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Entry bubble Constitution Day

By: Colleen | September 10, 2008 | Category: Fun

Next week is Constitution Day. On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met one constitution final time to sign the document which is now the world's longest surviving written charter of government. Round of applause for our founding fathers!

In 2004, Congress established a law requiring public schools and governmental offices to provide educational programs to promote a better understanding of the Constitution.

So, in the spirit of Constitutional education, some fun facts for you:

  • Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution on December 7, 1787. At this time the population of the U.S. was around 4 million.
  • 39 of the 55 delegates signed the Constitution, which was written in under 100 working days in Philadelphia.
  • At age 81, Benjamin Franklin was the oldest delegate to sign.
  • The Bill of Rights was not added to the Constitution until 1791.
  • When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Constitution was moved from its home at the National Archives to Fort Knox for safekeeping.

Most importantly, the Constitution is the document that established the U.S. government as one filled with checks and balances, to assure that no one branch of government would gain too much power. Designed to be flexible, it can be amended as called for by the changing needs of the nation over time.

| View Comments [6] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: colleen   constitution   constitution_day   founding_fathers   national_archives  

Comments (6):

blue comment bubble Posted by Doug on September 10, 2008 at 11:36 AM EDT

Good timing for this article. Not only because of Constitution Day but this year we are again reminded of hour our Constitution works when it comes to electing the President. I am a proponent of an Amendment to provide for Direct Popular Elections of the President and eliminate the Electoral College, which was established only as a safeguard against the general population believing that they knew best.

I agree that today's students should learn more about our Constitution. It is truly an amazing and enduring document!

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blue comment bubble Posted by Wildheart on September 11, 2008 at 04:25 PM EDT

Unfortunately, Doug, the results of our last two presidential elections bore out that it really doesn't matter about the electoral college, anyway. In the first one, the election was hijacked by the Republicans and decided by the Supreme Court. And the second one proved that most people -- at least the ones who bothered to vote -- clearly DON'T make very good decisions. Since the government they elected has single-handedly done more to erode the freedoms established and guaranteed to American citizens by our Constitution, we can only hope that it's not just students who are learning more about it. If the average American adult knew more about that sacred document, I don't believe we'd all have sat still for the whupping it has received at the hands of the Bush/Cheney administration.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Aziz mohamed on September 11, 2008 at 05:56 PM EDT

The constitution day is a great one even for the moroccan people we remember our relations during more then two centuries.
We are all volunteers for america.
God Bless America

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blue comment bubble Posted by Tennisman on September 17, 2008 at 07:23 AM EDT

I have to laugh at Wildheart- still going down that road that the election was stolen by the Republicans. Several newspapers including the NY Times did a recount and Bush won everytime- GET OVER IT YOU BED WETTING LIBERAL. The constitution is the single most important document ever written. The founding fathers were brilliant.

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blue comment bubble Posted by NJ Guy on September 17, 2008 at 07:46 AM EDT

OH! Do we still have the Constitution? I thought Bush/Cheney abolished the document.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Pvanbloem on September 17, 2008 at 09:04 AM EDT

Does anyone know where the paper came from that the US Constitution was written on? I hoped it was from an American papermaker, but don't know.
Happy Constitution to you.

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