I always like to show my students a copy of the Constitution and ask them who is missing from the signature list. They spot right away that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are absent and ask how can this be when they are considered founding fathers. My reply is that we were not yet considered a nation that would definitely last. For a nation to have firm stability and a future it must have international recognition and connections such as the US recognizing the state of Israel, which was a major turning point in the 20th Century. The need for a new form of government showed the vulnerability of the US, and the fact that America was also once a developing nation. During this time Jefferson was minister to France and Adams to Britain. Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Patrick Henry were also absent. Jefferson called the convention an "assembly of demigods."
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