A.J. Jacobs on “The Year of Living Constitutionally”

For over a year now, author AJ Jacobs has been wearing wool leggings more often than socks. Why? “A few years ago, I realized I had never read the American Constitution,” he said. “But every day I turn on the news and there’s another story about how this 230-year-old document is affecting our lives. And I said, I need to know more about our founding document. And the way I like to learn is, I like to bet all.”

For Jacobs, all-in means total immersion. For his best-selling book, “The Know-It-All,” Jacobs spent 18 months reading the entire Encyclopædia Britannica. For “The Year of Living Biblically,” he tried to follow all the rules of the Old Testament. It is New Testaments. And now, his last immersion: “The Year of Living Constitutionally”.

“I look profoundly absurd,” he said, dressed for the late 18th century. “But I also take this project very seriously. Part of my goal is to get into the minds of these Founding Fathers as much as I can.”

Consequently, Jacobs joined the Third Regiment of New Jersey Revolutionary War Reenactors. He showed Dickerson his musket: “This is the real deal from the 1700s,” he said. “I got it online, and I assume that’s not how they did it back then.”

The reenactors, Jacobs noted, “are very committed. Of course we weren’t using lead balls; we were using blanks.”

Regardless, he actually “died.” He said, “I died for my country, but I died in the shadows.”

To explore his Second Amendment rights, Jacobs also carried his antique firearm around New York City: “I was in a coffee shop lined up with my musket and a guy in front of me said, ‘Go ahead. ‘ like you.'”

While visiting the 1765 Morris-Jumel Mansion in Manhattan (which General George Washington briefly transformed into his military headquarters), Jacobs was asked what scared the creators of the Constitution. “They had just fought a war to get rid of the monarch,” he said. “That’s one of the most brilliant parts of the Constitution, is how they built these mechanisms to prevent one person or one branch from assuming that balance of power. having a tyrant.

Jacobs’ research also took him to Washington, D.C., where he delved into the First Amendment right to petition the government. Jacobs brought his own petition, a long scroll with 423 signatures, to Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon to reconsider Ben Franklin’s idea of ​​having more than one president. Wyden noted, “You are injecting logic and common sense, which is often lacking in public discourse.”

So how was the petition received? “I think he considered it for about five seconds, and that was the end of the consideration!” Jacobs laughed. “I will say that he completely bought into my underlying thesis that the president has too much power.”

When doing his research, Jacobs used a quill pen, which meant spending the rest of the day with stained fingertips. “I love writing by hand,” he said. “There’s something wonderful about taking a quill pen, dipping it in ink, and just writing those sentences. I love the sound of scratch, scratch, scratch.”

AJ’s wife of 24 years, Julie Jacobs…not so much. “We’ve been through a lot together,” she said. “Then this is nothing! This is nothing.”

Asked if she is the most patient wife in the world, Julie laughed: “I think so! Feel free to call me Saint Julie whenever you want!”

AJ not only wrote with a quill pen, but also scribbled his words on parchment, which is not paper; it is stretched and dried animal skin, like sheepskin. To learn how it’s made, Jacobs took a lesson from brothers Jesse and Stephen Meyer, who run Pergamena, one of the few places where parchment is made in North America.

Asked to describe the smell, Jesse Meyer responded, “Something between rotting meat and really strong cheese.”

This same process was used to create the Constitution, which is now under glass, on display at the National Archives in Washington, protected by shatterproof glass.

“People come here and look at this and are rejuvenated,” said historian Jessie Kratz. “And maybe they will vote, not just in presidential elections, but maybe in local elections.”

Jacobs said, “I don’t want to say ‘Just read the Constitution.’ That’s not really the point. talk about it with people, especially with people who disagree with you. To me, that’s what democracy is all about.”

All this rushing around may seem like a gimmick, but Jacobs says the immersive approach helped focus him on the key lessons of the system we all live under today. “They thought about rights, but they also thought about responsibilities,” he said. “It was so ingrained in them that they had a responsibility to their community, to their country. But I feel like we’ve lost some of that. Sometimes it’s all about putting others before yourself.”

This lesson is not just a pleasant notion; is vital to the survival of the Constitution.

Asked whether his project made him more optimistic or pessimistic, Jacobs responded: “George Washington sat in a wooden chair at the Constitutional Convention. And there was a carving on the back of the sun, but not the full sun, just half the sun.” , the top half. So you couldn’t say: It’s setting or it’s rising. At the end of the Convention, against all odds, they have this Constitution that says, ‘Now I know the sun is rising in America.

“And my question was: is the sun yet rising in America? Depend on us. Because if we don’t do anything, the sun will set.”

READ AN EXCERPT: “The Year of Living Constitutionally” by AJ Jacobs

For more information:

• “The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Original Meaning of the Constitution” by AJ Jacobs (Crown), in hardcover, e-book and audio formats, available May 7 via Amazon, Barnes & Nobre It is Livraria.org
• The Morris-Jumel MansionNew York, NY
• Third New Jersey Regiment, Jersey Blues – Revolutionary War Reenactors (Facebook)
• PergamumMontgomery, New York
• National ArchivesWashington DC
• Thanks to photographer Reed Young

Story produced by Jay Kernis. Editor: George Pozderec.