As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of those days that don’t get enough recognition — It’s Constitution Day. I’m not sure our constitution has ever been on shakier ground than it is today. All of us owe more than we can know to the Constitution of the United States.
On February 29, 1952, Congress designated September 17 as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. The day commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787, and recognizes all American citizens.
On this date in 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. Thirty nine men signed it, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton.
The Constitution outlines the powers of Congress, the President and Executive Branch, the Judicial Branch, the relationship between the states, the process of adding amendments, and the oath that representatives must pledge to it.
There are 27 Amendments to the Constitution — the first ten, the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791.
The Constitution is a remarkable document — in more ways than one.
The U.S. Constitution has 4,400 words. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world.
There were a lot of sticking points during the Constitutional convention, but the big one led to the Great Compromise — it saved the Constitutional Convention, and probably, the Union. The Great Compromise was authored by Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman and it called for proportional representation in the House and one representative per state in the Senate (that was later changed to two.) The compromise passed 5 to 4, with one state, Massachusetts, “divided.”
The oldest person to sign the Constitution was Benjamin franklin (81,) the youngest was Johnathan Dayton of New Jersey (26.)
The word “democracy” does not appear once in the Constitution
The only other language used in various parts of the Constitution is Latin.
Four of the signers of the Constitution were born in Ireland.
A proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 16, 1789. The reason for the holiday was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.
Take a minute today to think about the Constitution and what it means to all of us. It was a gift from our forefathers — hopefully we can pass it along to future generation intact.
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