Ten Interesting Things About My Constitution

“Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
-Abraham Lincoln (born 22 years after it was written)


Happy Constitution Day!  In the summer of 1887, the Constitutional Convention secretly met for over 100 days at the Pennsylvania State House.  They met and debated from 10 to 3, six days a week!  Originally meeting to strengthen my Articles of Confederation, the new 4,400 word Constitution that they ultimately created—the oldest and shortest of any major country—set the gold standard for the rest of the world.  Check it out.

1.      The fifty-five delegates represented a large number of professions—physicians, ministers, merchants, teachers.  But 34 of them were lawyers.  And half of them fought in the Revolutionary War.

2.      The median age of my citizenry in 1887 was 16.  The median age of the 55 delegates was 42.  (The oldest of the 39 signers was 81 year-old Ben Franklin.  The youngest was 26 year-old Jonathan Dayton.) 

3.      Rhode Island didn’t attend at all because they were afraid of a strong national government.  (Ultimately, they were the last state to ratify my Constitution…three years later.)

4.      My Constitution is littered with misspelled words.

5.      Thomas Jefferson was in France and didn’t sign.  John Adams was in England and didn’t sign.  (And dudes like Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Patrick Henry refused to attend.)  James Madison (“the father of the Constitution”) and George Washington (the president of the convention) were my only two presidents to sign.

6.      The word “democracy” is never mentioned in the Constitution.  I'm a republic.

7.      More than 11,000 amendments have been proposed (including getting rid of the Senate in 1876, getting rid of the Army in 1893, and making divorce illegal in 1914).  Thirty-three have gone to the states.  And only 27 have been approved and added to the Constitution.  (The most recent was in 1992.)

8.      Thomas Jefferson thought my constitution should be rewritten every nineteen years so that each generation could live by their own rules.

9.      At one point, my Constitution served as the basis for nearly 95% all other country’s constitutions and in many ways has been my “most important export.”

10.  Most dissent against my Constitution was because it lacked a Bill of Rights at first, and three guys refused to sign.

According to a Digital History survey, barely half of all Americans even know what my Constitution is for, and a full 70% don’t know it’s the supreme law of the land.  How much do YOU know? 

This Constitution Day, take a minute to brush up on this brilliant document and be thankful for a great 227 years!  I need as many informed citizens as I can get!

Questions or comments?  Please contact me at DiaryOfAmerica@gmail.com.