A weeklong national celebration is kicking off today, and most Americans probably aren't even aware of it -- but they should be.
The week of Sept. 17-23 has been designated as U.S. Constitution Week, a time for citizens of this country to remember the document that serves as the basis for all U.S. law. The tradition of Constitution Week was started years ago by the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1955, the group convinced Congress to set aside the week, and the resolution was signed into law in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The aims of the celebration are "to emphasize citizens' responsibilities for protecting and defending the Constitution, inform the people that the Constitution is the basis for America's great heritage and the foundation for our way of life and encourage the study of the historical events which led to the framing of the Constitution."
With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to share a few interesting, but not well-known, facts about the U.S. Constitution. Did you know ...
-- The U.S. Constitution has 4,400 words. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world.
-- The Constitution contains numerous spelling errors. Among the most glaring is, "Pensylvania," which appears above the signers' names.
-- When delegates gathered in 1787 in Philadelphia for what would become known as the "Constitutional Convention," the purpose was not to create a new constitution. It was merely to revise the Articles of Confederation, under which the nation had operated since the Revolutionary War. But the delegates decided it would be necessary to write an entirely new constitution. Meetings were conducted in secrecy.
-- Patrick Henry, well-known for his "Give me liberty of give me death" speech during the revolution, declined a position at the Constitutional Convention because he "smelt a rat."
-- The word "God" does not appear in the Constitution. Nor do the words "Creator" or "Jesus." The word "Lord" appears only in the signatory section, there the date is written as the "Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven."
-- Another word that never appears in the Constitution: "democracy."
-- The Constitution established the United States as a republic, meaning that citizens would be elected to represent the people, and make the decisions affecting the country. It is said that Benjamin Franklin, when asked by a woman what the new government of the nation would be, replied, "A republic, madam. If you can keep it."
-- At 81, Franklin was the oldest of the delegates at the convention. He was known as the "Sage of the Constitutional Convention." During the deliberations, he was in constant pain because of gout and having a stone in his bladder, and he could barely walk. He would enter the convention hall in a sedan chair carried by prisoners from a nearby jail.
-- George Washington and James Madison are the only two presidents to have signed the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson was in France at the time, where he served as the U.S. minister. John Adams was serving as the U.S. minister to Great Britain during the proceedings, and also was not present.
-- There are only six people who signed both the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787. They are Benjamin Franklin, George Read, Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, George Clymer and James Wilson.
-- John Adams referred to the Constitution as "the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen," and George Washington wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette that "It (the Constitution) appears to me, then, little short of a miracle."
-- Today, the Constitution is on display in the National Archives Building in Washington. All four pages are displayed behind protective glass framed with titanium. To preserve the parchment's quality, the cases contain argon gas and are kept at 67 degrees.
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There is seemingly no end to the facts and stories surrounding the U.S. Constitution. There are countless books on the subject, and thousands of articles on the Internet. Over the next week, I hope folks will take some time to read up on the Constitution -- arguably the most important document in American history.
It's inherent that citizens of a country know about the land they call home. And in the United States, that knowledge starts with the Constitution.
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Information taken, in part, from www.constitutionfacts.com
aweld@blythevillecourier.com