Today Is Constitution Day
17 September 2009 | By LowellB in Law, Lowell, Politics, TN Blog
232 years ago today, 39 men signed the United States Constitution. The National Constitution Center (photo at left) has a nice page commemorating the day.
In the Nineteenth Century the British Prime Minister Gladstone said, “The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.” I think he was right.
Here’s a photo of the statuary exhibit at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
If you haven’t been there you should make plans to go. you can stand amid life-size likenesses of the Constitution’s signers and marvel, like I did, at how much bigger George Washington was than any other man in the group – especially Madison, who stood barely 5 feet tall. There are also statues of the men who did not sign the document.
Finally, if you’re in the mood, try memorizing the Preamble:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
I still thrill at those words “We the people.” If you’re really ambitious (and more Americans should be), you can read the entire document. It isn’t that long, and it was, after all, the first written constitution in the history of the world.
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