Has a New Draft of the Constitution Been Found?

No, not really.

According to this Philadelphia Inquirer article a new draft of the United States Constitution, written by James Wilson, was found at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The person who supposedly “found” the document, Lorianne Updike Toler, claims: “This was the kind of moment historians dream about.”

But as it turns out the document Toler found has long been known to scholars.

The story has been getting some good coverage in the history blogosphere.

J.L. Bell at Boston 1775 notes that the Philadelphia Inquirer article quoted University of Wisconsin-Madison historian John Kaminski, a scholar who happens to be the chair of the academic advisory board of ConSource, an organization, co-founded by Toler, that promotes the study of the Constitution. After Toler’s “find” ConSource used the news coverage to appeal for funds. Interesting.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has a nice blog post showing that the documents Toler found were actually published in 1911 by Max Farrand in his The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. The HSP blog post contains responses by noted Constitution scholars Mark David Hall, Richard Beeman, William Ewald, and Andy Shankman. Toler also defends herself.

Boston 1775 has the best coverage of this story, but the good folks at American Creation are all over it as well.