention” [FN65] 1/18

Simplistic approaches to history have fostered misconceptions about the Constitution. That means falsehoods have been spread that have eroded protections of our rights. One writer has noted, because he “Personally researched the documents related to Article V 2/18

and discovered that the portrayal of history I had been told was wrong – and it is a proven lesson that if you get your history wrong, then public policy positions based on that bad history will also be wrong.” [FN66] That writer was David Barton [FN67] whose 3/18

second sub-part relies upon an invalid premise and gets “history wrong.” By his own measure, it results in “public policy positions” that also are wrong. Let’s convert the transmogrifier to a time machine and go to... 4/18

9/17/1787: Philadelphia is hot & the air fetid with scents of manure in the streets, although “major streets were paved with brick or stone, rare for the time” [FN68] and 1787's summer was cool. [FN69] We are unable to scalp tickets to the convention. [FN70] 5/18

The convention had met in secrecy for four months “behind closed doors and sealed windows with armed sentinels stationed both inside and outside of the state house.” [FN71] The Constitution is done, and ready to be signed. Benjamin Franklin was asked 6/18

to make closing remarks. His speech, read by James Wilson, included: “This document may not be perfect, but it’s the best we can do.” [FN72] That’s why Mr Barton’s statement is erroneous for the unanimity it implies. Rhode Island’s absence was important. On 9/15/1787 7/18

it objected, citing the specific requirement to amend the Articles of Confederation, Art XIII. [FN73] Scholarly authority has noted that elimination of that requirement made ratification of the Constitution produced by the convention “a distinct possibility.” [FN74] 8/18

3 delegates refused to sign. [FN75] The Constitution’s making it out of the convention was not a sign of unanimity. On 9/17/1787, Alexander “Hamilton signed though he belonged to no delegation.” [FN76] One voice was unusually candid. Charles Pinckney was dubious 9/18

about a declaration that all men “‘by nature are born free’” but that “‘we should make that declaration with a very bad grace, when a large part of our property consists in men who are actually born slaves.’” [FN77] 10/18

Numbers should bother everyone. The far right, the monies of billionaires, and the use of Epstein files by hostile foreign powers can be used to write a new Constitution. The founder of the Red Pill expo said they only need 15-18% to take over. They did it before. 11/18

Footnotes:
FN64. “The Congress ... on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments...” U.S. Const., Art. V. 12/18

FN65. David Barton, “An Article V Convention for the States,” WallBuilders, 5/29/23, accessed 5/26/23.
FN66. Id.
FN67. Id.
FN68. Collier and Collier, “Decision in Philadelphia,” (2007), p. 60. 13/18

FN69. “A twentieth century study concluded that ‘in general terms Philadelphia enjoyed a cool summer in 1787.’” Stewart, “The Summer of 1797,” (2007), p. 82. That conclusion, one may reasonably infer relied upon scientific method, something possibly alien to Mr Barton. 14/18

FN70. Also, the term “scalping,” as purchasing tickets, was coined many years later, the earliest use being in 1889. (See, Oxford English Dictionary, 1970 ed., compact ed., p. 2655.) 15/18

FN71. See, . John P Kaminski, “Secrecy and the Constitutional Convention,” Center for the Study of the American Constitution, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2005), p. 7.
FN72. Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese, “Signing Away Their Rights,” (2011), p. 82. 16/18

FN73. Rhode Island, “Rhode Island’s Reasons for Refusing to Appoint Delegates, 15 September 1787,” Center for the Study of the American Constitution, accessed 5/27/26.
FN74. John Ferling, “A Leap in the Dark,” (2003), pp. 294-95. 17/18

FN75. Stewart, Id., note 69, at p. 226.
FN76. “As Washington wrote that night, the document was executed by ‘11 states and Colonel Hamilton.’” Stewart, note 69 at pp. 240-41.
FN77. Id., p. 227. 18/18