Today is Sunday and Constitution Day
A day that few Americans are ware of in any shape….a day that should celebrated not ignored.
I have made no bones about it I think that the Constitution should be celebrated more heavily….I believe that it would give Americans more exposure to the document and that will lead to more knowledge.
It would also help if it were a federal holiday….celebrate and document that has been the envy of a free world.
A quick history to set the tone….
After the American Revolution freed the American colonies from British rule, the Founding Fathers wanted to make sure the new government couldn’t abuse its power. At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, delegates from twelve of the thirteen new states gathered to draft the document that would serve as the basis of all future U.S. law.
The Constitution calls for three branches of government with equal powers, creating a system commonly known as “checks and balances.” Each branch has power to mitigate the others. Powers not assigned to one of the three branches are left to the individual states.
Delegates at the Convention had two options for setting up the framework of the new legislative branch. The Virginia Plan, predictably supported by larger states, called for representation based on population. The competing New Jersey Plan called for equal representation for each state. The two-house solution known as the Great Compromise combines aspects of both plans and is still in use today.
The Constitution also outlines the responsibilities and powers of the judicial and executive branches, how the President is elected, and other nitty-gritty details.
The Founding Fathers recognized that society evolves, and that the Constitution would require a mechanism for making changes. However, they wanted to ensure that making changes would require agreement from a large number of states. To alter the Constitution, a proposed amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of states.
In 1940, Congress and the President passed a resolution creating “I Am an American Day,” observed on the third Sunday in May. In 1952, the holiday was renamed to “Constitution Day” and moved to September 17, the day in 1787 that the Constitution was signed. More than 50 years later in 2004, Congress once again changed the name of the holiday to Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.
To prevent the abuses of power they felt subjected to under the British monarchy, the Founding Fathers framed the Constitution carefully, distributing power between three branches of government. The Constitution outlines the government’s powers, the limitations on those powers, and the rights of citizens. It also outlines an amendment process for making changes in the future.
Did you know that the amendments to the Constitution were heavily debated?
Here are the five things that were left out of the Constitution after the debate.
When James Madison spoke to the First Congress he proposed a series of nearly 20 amendments as a Bill of Rights, and not the 10 we all know about. So what did Congress delete from the final list that was ratified by the states?
There were some very significant deletions as his proposed list went through the House and Senate, and Madison himself took part in the decisions to edit out some of his ideas.
In the end, 12 of the original amendments survived the congressional approval process. Enough states approved 10 of those 12 amendments to make the Bill of Rights a reality on December 15, 1791. One of two bypassed amendments was eventually ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment; it restricted the ability of Congress to change its pay while in session. (The other proposed amendment dealt with the number of representatives in Congress, based on the 1789 population.)
In essence it is no more important than National Hotdog Day….that is a shame.
Like I said this is too important to rank along side National Cat Lovers Day or National Pizza Day.
Constitution Day should be celebrated along with Independence Day.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 