Saturday marks the 224th anniversary of the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution is one of, if not the, single most important document ever written, outlining the basic freedoms that built the foundation of our great nation.
Constitution Day is an official holiday to commemorate the cornerstone of our written law, as well as the 39 statesmen who signed the document. Since Sept. 17 falls on a Saturday, Constitution Day will be observed Friday, Sept. 16, this year. Here are some interesting facts about a document that is often quoted and used as a shield, but is rarely read or even understood.
* Delegates began gathering in the Pennsylvania State House on May 25, 1787, with the original goal of revising or amending the Articles of Confederation. From the outset many of the delegates knew that weaknesses such as the inability to raise revenue made the Articles of Confederation inadequate.
* James Madison, who had been studying over 200 books on constitutions and republican history that were loaned to him by Thomas Jefferson, was the most influential leader of the delegation. Madison came prepared with an outline that included many of the basic tenants that can be found in the Constitution today.
* Madison's "Virginia Plan," which favored larger states, was not the only outline present at the convention. William Peterson's "New Jersey Plan" proposed a unicameral national legislature, an executive branch appointed by the legislature and a judicial branch appointed by the executive.
* The first three articles of the Constitution outline the three branches of government, as well as their powers and duties. It also reserved all powers that were not addressed in the Constitution to the states and the people.
* Jacob Shallus, the clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, was the penman who transcribed the Constitution and was paid $30 for his engrossing work.
* The original constitution was written on four sheets of vellum parchment, and is on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
* The only grammatical error in the work of the penman is the incorrect use of an apostrophe in the progressive pronoun "its." The letters t and s are connected and the apostrophe is somewhat inconspicuous, leaving room for debate on whether it is an actual error or an errant mark.
* Other errors such as the use of the spelling "chuse" and "chusing" in place of the modern spelling of "choose" can be attributed to the alternate and inconsistent ways Americans wrote the English language. The words "defence," "controul" and "labour" were spelled with the common British spellings used at the time.
* As president of the convention, George Washington signed the Constitution first. The order of the remaining signatures was determined by the geographic location of the state each delegate represented, beginning with the delegate from New Hampshire and ending with Abraham Baldwin of Georgia.
* Rhode Island was the only recognized state at the time that was not represented by a delegate at the convention.
* According to a 2006 survey conducted by FindLaw, "78 percent of adults in the U.S. believe the Constitution guarantees the right to vote, and 64 percent believe it guarantees the right to pursue happiness" (which is included in a list of inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence).
* The same survey also points out that, "93 percent of respondents correctly identified Free Speech as one of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution."
* According to a survey conducted by Ken Dautrich, as reported by Herald News, "91 percent of students who use social networking sites to get news on a daily basis believe people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions. Only 77 percent of students who do not use social media believe that unpopular opinions should be allowed."
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