Gathering
1787 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Franklin hosts Washington, Madison, and Hamilton between sessions of the Constitutional Convention and argues for compromise.
The Convention has been meeting for weeks behind closed doors, and the delegates are tired, hot, and divided over representation. Franklin, at eighty-one the oldest man in the room, keeps a plain table near the State House and invites the younger architects of the new government to eat with him.
Washington is grave and says little; Madison has the whole plan in his head and sketches it out between courses; Hamilton argues for a stronger executive than the others will accept. Franklin listens, tells a story, and repeats his conviction that the framers must doubt a little of their own infallibility. They eat pepper pot and scrapple, a stuffed turkey, pumpkin pie, and drink madeira punch, and return to the hall no closer to agreement but still talking.
Host: Benjamin Franklin
George Washington — Presiding over the Convention and impatient for a settlement.
James Madison — Keeper of the fullest notes and author of the Virginia Plan.
Alexander Hamilton — Pressing for a far more powerful national government than the Convention will grant.
Everything you need to host this menu, sorted aisle by aisle:
The menu
13 of 38 items checked
First course
a period dish
View a published recipe at The Guardian (opens in a new tab)
Claimed by Benjamin Franklin
Serves 6 · 3 of 9 items checked · 5 aisles
Claimed by George Washington
Serves 8 · 2 of 6 items checked · 3 aisles
Claimed by James Madison
Serves 10 · 3 of 9 items checked · 6 aisles
Claimed by Alexander Hamilton
Serves 8 · 3 of 8 items checked · 5 aisles
Claimed by Benjamin Franklin
Serves 12 · 2 of 6 items checked · 4 aisles
This gathering is an editorial recreation grounded in the biographies of those present; it did not necessarily take place as described.
