US Constitution
Today is Constitution Day celebrating the 232rd anniversary of the completion and signing of the Constitution of the United States by a majority of delegates attending the 1887 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
Our 8th grade civics teacher, Mr. Hancock, was an advocate of the Constitution, so we had to memorize the preamble and all the amendments, of which there were 23 at the time, with the amendment allowing citizens of the District of Columbia to vote in presidential elections having just been ratified.
Today when the phrase “Constitutional crisis” is regularly in the news, we need to pause from our busy lives and revisit this historic document. Knowing our basic rights as American citizens safeguards our democracy, encourages informed debate and hopefully ensures that we’ll preserve our system of government for generations to come.
The Constitution appropriately starts with “We the People...”. The original is stored in the Smithsonian and is under constant guard as shown in this photo.
Here are some interesting facts about this most important historical document:
Getting the new constitution ratified was not an easy process as 2/3rds (9) of the 13 original states had to approved these fundamental principles of our new republic.
The Constitution establishes and defines the three branches of government:
After the ratification of the original Constitution, 27 amendments have been approved by the States, with the first 10 called the Bill of Rights ratified in 1791. Click this link for a synopsis of each amendment: https://historyplex.com/27-amendments-to-us-constitution
Thanks, Mr. Hancock, for making the Constitution a living document for our class back then and definitely still today for me.
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