nal revision of the draft
by the Committee on Style.

On September 12 the committee reported. While it is not certain, it is
believed that its work was largely that of Gouveneur Morris.

September 13 the printed copies of the report of the Committee on Style
were ready, and three more days were spent by the convention in
carefully comparing each article and section of this final draft.

On September 15 the work of drafting the Constitution was regarded as
ended, and it was adopted and ordered to be engrossed for signing.

It may be interesting at this point to give the result of their labours
as measured in words, and if the framers of the Constitution deserve the
plaudits of posterity in no other respect they do in the remarkable
self-restraint which those results revealed.

The convention had been in session for 81 continuous days. Probably
they had consumed over 300 hours in debate. If their debates had been
fully reported, they would probably have filled at least fifty volumes,
and yet the net result of their labours consisted of about 4,000 words,
89 sentences, and about 140 distinct provisions. As the late Lord Bryce,
speaking in this age of unbridled expression, both oral and printed, so
well has said:

"The Constitution of the United States, including the amendments,
may be read aloud in twenty-three minutes. It is about half as long
as Saint Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, and one-fourth as long
as the Irish Land Act of 1881. History knows few instruments which
in so few words lay down equally momentous rules on a vast range of
matters of the highest importance and complexity."

Even including the nineteen amendments, the Constitution, after one
hundred and thirty-five years of development, does not exceed 7,000
words. What admirable self-restraint! Possibly single opinions of the
Supreme Court could be cited which are as long as the whole document of
which they are interpreting a single phrase. This does not argue that
the Constitution is an obscure document, for it would be difficult to
cite any political document in the annals of mankind that was so simple
and lucid in expression. There is nothing Johnsonese about its style.
Every word is a word of plain speech, the ordinary meaning of which even
the man in the street knows. No tautology is to be found and no attempt
at ornate expression. It is a model of simplicity, and as it flows
through the reaches of history it will alw