The premise of the headline is idiotic.
These men were forming a more perfect union and they were going to struggle over terms and their definitions, as well, ensuring the wording was exact enough to apply to all men, so as to define what a freeman is.
Mistake? Hell I do it all day long and make judgment calls about the wording in letters and proposals.
Oh well, armchair quarterbacks, looking back some 200 years must really possess superior intelligence of divination.
Hey I used a big word!
You'll never be asked to write for the AP. ;-)