Painted on the president's chair at the Constitutional Convention, assembled at the Pennsylvania State house in Philadelphia, was a brilliantly engraved sun. Though George Washington distinguished the seat by his presence, directing the representatives that would incorporate a new nation, one delegate's attention was often affixed not on the face of the presiding officer but on the painting adorning his throne. During dull moments of the legislative process he would debate if the sun was rising or setting, for the orange cast lent itself to either persuasion.
