LT NATHAN GANN CHAPTER
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
P.O. BOX G
LUFKIN, TEXAS 75902-6701
U.S. CONSTITUTION
Mission Statement For Constitution Day
Constitution Day was created for the express purpose of perpetuation of the US Constitution. To educate each succeeding generation of school children to know the document that guarantees their freedoms, as well as the public. To teach them the genius of the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution as well as American History. To instill pride and patriotism for our great Republic.
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Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence announced the birth of the United States, the survival of the young country seemed in doubt. The War for Independence had been won, but economic depression, social unrest, interstate rivalries, and foreign intrigue appeared to be unraveling the fragile confederation. In early 1787, Congress called for a special convention of all the states to revise the Articles of Confederation. On September 17, 1787, after four months of secret meetings, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention emerged from their Philadelphia meetingroom with an entirely new plan of government–the U.S. Constitution–that they hoped would ensure the survival of the experiment they had launched in 1776.
They proposed a strong central government made up of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial; each would be perpetually restrained by a sophisticated set of checks and balances. They reached compromises on the issue of slavery that left its final resolution to future generations. As for ratification, they devised a procedure that maximized the odds: the Constitution would be enacted when it was ratified by nine, not thirteen, states. The Framers knew they had not created a perfect plan, but it could be revised. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times and stands today as the longest-lasting written constitution in the world.
It was not until March 4, 1789 that the Constitution went into effect.
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Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
We The People
of the United states, in order to form a more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.The Constitution of the United States of America in it's entirety
RATIFICATION IN ORDER OF DATE RATIFIED
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U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Page dedicated to Constitution Day, Sept. 17
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Page Originated 8/20/04
Last updated 8/20/04
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