This Is What They're Telling You at Independence Hall

Independence Hall, Philadelphia — If you paid a visit, you’d expect to experience the gravitas of the room where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were created. But it turns out you might get a dose of misinformation with your tour as well. That’s what happened recently when a group of tourists listened to a tour by a National Park Service Ranger. According to former DOJ lawyer J. Christian Adams at PJ Media, the ranger told the group, “The Founders knew that when they left this room, what they had written wouldn’t matter very much.” She added that the “most important part of the Constitution written at Independence Hall was the ability to change it.” Sounds like someone thinks the Constitution is simply a document of historical curiosity.

That’s not all. The ranger also told the tourists that the Constitution protected the institution of slavery. Has she even read the document? “The text of the Constitution in 1787 did not mention slavery even once,” writes Adams.

Last year, the ranger spoke at a workshop for school teachers whose goal was to explore “perspectives on Independence Hall and the Meaning of Freedom.” When she rose to speak, she delivered a lecture titled “Remember the women.” What did those teachers take back to their classrooms? Differing perspectives are one thing, but the National Park Service should not tolerate providing inaccurate, biased and plain wrong information. It’s a dereliction of one of the core duties of a ranger.