Editor's Intro Two-hundred thirty-one years ago today, the Constitutional Convention finally got started, eleven days late. This lack of punctuality annoyed both Madison and Washington, who were both on time. On May 15, the day after the convention was supposed to begin, Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson that  "there is less punctuality in the outset than was to be wished."  And on May 20, Washington wrote to  Arthur Lee  (an American diplomat) that  "these delays greatly impede public measures, and serve to sour the temper of the punctual members, who do not like to idle away their time." Below you'll find Madison's summary of the happenings of this day in history, which mostly consisted of figuring out who would be in charge of the convention (spoiler alert: Washington). Within Madison's notes I've linked each mention of a name to a short biography from  TeachingAmericanHistory.org ,  a truly great resource. Below Madison's notes...

Welcome to Conventional Wisdom! Two-hundred thirty-one years ago today the Constitutional Convention was set to begin, but nobody showed up. It wasn't until May 25 that a quorum of seven states was secured. Darned 18th century travel. Because of that, there's not much news to share today, so we'll use this time to get some introductory material out of the way. Below you'll find James Madison's small note on the happenings of today, some background information about just why there was a Constitutional Convention in the first place, and a summary of a piece by James Madison from April (of 1787) on the same topic.  James Madison was very eager for everything to begin and came well prepared and well read.  If you have any books, articles, comments, ideas, primary source materials, or  anything  at all that you think would help your fellow readers become (almost) as well read as Madison, please email me at logan@conventionalnewsletter.com. If it'...